New Extension Program Aims to Tame Stress 4/3/08

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Stress at work can prompt job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, lower productivity, turnover and increased health care costs, a Kansas State University Research and Extension specialist said.

Stress? What Stress?

MANHATTAN, Kan. – One third of the American workers queried in a 2001 study by Galinsky, Kim & Bond reported feeling chronically overworked. Most who participated in a study conducted by Clarksberg and Moen, also in 2001, reported working more hours than they would prefer.

While many who work in a stressful environment can find it difficult to leave work stress at work, Deb Sellers, Kansas State University Research and Extension specialist on adult development and aging, encourages mindful stress management.

“Leave work stress at work,” Sellers said. “Focus on building a support network of family and friends outside of work.

“Making time for self is important to mental and physical health and is an essential need, rather than a luxury,” she said.

More information on stress management is available by contacting a county or district K-State Research and Extension office.

“Stress at work need not mean stress at home, though,” said Deb Sellers, Kansas State University Research and Extension specialist on adult development and aging.

While some stress may be inevitable, taking such stresses home can be harmful to mental and physical health and damaging to personal relationships and quality of life, said Sellers,

who is working to bring a University of Illinois Research and Extension Program – “Intentional Harmony: Managing Work and Life” – to Kansas.

The educational stress management series is research-based, with plenty of practical how-tos for managing necessary stresses and taming – or eliminating – unnecessary stresses, she said. Sessions in the series focus on:

• Work & the Individual offers dual lessons on physical and emotional health and balancing life at home with work.

• Work & Partner emphasizes building and managing relationships and resolving conflicts (via emotional repair) and sharing household work.

• Work & Parenting offers insight on how parents’ work can impact their children and the mood at home and tips for monitoring children’s activities while working and carving out quality time for family life.

• Work Stress emphasizes building positive relationships at work and developing effective policies and services to resolve conflicts and reduce stress in the work environment.

• Work & Extended Family and Friends emphasizes social support, relationships and time management to make time for work, family, friends and yourself.

The program was developed by Angela Wiley, an assistant professor of applied family studies and Extension specialist in family life. Wiley worked with a team of Illinois family life educators, nutrition specialist and support staff that included contributing authors, graphic designers, and artists.

Sellers and K-State Research and Extension northeast area family and consumer sciences specialist, Sharolyn Flaming Jackson, are now in the process of training Kansas’ Extension staff to deliver the program in the state.

Sessions will be offered through Extension offices and work sites, such as Lunch-and-Learn offerings or in cooperation with employers, she said.

More information is available at county and district K-State Research and Extension offices, and on its Web site on aging: www.aging.ksu.edu.

K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.