The dangers of depression for ‘Super Mum’
By Liz Lockhart
Working mothers can reduce their risk of anxiety and depression by simply admitting that they can’t do it all. Incorporating a career into family life comes with some limitations according to a new study.
Working mums have a lower rate of depression than the stay-at-home mum, statistically, but when a mother attempts to be a ‘super mum’ they increase the risk of depression.
Generally it is expected that working mothers have to forego some aspects of their career or parenting to achieve a good work-life balance. The study shows that working mothers who expressed that work and home lives can be blended with relative ease showed more symptoms of depression than mums who accepted compromise.
Katrina Leupp is a University of Washington graduate student who studies how households deal with the competing demands of employment and family care. ‘Women are sold a story that they can do it all, but most workplaces are still designed for employees without child-care responsibilities’ Katrina said.
In reality, jugging home and work lives requires some sacrifice such as cutting back on work hours and getting husbands to help more, she said.
‘You can happily combine child rearing and a career if you are willing to let some things slide’ Leupp added.
In this study Leupp analysed survey responses from 1,600 women. All of these women were 40 years old and married and came from across the United States. Leupp reviewed the responses which the women had provided about work-life balance when they were young adults.
When the women were younger they answered questions by ranking how much they agreed with statements such as – ‘A woman who fulfils 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’. Leaupp then measured their levels of depression when the women reached 40.
In this study the stay-at-home mothers had more depression symptoms than the working mums. This finding agrees with previous studies.
Leupp said ‘Employment is ultimately beneficial for women’s health, even when differences in marital satisfaction and working ful or part time are rules out’. She added that there is some truth in the saying ‘Stay-at-home mums have the hardest job in the world’.
Leupp found that among the working mums in this study, those with the super mum attitude (those who as young adults consistently agreed with the statements that women can combine employment and family care) ere at a higher risk of depression compared with working mums who had a more realistic expectation.
‘Employed women who expected that work-life balance was going to be hard are probably more likely to accept that they can’t do it all’ Leupp said. These mothers may be more comfortable making tradeoffs, such as leaving work early to pick up the children. These mothers had fewer depression symptoms.
For the super mums who expected that work and family life could be satisfactorily combined without many tradeoffs, the realisation that they are not able to do this can lead them to feel that they are failures.
Feelings of guilt because they are unable to manage work-family balance and feelings of frustration over the division of household labour could also play a role in the increase of depression symptoms in the ‘super mum’ group.
‘Supermoms have higher expectations for fairness, so it makes sense that they would be more frustrated with the division of household chores’ said Leupp.
‘Employment is still ultimately good for women’s health. But for better mental health, working moms should accept that they can’t do it all’ Leupp concluded.
Source: University of Washington.
