The proposed research consists of a test of whether Kuwaiti females that identify with traditional roles prescribed for women in Kuwaiti/Arab society significantly differ in directionality of locus of control (external/internal) and their levels of depression, and stress when compared to Kuwaiti females that identify with the more liberal notions of the female role held by Western culture. To this end, the proposal develops a model that considers the impact of professional careers, incorporation to the labor market and western values in the direction of stress, the nature of depression, and cultural conflicts originating from the newly defined values that females have created for themselves. From this model, hypotheses dealing with the differences between the two groups (traditional vs. modern Kuwaiti females) are derived.
Depression in Kuwaiti females is at an all time high (Al-Ansari, Essam, El-Hilu, El-Hihi and Hassan, 1990; Malasi, Mirza & El-Islam, 1989; Fido & Mughaiseeb, 1989). While the causes of this increase in depressive illness are not known with a strong degree of precision, family conflict (defined by El-Islam, Malasi and Abu-Dagga (1988) as interpersonal disagreement consisting of ongoing argument and bickering among family members) has repeatedly been found to be associated with levels of depressive illness in Kuwaiti women (Malasi, Mirza & El-Islam, 1989; Suleiman, Moussa & El-Islam, 1989; Malasi & Suleiman, 1988).
According to El-Islam, Malasi & Abu-Dagga (1988), the family conflict which is so often associated with depressive illness is conflict in which arguments and bickering specifically address themselves to the role to be played by women in Kuwait society with some family members arguing for the more traditional Arab views of the place of women in society and other family members arguing for the more liberal views held by Western society. As El-Islam and associates (1988) put it:
. . .interpersonal ...