Farming is commonly described as not only a job, however a lifestyle. In Eire, the place almost all farms (99.7%) are family-run, the traces between work and residential might be particularly blurred (Central Statistics Workplace, 2018). Whereas this deep integration of household and farm can convey a powerful sense of goal, it could actually additionally create pressure (Donohoe, 2024; Leshed et al., 2014). Farmers might discover it troublesome to change off, attend household occasions, or stability parenting with the unending calls for of the farm (Roy et al., 2017).
Work–Household Battle (WFC), described as the stress between work calls for and household tasks, has been extensively studied in professions reminiscent of healthcare (Gonnelli et al., 2018; Stanley et al., 2025), however has not often been examined in relation to the occupation of farming. For farmers, WFC usually arises by way of spillover (when work-related stress carries over into household life) and crossover (when stress impacts not simply the farmer, but in addition their partner or household), largely as a result of work, household, and leisure are so intently intertwined (Sprung et al., 2022).
Regardless of rising proof that farming is linked to excessive stress, poor psychological well being, and even elevated suicide danger, no analysis till now has explored WFC amongst farmers in Eire – outstanding, contemplating that for a comparatively small nation, it’s an outsized heavy-hitter in grass-based livestock farming, being inter alia the most important EU exporter of beef, and the sixth largest exporter on the planet (Division of Agriculture, Meals and the Marine, 2020).
This new research by Siobhán O’Connor et al (2025) is the primary to take action. Having accomplished a preliminary literature search on issues referring to financial disparities and gender roles amongst farmers, in addition to battle initiators from household constructions to the climate, the workforce got down to decide, first, whether or not a Work-Household Battle is current amongst Irish farmers, and second, whether or not ranges of it fluctuate in response to socio-demographic elements, psychological well being, social assist, and farm-specific stressors.
When your farm is your house, the boundaries between work and household life disappear.
Strategies
The workforce carried out cross-sectional surveys utilizing a number of structured instruments, of 446 farmers in Eire, recruited each on-line and thru in-person agricultural marts and exhibits.
They measured:
- Work–Household Battle (WFC): on the 5-item Work-Household Battle scale
- Psychological well being (despair, nervousness, stress, suicidality, wellbeing): by self-rating, Despair, Anxiousness, and Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), Depressive Symptom Stock- Suicidality Subscale (DSI-SS), and the 14-item Psychological Well being Continuum-Brief Type (MHC-SF) respectively.
- Psychological expertise (flexibility, cognitive fusion, sense of self): by the 6-item PsyFlex; 7-item Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ); 15-item 7-item Self-Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ)
- Social assist: by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Help (MSPSS-R-3)
- Farm-specific stressors (monetary, operational, isolation, government-related pressures): utilizing Welke’s Farm/Ranch Stress Stock (FRSI).
- Farm attachment (the emotional connection to at least one’s farm): utilizing Welke and Vaske’s tailored Farm Attachment Stock (FAI).
In addition they collected demographic and farm-related information (age, gender, marital standing, farm measurement, hours labored, youngsters, farm enterprise, annual earnings, off-farm employment).
The cohort comprised 446 Irish farmers, recruited each on-line and thru agricultural exhibits.
Outcomes
Excessive ranges of battle
On common, farmers scored 25 out of a attainable 35 on the WFC scale, indicating reasonably excessive ranges of battle. Virtually half mentioned they usually needed to change household plans due to farm duties, or that family duties merely didn’t get performed as a result of the farm got here first.
Who feels it most?
WFC was not unfold evenly. Youthful farmers tended to report greater battle than older ones. The hyperlink was statistically important, which means it is vitally unlikely to be resulting from likelihood. Having younger youngsters additionally mattered: farmers with youngsters below 5 scored, on common, 4 factors greater than these with out. It is a sizeable distinction and exhibits that balancing childcare with farming is very troublesome.
Gender variations additionally emerged. Male farmers reported greater battle than feminine farmers, although the hole was smaller than anticipated.
Kind of farm performed a task too; dairy and combined farmers skilled extra battle than beef farmers, which can replicate the relentless nature of dairy farming, with milking required twice a day, each day, and extra variability of earnings.
Dimension of farm and dealing hours each mattered. Farmers engaged on bigger holdings or these placing in very lengthy days (typically as much as 18 hours) reported considerably greater battle. The statistical evaluation confirmed a transparent sample: the longer the hours, the larger the spillover into household life.
The psychological well being connection
The research additionally revealed a robust hyperlink between WFC and psychological well being, although it isn’t attainable to ascertain unidirectional or bidirectional causality. Farmers who rated their psychological well being as ‘wonderful’ had very low battle scores (round 19), whereas those that rated their well being as ‘poor’ scored almost 28. That hole, virtually 9 factors on a 35-point scale, is each clinically and statistically important.
Extra detailed measures confirmed the identical pattern. Greater WFC scores had been constantly related to extra signs of despair, nervousness, and stress. Farmers who reported extra battle additionally reported extra ideas of suicide. On the flip facet, these with greater wellbeing reported much less battle. These associations had been all extremely important, suggesting that work-family battle and psychological well being are deeply intertwined.
Expertise and helps
The researchers additionally explored psychological assets. Farmers with larger psychological flexibility; the flexibility to adapt and never get caught in unhelpful ideas, reported decrease WFC. Conversely, those that felt ‘fused’ with tense ideas, or had a extra inflexible sense of self, tended to attain greater.
Social assist additionally performed a task. Farmers who felt much less supported by household, mates, or important others had greater ranges of battle. The statistical hyperlink right here was weaker than for psychological well being, however nonetheless important.
Stressors and spillover
Not surprisingly, the pressures of farming life had been intently linked to battle at residence. Farmers who skilled excessive workload stress, frustrations with authorities laws, or operational challenges reported the best ranges of WFC. The truth is, workload stress confirmed the strongest correlation of any issue within the research, suggesting that when the farm calls for increasingly more, household life is most prone to being squeezed out.
Pulling it collectively
To untangle which elements mattered most, the researchers ran a regression mannequin; a manner of taking a look at a number of influences directly. Collectively, six elements defined almost 40% of the variation in WFC:
- being youthful,
- being male,
- having younger youngsters,
- working longer hours,
- dealing with larger farm-specific stressors, and
- having decrease psychological flexibility.
Apparently, whereas robust attachment to the farm was linked with battle in easy comparisons, it didn’t stay important as soon as different elements had been thought-about.
The calls for of the job can break farmers and households; significantly for males with youthful youngsters, working longer hours, who’re much less in a position to deal with uncertainty.
Conclusions
The findings spotlight farming as a high-risk occupation for work-family battle (WFC), which in flip is strongly linked to poor psychological well being outcomes. A number of the essential take-home messages are:
- Household life issues for farmer wellbeing. Youthful farmers with youngsters below 5 are at specific danger of battle.
- Structural stressors (workload, authorities laws, monetary pressures) feed immediately into WFC and psychological misery. Coverage and advisory companies must acknowledge these realities.
- Psychological flexibility, the flexibility to adapt and never get ‘fused’ with tense ideas, emerged as a protecting issue, suggesting scope for Acceptance and Dedication Remedy (ACT) based mostly helps.
- Social assist networks (household, mates, friends) stay essential buffers, however WFC might undermine these, making a vicious cycle.
- Neighborhood-based interventions that maintain farmers and their households on the centre, such because the On Feirm Floor psychological well being coaching for farm advisors (Hammersley et al., 2025), may very well be expanded to explicitly tackle WFC.
Strengths and limitations
That is the primary research to take a look at WFC in Irish farmers, and that alone makes it a invaluable contribution. The comparatively giant pattern, use of validated scales for psychological well being and wellbeing, and recruiting each on-line and face-to-face at agricultural marts and exhibits are particular strengths.
Insofar as demographic skews reminiscent of gender (74% of research contributors being male) had been recognized, they had been broadly in keeping with the true farming demographic of Eire (solely 13% feminine; HER-SELF Challenge, Division of Agriculture, Meals and the Marine, 2022), which signifies that the cohort sampled was fairly consultant of the inhabitants below research. Though it’s maybe a limitation that this research doesn’t adequately give attention to the methodology of its preliminary literature assessment, it’s evident that the research is designed all through preserving demographic variations, from gender and household roles to financial pressures, in thoughts.
Nevertheless, there are extra substantive limitations to contemplate on this paper. The most important is the cross-sectional design. As a result of every little thing was measured at one time limit, we don’t know whether or not WFC causes poor psychological well being, or whether or not people who find themselves already struggling usually tend to report greater battle. Additional longitudinal research ought to tease out causality and directionality, within the relationship between difficulties reconciling work and household life, and surrounding or ensuing psychological sickness and danger.
One other concern is choice bias. Farmers had to decide on to participate, and recruitment leaned closely on social media and occasions. Which will create a danger of the pattern over-representing those that are already socially engaged, and curious about points round stress and wellbeing. For example, the over-representation of each extra youthful farmers than the nationwide profile, could also be in circumstances the place youthful folks have comparatively much less stigmatisation or extra technological literacy to have interaction with the research. Therefore the outcomes will not be reflective of, or generalisable to the broader farming inhabitants.
All of the evaluated psychological well being measures had been additionally self-reported. That introduces dangers of underreporting (due to stigma round psychological well being in farming) or overreporting (if folks had been feeling significantly burdened on the time of the survey). Having some unbiased information, for instance, on precise working hours or medical measures of misery, would have made the findings extra strong.
There’s additionally the query of confounding elements. The regression mannequin defined round 40% of the variation in WFC, which leaves rather a lot unexplained, and potential to outdoors affect or simply likelihood. Different elements not measured right here, reminiscent of acute or power bodily well being issues in farming life, the affect of persona and temperament, the variable function of seasonal farm calls for, and even the provision of native assist companies, would possibly account for a number of the associations seen in methods that aren’t examined.
General, this research shines a much-needed gentle on an neglected concern, however the outcomes must be handled as a place to begin, not the ultimate phrase. Extra consultant, longitudinal, and mixed-method analysis would actually assist us perceive how WFC unfolds in farming households and what sorts of assist take advantage of distinction.
Extra structured and longitudinal approaches, which account for confounding elements, are wanted to provide each full color and distinction to analysis representations of farmer psychological well being in Eire.
Implications for observe
This research ought to make us pause. It confirms what many farming households already know: farming life can’t be neatly divided into ‘work’ and ‘residence.’ For a lot of, the farmyard is the yard. The tractor is parked outdoors the kitchen window. The animals want care at daybreak and nightfall, no matter birthdays, faculty performs, or household gatherings.
The chance, as this proof exhibits, is that household relationships and psychological well being can undergo when work at all times comes first. The discovering that youthful fathers usually need to be extra concerned in childcare, however really feel unable to stability this with farm calls for is especially putting. This speaks to a generational shift in expectations, but in addition to the structural boundaries that maintain farmers tied to their work.
For observe, this implies psychological well being companies have to be tailor-made to agricultural realities (for one structured instance, see: Hammersley et al, “On Feirm [Irish for ‘farm’] Floor, Supporting Farmer Psychological Well being” (2025)). Help must be stigma-free, versatile round farm schedules, and accessible outdoors of conventional clinic hours. Professionals working with farmers ought to actively ask about work-family stability as a part of routine wellbeing checks.
For coverage, the message is evident: particular person resilience coaching alone is just not sufficient. Systemic stressors reminiscent of heavy forms, monetary volatility, lengthy working hours, and succession pressures all feed into WFC. Addressing these by way of extra farmer-friendly agricultural insurance policies, sensible helps for younger households, and decreasing pointless purple tape might ease the burden. An extra acknowledgment of challenges and helps for employees (e.g. members of the family {of professional} farmers) who might also work in a unique ‘essential’ or extra occupation, might assist develop extra cohesive interpersonal bonds in farming household and group models, to scale back WFC.
For analysis, there are apparent subsequent steps. Longitudinal research might observe how WFC adjustments throughout the farming life course. Qualitative tasks might seize how folks of various identities, ethnicities, and generations expertise battle in a different way. Importantly, future analysis ought to embody the entire family, not simply the farmer, since WFC impacts companions, youngsters, and household life as a lot because it impacts the farmer.
This research resonates with a broader fact: farming households in Eire face reasonably excessive ranges of WFC, with clear hyperlinks to emphasize, nervousness, and diminished wellbeing. The teams most affected are youthful farmers with babies, males, dairy and combined farmers, and people working lengthy hours. Addressing this isn’t nearly serving to people cope. It requires cultural recognition, group assist, and structural change to guard the wellbeing of farmers and their households, and to maintain household farming into the long run.
Defending psychological well being and household life is crucial for sustaining farming communities into the long run. Private flexibility, stigma-free dialog, and time-flexibility across the calls for of farmer life, could also be important to enhancing the psychological well being of farmers in Eire.
To not chunk the fingers that feed us, it’s time to take proactive steps to make sure the psychological well being and wellbeing of farmers.
Assertion of pursuits
I’ve no competing pursuits to declare.
References
Major paper
O’Connor, Siobhán, Anna Donnla O’Hagan, Hannah Casey, Annie O’Connor, Mark Creegan, Alison Stapleton, Louise McHugh, Tomás Russell, and Sinéad O’Keeffe. 2025. “Between the Farm and Household: A Cross-Sectional Survey on Work–Household Battle in Farmers in Eire” Agriculture 15, no. 15: 1587. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15151587
Different references
Central Statistics Workplace. Farm Construction Survey 2016; Central Statistics Workplace: Dublin, Eire, 2018.
Division of Agriculture, Meals and the Marine, 2022, HER-SELF, or Highlighting pathways to Empower Rural girls to have Sustainable and Equitable Livelihoods in Farming, DAFM Challenge 2022PSS127, https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/HERS-SELF20summary20report20final20online.pdf
Division of Agriculture, Meals and the Marine, 2020. Annual report – 2019. DAFM, Agriculture Home, Kildare Road, Dublin 2. https://www.gov.ie/en/assortment/9151a-dafm-annualreports/
Donohoe, E. Psychological Well being in Agriculture: Stopping and Managing Psychosocial Dangers; The European Company for Security and Well being at Work: Bilbao, Spain, 2024.
Gonnelli, C.; Agus, M.; Raffagnino, R. Work-Household Battle in Nursing: The Position of Work Schedules, Familial Antecedents and Emotional Regulation. 2018. Open J. Med. Psychol., 7, 123–147.
Hammersley, C.; Richardson, N.; Meredith, D.; McNamara, J.; Carroll, P.; Jenkins, P. On Feirm Floor, Supporting Farmer Psychological Well being: Analysing the Effectiveness of a Bespoke Farmer Psychological Well being Coaching Programme Focused at Farm Advisors in Eire. 2025, J. Agric. Educ. Ext., 31, 90–118.
Leshed, G.; Håkansson, M.; Kaye, J. “Jofish” “Our Life Is the Farm and Farming Is Our Life”: Dwelling-Work Coordination in Natural Farm Households. In Proceedings of the seventeenth ACM Convention on Laptop Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, Baltimore, MD, USA, 15–19 February 2014; Affiliation for Computing Equipment: New York, NY, USA, 2014; pp. 487–498.
Roy, P.; Tremblay, G.; Robertson, S.; Houle, J. “Do It All by Myself”: A Salutogenic Strategy of Masculine Well being Apply Amongst Farming Males Dealing with Stress. 2017. Am. J. Mens. Well being, 11, 1536–1546.
Sprung, J.M. Financial Stress, Household Misery, and Work-Household Battle amongst Farm {Couples}. 2022, J. Agromed., 27, 154–168.
Stanley, S.; Murphy, C.; Brougham, R.; Richardson, C. Psychological Misery, Work–Household Battle and Household Life Satisfaction: A Quantitative Research of Social Staff within the UK. Int. Social. Work 2025, 68, 267–280.
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