DOUBLE BURDEN OR DOUBLE BLESSING - EMPLOYMENT, MOTHERHOOD AND MORTALITY IN THE LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF ENGLAND AND WALES

The OPCS Longitudinal Study has been used to follow up women who were married at the time of the 1971 census, to see if their employment sta tus and responsibility for children at that time had any detectable co nsequence for their mortality up to 1985. Of particular interest was w hether the combination of employment and child rearing produced any si gns of role overload, or its opposite hypothesized effect, role enhanc ement. The results show poorer health among those with neither employm ent nor children, but these effects did not appear to interact. We sus pect the data reveal health selection as much as health effects of the roles taken separately. Whatever the stresses and strains of combinin g jobs and child rearing, they do not appear drastic enough to result in early death.