Correlates of the sources of stress among the OP-Siena Sisters in the Philippines

• Main Author: Ocampo, Meriza B., O.P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1994
• Subjects: Stress (Psychology); Monastic and religious life of women > Psychology; Religious life; Monasticism and religious orders for women; Psychology; Religious; Religious psychology; Educational Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1626
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study establishes the degree of relationship between the level of sources of stress and (1) age, (2) educational attainment, (3) number of years in religious life, (4) number of years in the apostolate, (5) type of apostolate, and (6) personality among the O.P. Siena Sisters in the Philippines. The study is descriptive and correlational. The subjects were 130 Junior and Perpetual Professed Sisters. They were randomly selected from a population of 200 Sisters. The questionnaires used were the (1) Profile of the Respondents, (2) Sources of Stress Inventory, and (3) Comrey Personality Scale. The Survey questionnaire was utilized to generate the needed information and data for the personal characteristics of the respondents and their sources of stress. The Comrey Personality Scale determined their personality traits, e.g. extroversion vs. introversion of the respondents. Descriptive statistical tools were used to get the profile of the respondents. Pearson r determined the relationship between the sources of stress and the different variables. In order to test the difference between the different groupings on the type of apostolate and personality, the one-way analysis of variance was used. The profile of the respondents showed that the mean age was 49. All the respondents had a bachelor's degree and some had MA/MS units. The mean number of years in religious life was 25.39 while the mean number of years in the present apostolate was 3.40. Seventy-one percent of the Sisters were engaged in the school apostolate while sixty-one percent were extrovert. Among the mean scores in the different sources of stress, social stress had the highest value. It was followed by physical, community, environmental, and occupational stress. The findings also revealed that there was a significant relationship between (1) physical sources of stress and age, (2) environmental sources of stress and age, and (3) physical sources of stress and the number of years in the religious life. The study concluded that there was a need to consider the apostolate that was to be assigned to the Sisters. As they advanced in age, the Sisters were likely to suffer the pressure of physical stress. The impact of sociological movement did affect the Sisters. If there was a substantial imbalance between environmental demands and the capability of the Sisters, the likelihood of stress becoming negative was experienced. The sources of stress necessarily varied from one person to another. There were also many other factors that produced stress which were, to a great extent, individually determined.