Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to investigate the three tiers of stress
management practices adopted by career women in Imo State. It also
identified the constraints to effective management practices and various ways
stress could be enhanced. Three research questions and two hypotheses tested
at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive
survey research design. The study was carried out in the three senatorial
zones of Imo State of Nigeria. The population for the study comprised of all
the career women in the area of study while the sample size was 180 career
women drawn from the population. Structured questionnaire and focus
group discussion (FGD) were the instrument used for the study. The
quantitative data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while
quantitative data were summarized. The test statistics was used for testing the
hypotheses at P<0.05 level of significance and 178 degree of freedom. The
findings revealed that the three tiers of stress management practices among
the career women are the primary, secondary and tertiary practices, the
constraints to effective stress management practices and the most appropriate
ways of enhancing the management practices by career women. The findings
also revealed that the three tiers of stress management practices consists of ten
items in primary, five items in secondary and six items in tertiary sum up to
the total of twenty-one items. Based on the findings, it was recommended that
women should adapt the primary, secondary and tertiary procedures for
stress management. Individual should help themselves by throwing off
challenges immediately it arises among others.