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Gender Differences in the Use of Social Support as a Moderator of Occupational Stress

MediaScience is the leading provider of lab-based media and advertising research, incorporating a range of neuro-measures including biometrics, facial expression analysis, eye tracking, EEG, and more. With state-of-the-art labs in New York, Chicago, and Austin, MediaScience is discovering actionable insights in advertising, technology, media, and consumer trends.

Dr. Duane Varan, the global authority of neuromarketing research, founded Audience Labs (formerly the Interactive Television Research Institute) during his tenure at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, in 2001. In 2005, he launched the Beyond : 30 Project, a consortium exploring the changing media and advertising landscape, and in 2008, he was approached by Disney Media Networks to set up a dedicated custom research lab on a broader scale – and so MediaScience was born. Though he officially left Murdoch in 2015, he continues to maintain some research links with the University of South Australia and has been widely recognised for his innovative contributions to teaching and the neuromarketing industry as evidenced by a long list of awards and over 90 published academic papers in his field.

Below is an abstract from a paper Dr. Varan oversaw about Gender Differences in the Use of Social Support as a Moderator of Occupational Stress from the Stress & Health Journal.

Abstract
Studies of the moderating effect of social support on the direct effects of occupational stressors have yielded conflicting results that have differed in direction and significance. These differences may have been due to the narrow range and/or poor quality of the measures used. Also, males and females may differ in their perceptions of stress sources and outcomes and their use of social support across stressors. This study used the well-validated Pressure Management Indicator (PMI) to measure social support and eight sources and nine outcomes of occupational stress in a sample of 204 Australian managers (55 per cent females, mean age 41.4 years) from various companies. Multiple regression revealed that for both males and females, social support moderated the effects of stressors on energy levels, job satisfaction, organizational security and organizational commitment, although social support interacted with different stressors across genders. Social support had a significant interaction effect on organizational commitment for males only, and, for females only, a significant interaction effect on state of mind. These results suggest that social support interventions will not reduce the effects of stress on all outcomes, and will produce different results for males and females.

Citation
Bellman, S., Forster, N., Still, L., & Cooper, C. L. (2003).
Gender Differences in the Use of Social Support as a Moderator of Occupational Stress.
Stress and Health, 19(1), 45-58.