"Working moms have lower rates of depression than their stay-at-home counterparts." So says a study by the American Sociological Association. However, "working mothers who expressed a supermom attitude that work and home lives can be blended with relative ease showed higher levels of depression symptoms than working moms who expected that they would have to forego some aspects of their career or parenting to achieve a work-life balance" In other words, you can do it jus't don't expect to do it all. Give yourself a break, and don't expect to be perfect.
As young adults, the women who participated in the study answered questions about work-life balance. They were asked to rank how much they agreed with statements such as “A woman who fulfills her family responsibilities doesn’t have time for a job outside the home,” “Working wives lead to more juvenile delinquency” and “A woman is happiest if she can stay at home with her children.”
Then, when the women were 40, the same women had their levels of depression measured.
The Study determined that the stay-at-home moms had more depression symptoms than the working moms in the study. “Employment is ultimately beneficial for women’s health, even when differences in marital satisfaction and working full or part time are ruled out.
This is useful information for women going through divorce. Frequently these women are faced with having to make a decision between the stay-at-home vocation they followed during the marriage, versus the need to return to work. Apparently from the first person, mom centered perspective, returning to work would not appear to be a bad thing. The next step is to find some research to see how the idea of mom returning to work affects the children?
Click here to read the original story.
Please visit Hardinglaw.com for more information on divorce and family law in California, and in particular Alameda County and Contra Costa County.
I am a firm believer that work is healing and beneficial especially after a divorce. I think most women have similar feelings. On the other hand, I have seen some youwomen take the opposite approach and do everything they can to stay at home and not work. Perhaps some of the reasons are psychological in nature, they have little or no work skills, or in some cases they may be simply complacent with that lifestyle. The result for a female wanting to stay home is sometimes to milk their ex-husband for as much child support and alimony that they can. They sometimes justify this by saying that they are needed by the children - often times this is selfishness on their part or it is a way to get back at their ex-husband. Ideally, child support should mostly be for the children's benefit not simply to provide a cozy environment for the children's mother. More times than not the women who do this are able to work but due to some personality defect or depression choose to do the latter. Typically, courts will not dictate how a mother should spend their child support but father's in this kind of situation find themselves infuriated and most likely will find other issues to litigate. I was personally involved in one case in which a woman was perfectly able to work but decided not to and lived in a one bedroom apartment with her children sleeping on the couch. She too argued that her children needed her but the consequences of her actions actually drove the children from her. In this case the father filed suit and achieved primary managing conservatorship of the children. Therefore, women and in some cases men, should really ask themselves is staying at home and not working is really in the children's best interest.
Posted by: Private Investigator Austin Tx | November 12, 2011 at 03:35 PM