title: Psychological distress and work and home roles: a focus on socio-economic differences in distress.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Home and work factors have been linked to psychological status, but less is known about their contribution to social inequalities in psychological status. We examine whether social inequalities in psychological distress can be explained by work-home factors and whether the impact of these potential explanatory factors is similar for men and women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data are from the 1958 British birth cohort study. We sought to explain social class differences in psychological distress at age 33. Explanatory factors were classified as work-home roles: i.e. employment, marital status, domestic responsibility, children and elderly care; and work-home characteristics: i.e. job-strain, insecurity, unsocial working hours, youngest child's age, number of children and level of involvement in childcare.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A social gradient in psychological distress was found: odds ratios for classes IV and V v. I and II were 2.65 (men) and 3.02 (women). Work factors had consistently stronger associations with psychological distress and with social class among men than women. Work factors had a greater impact on class differences in psychological distress in men. Associations for home roles and characteristics were less consistent and their combined effect on class differences in distress was negligible for both sexes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Explanations for the social gradient differ for men and women. Work may be more important for men than women, but the impact of home factors was not strong during the early adulthood of this cohort.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Institute of Child Health, London.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Power
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Stansfeld
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004651:Employment; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D016526:Workload