Work and housework conditions and depressive symptoms among married women: the importance of occupational status.
Using the American Changing Lives Survey, a nationally representative sample of adults residing in the United States, this research examines housewives' subjective evaluations of their housework and the subjective evaluations of paid employment among three groups of married women--professionals, sales-clerical, and service-blue collar wives. A major goal was to assess the usefulness of disaggregating employed women by occupational status. Depressive symptoms were regressed on five work conditions--autonomy, physical and time demands, boredom, and feeling appreciated--along with sociodemographic characteristics. The results indicate professional wives report fewer symptoms than homemakers, sales-clerical, and service-blue collar wives. Differences between professionals and homemakers are largely accounted for by professional women's more advantaged economic position. Nonprofessional employed women are more depressed than professionals even when their disadvantaged working conditions are controlled. We discuss the findings in view of research on the stress of combining full-time employment with homemaking and argue that balancing these two roles may be more difficult for some employed women than for others.
Riley
Anna L
AL
Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. rileyann@csr.nih.gov
Keith
Verna M
VM
D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006796:Household Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D018454:Spouses; D014481:United States; D016387:Women's Health