This excerpt from a Journal of Sociology article (Belinda Hewitt, Janeen Baxter, and Mark Western, "Family, Work, and Health: The Impact of Marriage, Parenthood, and Employment on Self-Reported Health of Australian Men and Women," Journal of Sociology 21 [March 2006]: 61-78.) suggests that women who are punching a time clock may be getting punched back -- and more than they bargained on....Social science research documents a number of negative effects of full-time maternal employment on the well-being of children, but what about the impact on the well-being of mothers? While policymakers around the globe continue to push for more mothers to work full-time outside the home, a new study by researchers at the University of Queensland finds that combining motherhood and full-time employment yields a significant "health burden" for women.
Looking at the responses of more than 2,200 Australian men and women who responded to the "Negotiating the Lifecourse" study, a longitudinal panel study conducted in two waves (1996-97 and 2000), the researchers studied the interaction of employment and parental status on self-reported health. While their most complex statistical model found no significant interactions between these variables for men, it yielded key correlations for women, suggesting that "work and family commitments operate differently for men than women." For example, having children under 18 significantly lowered the odds of reporting poor health for women not working outside the home (p<.05) or only working part-time (p<.01), compared to their peers working full-time outside the home. In other words, for mothers with children, working outside the home full-time represents a health risk whereas staying at home (or only working part-time) represents a health benefit.
As their findings found greater similarities between mothers who work part-time with women who did not work at all, the researchers suggest that studies that do not differentiate between full- and part-time employment overlook important differences among women.
The analysis also yielded statistically significant correlations between marriage and health among women, but not men. In the most complex interaction model, previously married women (separated, divorced, or widowed) as well as cohabiting women were more likely to report poorer health than married women (p<.05 for both variables). Women who never married were also more likely to report poor health, but the association was not statistically significant...
(Hat tip to World Congress of Families)
