2.8 Stress and role conflict
Respondents were asked if they experienced stress: only one of the principal operators reported that he did not experience stress. Only two female respondents reported that they didn’t experience stress. A third woman who was not involved in the farm operation reported that she didn’t experience farm related stress.
Children
Five families reported that their children had experienced stress. Two adult sons in one family had experienced stress during the ‘87 downturn. The marriage of one son had not survived this period. A family with 3 school age children reported that their children experienced role conflict stress between farm tasks and school activities.
Two other families noted that their children had reacted ( ‘picked up the vibes’) to the ‘drought’ stress that they (the parents) experienced. A third respondent reported that while he and his wife had endeavoured to shield their children from stress during the ‘87 downturn they were not successful mainly because of the intensity of stress throughout the community. This experience of stress had ‘turned the children away from farming’.
It was noted by another respondent that by working on the family farm his son was actually working for ‘three bosses’ and this was stressful.
Spouse
While children can experience stress they can also be the source of stress. One woman noted that for her the busiest time of the year both on the farm and in the house was during the summer just when the children were home for the long holidays. She was not available for them when they, the children, had the time to do things with her. This was stressful.
A number of women reported that they became stressed when their partner was. ‘Stress is infectious. He’s stressed/I’m stressed.’ The women identified peak busy times like shearing or harvesting as being the source of stress for their partners.
Women who worked off the farm can and do experience role conflict stress (Taylor and Little, 1995). The women in this study also described ‘not having enough time’, of the conflict between employment and farm life, and of ‘rushing from school to farm’. Another teacher noted that her extra school work and organising other school workers and the children ‘can be as tiring as actually physically teaching.’ While another women noted that her school teaching role had become more demanding over the years, ‘Teaching is more stressful today because of the behaviour of the children.’
However, it was acknowledged by some of the women that off-farm employment while creating stress (Taylor and Little, 1995) can also relieve it by opening up social contacts.
Another woman found constant interruptions stressful as she carried out her different on farm and off farm roles, she also felt guilty about neglected housework and identified conflict stress between her farm commitments and her social/community involvements, ‘on holiday no demands - wonderful.’
Financial stress, ‘the money situation’, as it related to the children, ‘not enough money to do for the children as you would like,’ was identified by another women.
One of the women farmers identified ‘time’ as her major stressor but reported that she was ‘good at switching from one role to the other, from mother to farmer.’ Her spouse, however, suffered from the stress of distance. He travelled each day to farm his farm and at times found both the travel and the fact he was not living on the farm, stressful.
Time or the lack of it was more often identified by the women than the men. Men with commitments in addition to the farm business were more likely to identify a lack of time as a stressor than men who had no additional commitments outside the farm business.
Principal operator
The shadows of the eighties decade still affect farming lives. ‘1986 was the beginning of my stress. I haven’t had the resilience since then although we did survive the downturn.’ The principal operators identified four key stressors of which finances (or strained financial viability) were the major stressor. Financial concerns underpinned everything else.
- finances
| - | climate | |
| - | lack of time | |
| - | seasonal production pressure |
Within those headings lie a number of other stressors unique to the business characteristics, the geographical location of the farm and the individual characteristics of the principal operator. These stressor included, in no order of priority:
- staffing problems and difficulty in finding skilled staff
| - | fatigue during peak busy times combined with pressure to complete harvest or lambing or shearing ahead of, or in the face of bad weather, developing the business, more management, less production options with declining markets(sheep/beef) | |
| - | loss of family time during holidays which fall at peak farm times, loss of time with children | |
| - | production yield and quality, machinery breakdown delayed harvest | |
| - | animal health - watching stock decline (climate)’stock | |
| - | safety issues with children and visiting children(family). |
One respondent reported that the economic downturn in the ‘80s were the cause of his brother’s serious mental breakdown. His own farm business suffered as he endeavoured to financially assist his brother. His brother’s overdraft required the sale of 1,100 acres to reduce the financial debt. One of the farms bought between the brothers to ensure the succession of each of their three sons had to be sold. Now the succession of any child is in doubt.
Only one respondent identified job conflict ‘long hours at peak times, allocating time between contracting and farming - conflict.’ When describing the pressure of climatic stress this principal operated noted that ‘during the last storm we worked 68 hours at a stretch, no time for breaks or sleep.’
Neither were members of the extended family exempt from stress. Several respondents reported that their parents reacted to their stress by becoming stressed themselves.
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
Contact this person
