A COMPARISON OF THE SELF-REPORTED MENTAL AND PHYSICAL STRESS OF WORKING AND FULL-TIME HOMEMAKER MOTHERS - A UK PILOT-STUDY

There is continuing debate over whether employed mothers or mothers wh o are full-time homemakers experience more stress. The pilot study des cribed in this article compares the self-reported occurrence of physic al and psychological stress in two groups of mothers with children of UK primary school age (i.e. children aged 4-11 years of age), namely w orking mothers and mothers who are full-time homemakers. Seventy of th e former and 24 of the latter, all with at least one child attending t he same primary school, participated in the study. Physical health, th ree aspects of mental health (free-floating anxiety, somatic anxiety a nd depression) and stress-coping strategies utilized were measured. Fe w differences were found between the two groups of mothers, though ful l-time homemakers indicate significantly more depression than working mothers. The predictors of physical ill-health and mental iii-health w ere examined. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.