The fist analyses conducted were descriptive in nature consisting solely of the computation of percentage distributions for the demographic variables of age, marital status, and parental status. The findings observed for these analyses are presented in Tables 3,4 and 5. As can be seen from examination of these tables, the majority of the female community college students serving as subjects in this study were married (64.4%) mothers (79.7%) between 30 and 39 years of age (50.8%).
Those women who were least represented in the sample were women over 50 years of age (5.4%) who were widowed (.9%) with grandchildren (4.3%). The generalizability of findings to this under-represented group is probably somewhat suspect.
Load/Power Ratios: Descriptive Analyses
The second series of performed analyses were also descriptive in nature, consisting of the calculation of central tendencies (Means) and variability (standard deviations) of sample females' load/power rations for health, religiosity/spirituality, interdependence, self-confidence, and parenting satisfaction. These data are presented in Table 6.
As can be seen from inspection of Table 6, the smallest load/power ratio was for the life area of parenting satisfaction (Mean =. 16) while the highest ratio was for the life area of self-confidence (Mean = .47).
The values presented in the table can be considered in light of Stevenson's (1982a) claim that a ratio between .30 and .70 is beneficial in terms of dealing with transitions, managing stress and handling conflicts while values below .30 indicate that, in this given life area, there is probably more stress than one can cope with. Clearly, findings indicate that sample females are most probably experiencing more stress than they feel able to bear in matters and issues related to parenting/parenting satisfaction. However, in the other life areas measured, they appear, on the average, to have power or energy reserves...