between multiple social contexts\r\nduring a 24-hour period. The survey\r\nincluded subjective questions from\r\nthe National Institute on Aging\r\nabout health and well-being.\r\nThe study revealed that switching\r\nbetween contexts is more closely\r\nassociated with stress in women\r\nthan in men. Men are likely to\r\nreport fewer switches overall,\r\nwhile women are twice as likely\r\nas men to experience more than\r\n20 switches in a day. Female\r\nrespondents were 48 percent\r\nmore likely than males to indicate\r\nextremely high stress levels.\r\nCornwell speculated that the\r\nmultiple roles and contexts\r\nworking women juggle daily could\r\nincrease the unpredictability of\r\ntheir daily lives and, in turn, their\r\nstress levels.\r\n\r\n“Switching is a constant reality for\r\nwomen—morning, day and night—\r\nand they switch between more\r\ndisparate social roles. They go from\r\nbeing at work, which is formal,\r\nauthoritative and hierarchical, to\r\nbeing at home with a child within a\r\nmatter of 10 minutes,” he said.\r\nCornwell’s paper challenges\r\nsociological research that\r\nassumes that having more social\r\nconnections, larger networks and a\r\nwider range of contacts is beneficial.\r\n“A key paradox of social life is\r\nthat a rich and supportive social\r\nnetwork creates a complex of\r\nmicro-social problems associated\r\nwith sequencing social interactions,\r\nsynchronizing schedules and\r\ntransitioning between contexts.\r\nMaybe the secret to understanding\r\nhealth issues like stress is to look\r\nat those social connections more\r\nmicroscopically,” Cornwell said. “It’s\r\nnot just about how many social\r\nties, or how different they are. It’s\r\nabout how they are sequenced. “\r\nThe article appeared in the May\r\n2013 issue of the journal Social\r\nPsychology Quarterly.\r\n—Abby Tripp Heverin\r\n