| Abstract |
This research addressed the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) priority area of Work Environment and Workforce: Organization of Work. This award provided R03 funding for Dr. Marshall, an established investigator of employment and health, for secondary analysis of existing data to examine the relationship between the organization of work and women's postpartum health. Maternal employment rose dramatically over the second half of the 20th century. While employment has had positive effects for women and for their families, working mothers of young children continue to face specific health risks. Women are susceptible to the same health risks as men related to poor job quality and working long hours. However, women continue to spend more time than do men on housework and child care in the family, and face additional health risks associated with combining these family demands with employment. With more than half of all mothers of infants returning to work within the first three months postpartum, understanding women's postpartum health requires an examination of both family factors and work factors, as well as the work-family interface. This study examined work and family characteristics and depressive symptomatology among over 700 working mothers of infants, from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD), a prospective longitudinal study of 1,364 families from 10 sites around the United States. Working mothers in poorer quality jobs, as well as working mothers who were single, or whose infant's health was poorer than that of other infants, reported greater depressive symptomatology. The effect of job quality on depressive symptomatology was mediated by work-family conflict, while other work-family variables had direct effects on depressive symptomatology. While women who worked longer hours reported greater work/family conflict at both 6- and 15-months post-partum, hours worked were unrelated to levels of depressive symptomatology. Addressing the impact of these factors on working mothers' health requires action from a variety of directions. |
