Women in Management Review

Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study

Usha R. Rout Cary L. Cooper Helen Kerslake
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Working and non-
working mothers: a
comparative study
Usha R. Rout
Cary L. Cooper and
Helen Kerslake
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The authors
Usha R. Rout is Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Psychology and Speech Pathology, Manchester Metropoli-
tan University, Manchester, UK.
Cary L. Cooper is a Professor at Manchester School of
Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK.
Helen Kerslake has now graduated from the Department
of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Manchester Metro-
politan University, Manchester, UK.
Abstract
Expands on research which has demonstrated that
employment has positive or neutral effects on women’s
health. This pilot study examines whether these positive
effects could also be found in employed mothers by
comparing working mothers with non-working mothers on
measures of mental health, self-esteem, and mother role
satisfaction. Also this study assesses the stress experi-
enced by these mothers and examines the coping strate-
gies used by them. Of the 200 questionnaires distributed,
101 were returned giving a 50.5 per cent return rate of
which 78 per cent were working mothers and 22 per cent
non-working mothers. The working mothers had better
mental health and reported less depression than the non-
working mothers. The most frequently reported source of
stress for working mothers was not having enough time to
do everything, whereas for non-working mothers lack of
social life was a major stressor. The findings of this study
support the expansion hypothesis, which emphasizes the
benefits rather than the costs of multiple role involvement.
Women in Management Review
Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · pp. 264–275
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0964-9425
264
Introduction
Married women with young children are
increasingly entering the labour market[1]
and there is growing concern about the psy-
chological implications of occupying both
family and work roles simultaneously[2-5].
Research evidence suggests that employment
has both positive and negative effect on moth-
ers’ psychological well-being[6,7]. Franken-
haeuser and colleagues[8] found that the
average total workload (sum of paid and
unpaid work) of working women was 78 hours
per week compared to 68 hours for men.
These long working hours are a possible
contributing factor with stress experienced by
working women.
Because stress research has tended to focus
on men, the workplace has both implicitly and
explicitly been identified as the primary stres-
sor[9]. The home in contrast has been viewed
as a shrine, as a “favourable environment” in
which one recuperates from the problems at
work. This picture reflects not only a male-
biased view, but also the assumption that for
women the roles associated with home – wife,
mother, homemaker – are sometimes “natur-
al” and free from undue stress. In contrast, for
women the role of paid worker has been seen
as an added-on role (for married women) or
as a substitute role (for non-married
women)[10]. The work role has thus been
viewed as the most likely catalyst for psycho-
logical distress and impaired health in
women, a view exemplified by the cardiolo-
gists Friedman and Rosenman[11] in their
book on Type A behaviour pattern (Type A
behaviour is recognizable in individuals who
display aggressiveness, feelings of being under
the challenge of responsibility, impatience,
haste and a distinct sense of time urgency)
and coronary heart disease.
The relationship of involvement in multiple
roles to stress and psychological well-being is
a matter of some controversy[12-14]. As
Long and Porter[10] point out, the psycho-
logical consequences of role accumulation
depend not only on the number of roles occu-
pied but on the nature of particular roles,
because roles differ in social value and in the
patterning of privileges and obligations asso-
ciated with them. Moreover, for any particu-
lar role, proportions of “privileges to obliga-
tions” differ across role occupants.
Women occupy roles that are different to
those of men (wife, mother), and roles that
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake
are labelled identically (paid worker) but may
be structured differently. Much of the litera-
ture relevant to multiple role involvement
implicitly reflects this distinction. Involve-
ment in both work and family roles has been
seen as a source of men’s advantage over
women with respect to mental health[15], and
as the source of overload and conflict for
women, that is, as detrimental to women’s
mental health. Long and Porter[10] argue
that underlying this inconsistency concerning
the number of roles is the assumption that a
particular role, that of paid worker, is neces-
sary and beneficial for men but is an “added
on”, hazardous role for women. However,
Barnett and Baruch[16] argue that because of
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the patterning of privileges and obligations,
the role of paid worker may be less stressful to
a woman than her more traditional roles.
Two major hypotheses have been put
forward concerning the relation of role
involvement to well-being. According to the
scarcity hypothesis[17,18], people do not
have enough energy to fulfil their role obliga-
tions, thus role strain is normal and compro-
mises are required. The more roles one accu-
mulates, therefore, the greater the probability
of exhausting one’s supply of time and energy
and of confronting conflicting obligations,
leading to role strain and psychological dis-
tress.
In contrast to this view, the “expansion”
hypothesis[12,13] emphasizes the benefits
rather than the costs of multiple role involve-
ment. According to this view, involvement in
several roles is likely to provide stimulation,
gratification, and social validation. This view
is supported by the work of researchers from
several disciplines[14,19-21]. Thoits[14]
reported a positive correlation between the
number of roles a person occupies and psy-
chological well-being. In analyses of within
sex differences in women’s physical health,
Verbrugge[21] concluded that multiple role
involvement was associated with better health.
Pietromonaco and colleagues[22] reported
that self-esteem was markedly higher for
women who had more social roles. In sum,
the “expansion hypothesis” is well supported,
the more roles the better[14, 23].
However, evidence indicates that the role
of paid employee is both a direct and indirect
source of well-being[16]. Using such indices
as self-reports of physical symptoms[24,25];
and psychological well-being indices[26],
many studies show significant health
265
Women in Management Review
Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275
differences that favour employed versus non-
employed women. Some researchers found
that employed women report less depres-
sion[14] and greater psychological health and
self-esteem[26, 27] than do non-employed
women.
Despite these positive findings, much of
the literature on dual roles focuses on work-
family conflict. Some have argued[16, 28]
that combining work and family roles leads to
overload because women committed primari-
ly to their family roles experience strain and
conflict when the role of paid employee is
added. The stress of managing multiple roles
is greater when work and family role responsi-
bilities are both heavy[29]. Exclusively,
employed mothers continue to bear a dispro-
portionate share of household and childcare
responsibilities[29-31]. Moreover, family
obligations increase with parenthood, and this
increase is greater for women than for men.
Employed mothers would therefore be
expected to experience greater stress and
strain than homemakers. In a recent study,
Noor[32] found that there was no relationship
between women’s employment status and
their well-being.
Warr and Parry[33] reviewing 38 studies of
the effects of employment on women’s psy-
chological well-being, found either positive
effects or no differences associated with
employment. Kandel and colleagues[34]
reported that employment was associated
with lower depression in women.
Verbrugg[25] found that women who were
simultaneously married, employed and moth-
ers, had the most favourable health status
compared to women with fewer roles.
These studies therefore provide little sup-
port for the notion that dual roles are detri-
mental to a woman’s psychological well-
being. In contrast, holding both family and
employment roles ties individuals into two
major social networks which can act as alter-
native sources of social and psychological
gratification[1,14,15]. Baruch and
Barnett[26] found that the psychological well-
being of employed wives was influenced by
the quality of experience in both of their roles.
Housewives who are tied to only one social
network have been found to experience more
psychological distress, suggesting that the
singular focus of their lives put them in a
position of higher risk. Pearlin and
colleagues[35] found that women who occu-
pied the role of homemaker were more likely
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake
to experience “role disenchantment” and
depression than were employed women.
Although several studies have reported that
a woman’s employment outside the home had
a positive, rather than a negative impact on
her well-being[25, 27, 36], frequently a caveat
was offered that the positive impact of
employment may not hold for mothers of very
young children[37]. In fact, McLanahan and
Adams[38] found that married women with
young children are associated with worse
mental health than those without children.
With respect to physical health, mothers
compared to non-mothers have a small advan-
tage[25]. This health advantage, however, is
dependent on the ages and number of chil-
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dren. Mothers of pre-schoolers and of large
numbers of children experience comparative-
ly poor mental health[39, 40]. Gove and
Geerken[40] have shown that the highest
rates of depression occurred among non-
employed women with young children.
Kessler and McCrae[27] found that age and
number of children modified the effects of
employment. As the relationship remains
unresolved, more recent studies have attempt-
ed to identify the specific characteristics
within the roles that contribute to psychologi-
cal adjustment[29, 41, 42].
Kessler and McCrae[27] examined inter-
actions between work and help with child care
and household chores. They found that assis-
tance with child care modified the relation-
ship between employment and distress. Using
measures of ill-health, psychological anxiety,
low self-esteem and depression, they found
that employment was associated with
improved mental health among women whose
husbands share child care. Among women
whose husbands did not share child care, the
advantages of employment were negligible.
Apparently, well-being is enhanced when
mothers are employed only if they perceive
their husbands to be doing their “fair share”
of child care. They also found, however, that a
husband’s help with housework was not a
central modifying influence for mothers of
young children. The critical type of assistance
was clearly with child care.
Krause and Markides[36] came to the
opposite conclusion, however, that help with
housework appears to be the important factor
for employed Mexican-American women.
They found that among women who received
little or no help with housework from their
husbands, paid employment was associated
266
Women in Management Review
Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275
with significantly higher levels of depressive
symptoms than are reported by women who
do receive significant help.
Brannen and Moss[43] in a longitudinal
study (1983-1987) found that despite the
ideological salience of giving time to children,
women asserted that working motherhood
resulted in a heightened quality of the
mother-child relationship because they were
not with their children all the time. In some
instances, women gave the normative notion
of “giving time” a new name in talking about
“quality time”[44].
Lazarus and Folkman identify two major
categories of coping strategies: problem-
focused and emotional-focused[49]. While
both forms of coping are necessary when
faced with stressful situations, research sug-
gests that people tend to use more problem-
focused than emotional-focused coping[50].
Women tend to use more emotion- focused
coping strategies than do men[51]. Neverthe-
less, both emotion-focused and problem-
focused coping strategies are required for
effective long-term coping in most situations.
However, one study found that dual-income
wives seem to use problem-focused coping in
role overload situations[52]. Unfortunately,
only a little is known about the use and effec-
tiveness of coping strategies among working
and non-working mothers.
The aim of this pilot study was to examine
the stress experienced by working and non-
working mothers, and to highlight the coping
strategies used by them. Also the study aimed
to examine the self-esteem, role satisfaction,
and mental health of working and non-work-
ing mothers.
Subjects and methods
The sample consisted of working and non-
working mothers in the north-west region of
England. These mothers were selected ran-
domly through teachers of four primary
schools. They needed to be fluent in written
English. They were from a socially mixed
community. The questionnaires were equally
distributed to these four schools. The mothers
were allowed to take the questionnaires home
and fill them at a later date. No instructions
were needed as the accompanying letter
clearly explained what the questionnaire
entailed. Once all the questionnaires had been
distributed, the mothers were given two weeks
to complete and return the questionnaires to
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake
the appropriate schools. One of the
researchers collected the questionnaires by
hand from the schools. The questionnaires
were completed anonymously. Of the 200
questionnaires distributed, 101 were returned
giving a 50.5 per cent return rate. The ages of
the mothers ranged from 21 to 54 years, with
a mean of 35.8 years. Of the 101 mothers, 78
per cent (N=79) of these were working moth-
ers and 22 per cent (N=22) were non-working
mothers. As such, the mothers shared a diver-
sity of educational backgrounds and socio-
economic backgrounds. However, the repre-
sentativeness of its findings cannot be
assumed.
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Measuring instruments
A number of different measuring instruments
were included, measuring mental health, self-
esteem, mother role satisfaction, coping
strategies, sources of stress and demographic
characteristics.
Demographic factors
This questionnaire was used to elicit informa-
tion on the background characteristics of each
participant. It had a total of 11 items. Ten of
the questions were quantitative, and elicited
information on age, employment status,
marital status, number of children, ages of
children, number of hours they and their
partners spent on household chores and
whether they perceived that their partners did
their fair share household and child care tasks.
Sources of stress
The questions under this heading asked the
respondents to list the three primary sources
of stress in their lives, and to make any addi-
tional comments.
Mental health
A shortened version of the Crown-Crisp[45]
experiential index (CCEI) was used to assess
mental health. Three of the most reliable sub-
scales were used – namely, free-floating anxi-
ety, somatic anxiety and depression composed
of eight items (scored 0, 1 or 2) giving a maxi-
mum score of 16; a high score is indicative of
lower mental health. Reliability and validity
data have been extensively reported[45, 46].
The self-esteem questionnaire
Self-esteem was assessed by means of Rosen-
berg’s[47] 10-item scale (alpha coefficient =
0.85). A Likert-type rating scale was used
267
Women in Management Review
Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275
(measures from 1 to 5, where 1 = strongly
disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Subjects were
given an overall score on self-esteem where
the score from each item was added together
to give a total score where the minimum
score = 10 for low self-esteem, and the maxi-
mum score = 50 for high self-esteem.
The mother role satisfaction
questionnaire
Satisfaction with the mother role was assessed
by means of the “home role” section of the
“HER” scales (home and employment scales)
developed by Parry and Warr[48]. The scale
incorporates three distinct areas: home role
attitude, employment role attitude and inter-
action stress. A modified version of the “home
role” was used. Eight items were chosen from
the original 12 items, which related specifical-
ly to mother role satisfaction. A Likert-type
scale was used for scoring, with ratings from 1
to 5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly
agree). The following method of scoring was
employed. Each subject was given a score
between 1 and 5 for each item on the ques-
tionnaire where 1 = low mother role satisfac-
tion and 5 = high mother role satisfaction.
Subjects were also given an overall mother
role satisfaction score, where the score for
each item was summated to get a total score
where the minimum score = 8 for low mother
role satisfaction and the maximum score = 40
for high mother role satisfaction.
Ways of coping checklist
A shortened version of the Folkman and
Lazarus[49] ways of coping questionnaire was
used to identify the coping behaviours of the
mothers. The ways of coping is a 66-item
questionnaire. The questionnaire contains
eight subscales:
(1) problem-focused coping;
(2) wishful thinking;
(3) detachment;
(4) seeking social support;
(5) focusing on the positive;
(6) self-blame;
(7) tension reduction; and
(8) keep to self.
A shortened version of the questionnaire
included a representative number of items
from each coping behaviour category: five
items on problem-focused coping, two items
on wishful thinking, three items on detach-
ment, three items on seeking social support,
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study Women in Management Review
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275

two items on focusing on the positive, three Table I Demographic data

items on self-blame, three items on tension
Working Non-working
reduction and, finally, three items on keep to
mothers mothers
self. A four-point Likert scale was used,
N = 79 N = 22
0 = not used; 1= used somewhat, 2= used
quite a lot and 3 = used a great deal. This Age (%)
shortened version of the coping questionnaire 21-30 14.0 45.5
consisted of a list of 25 coping strategies. 31-40 59.4 45.5
These strategies were identified by asking a 41-50 25.3 4.5
number of mothers in a pilot study to describe 51-60 1.3 4.5
the techniques they used to handle stressful Mean (SD) 36.95 (7.46) 32.95 (6.57)
events in their lives. The 25 most commonly Employment status (%)
used techniques were collected together into a Full-time 45.6
check list. The women in our study were Part-time 54.4
asked to think about a situation which they Marital status (%)
had found stressful. While thinking about the Single/living together 7.6 13.6
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situation, the women were required to indi- Married 86.0 68.2

cate which of the 25 listed strategies they had Divorced/with partner 3.8 18.2
used to deal with it. Widowed 1.3 0.0
Separated 1.3 0.0
Statistics Number of children (%)
Independent t-tests were employed to make One 27.8 31.8
comparisons between working mothers and Two 50.6 63.6
non-working mothers on measures of mental Three 19.0 0.0
health, self-esteem and role satisfaction; to Four or more 2.6 4.5
compare full-time and part-time working Ages of children (%)
mothers on measures of mental health; to 1-6 32.0 56.3
compare mothers who perceive that their 7-12 45.9 34.4
husbands do a fair share of the household 13-18 14.8 6.2
chores/child care with those mothers who 19-24 6.6 3.1
perceive that their partners do not do their fair 25-30 0.0 0.0
share in either of these tasks on measures of 31-36 0.7 0
mental health. Correlations were used to Number of hours mothers
examine the relationship between the age of spend on household chores:
the children and mother’s mental health and Mean (SD) 18.33 (9.32) 23.82 (15.90)
the number of children and mother’s mental Number of hours partner
health. spends on household chores:
Mean (SD) 6.25 (5.04) 3.95 (5.51)

Results
Characteristics of the sample
The demographic characteristics of the work-
ing and non-working mothers are summa-
rized in Table I. The majority of working
mothers were between the ages of 31 and 40
(59.4 per cent). In comparison, a lesser num-
ber of non-working mothers were between the
ages of 31 to 40 (45.5 per cent) but higher
percentage of non-working mothers (45.5 per
cent) were between the ages of 21 and 30.
The mean age of both groups were 36.95 and
32.95 for working and non-working mothers,
respectively, making the non-working moth-
ers younger. More working mothers were
working part-time (54.4 per cent) compared
to 45.6 per cent who worked full-time; 86 per
268
cent of working mothers were married com-
pared to 68.2 per cent non-working mothers
who were married; 11.4 per cent of working
mothers were living together compared to
31.8 per cent non-working mothers who were
living together; 1.3 per cent of working moth-
ers were widowed and another 1.3 per cent
were separated. As such, only 2.6 per cent of
the working mother sample and none of the
non-working sample could be described as
single parents.
Most mothers, regardless of whether they
were working or non-working, had two chil-
dren. Of the working mothers, the majority
had children between the ages of seven and 12
(45.9 per cent) whereas in comparison to the
non-working mothers, the majority had
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study Women in Management Review
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275

children between the ages of one and six (56.3
per cent). The non-working mothers per-
ceived that they spent more hours on house-
hold chores than the working mothers.
Regardless of whether the mothers were
working or non-working, both perceived that
their partners spent less hours on household
chores in comparison to themselves. Howev-
er, working mothers perceived that their
partners spent more hours on household
chores than non-working mothers (mean =
6.25 v 3.95).
Mental health
Table II compares the mental health scores
from the present study with those of the nor-
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on free-floating anxiety and somatic anxiety
scale, but there was a significant difference
between the working and non-working moth-
ers on depression scale, suggesting that non-
working mothers were more depressed than
working mothers.
There was no significant difference
between full-time and part-time working
mothers on the measures of free-floating
anxiety, somatic anxiety and depression.
Table III shows the mean scores obtained
for each subscale of the Crown-Crisp Experi-
ential Index in relation to whether or not
working mothers perceived their partners did
“their fair share of the household chores and
child care”. It was found that there was a

mative population[45]. Both working and
non-working mothers had significantly higher
scores on the free-floating anxiety scale than
those of the normative population. Scores for
working mothers on somatic anxiety scale
were significantly lower than the norm, and
there was no significant difference on depres-
sion scale when compared with the norm. On
the other hand, scores for non-working moth-
ers on depression scale were higher than the
norm, but there was no significant normative
difference on somatic anxiety scale. In addi-
tion, there was no significant difference
between working and non-working mothers
significant difference between the mothers
who perceived that their partners did a fair
share of the household chores and those who
perceived that their partners did not do their
fair share on somatic anxiety and depression
scales, but there was no significant difference
between the groups on free-floating anxiety.
These results suggest that working mothers
who perceive that their partners do their fair
share of household chores report less somatic
anxiety and depression than the working
mothers who perceive that their partners do
not do their fair share. In terms of help with
child care, it was found that there was a

Table II Scores on Crown-Crisp experiential index for total sample, working women, non-working women and normative
population (higher score = poor mental health)

Free floating Somatic

Number anxiety anxiety Depression
of SS Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
Total group 101 7.00 (3.87) 4.56 (3.29) 5.08 (3.63)
Working mothers 79 6.78 (3.89) 4.34 (3.17) 4.53 (3.19)
Non-working
mothers 22 7.77 (3.82) 5.36 (3.63) 7.09 (4.41)
Population
(female a) 415 5.40 (3.50) 5.70 (3.30) 4.40 (2.50)
t value b 3.81*** 3.08* 1.74
t value c 2.94* 3.40*** 0.33
t value d 2.86* 0.43 2.83*
t value e 1.06 1.29 3.05**
Notes:
*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.005; * p < 0.01
a The female normative data were obtained by Crown and Crisp (1979) on a random sample of patients in two

large group practices

b Comparison of total group of mothers’ scores with those of normative population
c Comparison of working mothers’ scores with those of normative population
d Comparison of non-working mothers’ scores with those of normative population
e Comparison of working mothers’ scores with those of non-working mothers

269
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake
Table III Scores on Crown-Crisp experiential index for working mothers who perceive that their partners do a fair share of
household chores and fair share of child care, and working mothers who perceive that their partners do not do a fair share
of household chores and fair share of child care (high score = poor mental health)
Free-floating
Number
of SS
Working women:
fair share of house-
hold chores 42
Working women:
no fair share of house-
hold chores 34
t value
working women:
fair share of child
care 55
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Working women: no
fair share of child care 21
t value
Note: **p < 0.005
significant difference between the working
mothers who perceive that their partners do a
fair share of the child care and those working
mothers who perceive that their partners do
not do a fair share of the child care on somatic
anxiety scale. There was no significant differ-
ence between these two groups on measures
of free-floating anxiety and depression.
Two sets of correlational analysis were
carried out, first, those examining the rela-
tionship between the age of the children and
working mothers’ mental health; and second,
those examining the relationship between the
number of children and the working mothers’
mental health. The result showed that the
correlations of these measures were very low,
suggesting that the working mothers’ mental
health is not affected by the age of the chil-
dren or the number of children that they have.
Self-esteem and mother-role satisfaction
Although the mean on self-esteem scale was
higher for working mothers than that of non-
working mothers, there was no significant
difference between working and non-working
mothers on measures of overall self-esteem
(Table IV). When individual items of self-
esteem were analysed for both groups, it was
also found that there was no significant differ-
ence between the working and non-working
mothers. It was revealed that there was no
significant difference between working and
non-working mothers in terms of mother-role
satisfaction (Table IV).
Women in Management Review
Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275
Somatic
anxiety anxiety Depression
Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
5.95 (3.70) 3.14 (2.62) 3.50 (2.81)
7.56 (4.02) 5.71 (3.29) 5.68 (3.35)
1.81 3.78** 3.09**
6.67 (4.07) 3.65 (2.86) 4.35 (3.07)
6.67 (3.53) 6.00 (3.75) 4.81 (3.66)
0.01 2.95** 0.56
Coping strategies
Table V shows the three most and three least
used coping behaviours of the working moth-
ers and non-working mothers. The top two
“most used” coping strategies were the same
for both groups and the “least used” coping
behaviour was also the same for both groups,
i.e., tension reduction methods. In addition,
the non-working mothers also reported using
wishful thinking, self-blame and keep to self-
strategies (e.g., “wish I can change what is
happening or how I feel!”). The third most
used coping strategy for working mothers was
seeking social support strategies, i.e., “I let my
feelings out somehow”. In terms of the coping
strategies, there was no clear difference
between the two groups because they both
used the problem focused (e.g., “I go over in
my mind what I will say or do”) and seeking
social support strategies. The only difference
between the working mothers and non-work-
ing mothers was that the non-working moth-
ers tended to use more varied coping strate-
gies. These results may be due to the fact that
the coping strategies used in the questionnaire
were too varied for any clear patterns to
emerge between the two groups.
Sources of stress
The question asked the mothers to state the
three primary sources of stress in their lives,
and to make additional comments about the
stress they experienced. The opportunity to
expand on their experience of stress was
270
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study Women in Management Review
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275

Table IV Overall self-esteem and mother role satisfaction comparing working and non-working mothers

Self-esteema Mother role satisfaction*

Minimum = 10 Minimum = 8
Maximum = 50 Maximum = 40

Working mothers
(N = 79) Mean (SD) 38.82 (8.53) 23.75 (6.07)
Non-working mothers
(N = 22) Mean (SD) 35.41 (8.09) 24.41 (6.69)
t value 1.68 0.44
Note: a The higher the score the more self-esteem or mother role satisfaction

Table V The three most used and three least used coping behaviours of working and non-working mothers

Working mothers Non-working mothers

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Coping behaviours Mean (SD) Coping behaviours Mean (SD)

Three most used Three most used
I go over in my mind what I go over in my mind what
I will say or do 1.95 (0.89) I will say or do 1.95 (0.95)
I try to look on the I try to look on the
bright side 1.85 (0.82) bright side 1.82 (1.10)
I let my feelings out Wish that I can change
somehow 1.70 (0.70) what is happening 1.68 (0.95)

Three least used Three least used

Seek professional help 0.41 (0.76) Seek professional help 0.27 (0.88)
Avoid being with people I jog or exercise 0.36 (0.73)
in general 0.75 (1.02) I try to make myself feel
Get away from it for a better by eating, drinking,
while, try to rest or take smoking, using drugs or
a vacation 0.77 (0.91) medication, etc. 0.82 (1.05)

presented, resulting in the inclusion of some
qualitative data.
The three main sources of stress for the
working mothers were: children (18.4 per
cent), finances (18 per cent) and household
duties (14.5 per cent). Other reported sources
of stress were: their job, juggling of priorities,
balancing time between work and family, guilt
at working, lack of social life, not having
enough time to themselves, child care and not
having any help from other family members.
One of the main concerns expressed by the
mothers in the study was that because they
were working they felt that they were failing as
a mother, with comments such as: “I’ve only
just started to work and I worry whether they
might be upset that I’m not being a full-time
mother”.
Another concern expressed by the working
mothers was that of having too much to do
and not having enough time for themselves,
with comments such as: “It is usually trying to
271
cope with the children, housework and work
in one day that causes me problems”, or “I
feel that I am being pulled in so many direc-
tions and that there is no time for just me”.
The greatest concerns in relation to being a
mother were spending enough time with their
children, concerns about the children’s health
and trying to organize their out-of-school
activities. Some of the working mothers used
the word “guilt” when referring to their role
as a mother, such as “The guilt factor
involved in doing a full time job that requires a
great deal of commitment is stressful because
you think you are failing as a mother” or
“Mainly caused by an overcrowded lifestyle –
too many commitments and a desire to do
things properly with not enough time to do
so”.
The three main sources of stress for non-
working mothers were finances (29.5 per
cent), children (24.6 per cent) and housework
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake
(13.1 per cent). Other reported sources of
stress of the non-working mothers were not
working, health, husband, managing and
dividing life, time management and lack of
social life.
Discussion
The working mothers in the present study
were advantaged in terms of better mental
health, and they reported less depression than
the non-working mothers. These results are
consistent with many researchers who have
found employed women to be typically advan-
taged in comparison to non-employed
women[34, 36]. For example, Warr and
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Parry[33] reviewed a number of studies on
the effects of employment on women’s mental
health and found either positive effects or no
differences associated with employment.
Before concluding that women’s employ-
ment improves their mental health, however,
we must consider the possibility that psycho-
logically healthy women are more likely than
distressed ones to enter the labour force. The
results of the present study, and those of
Krause and Markides[36], call into question
the assumption that the home is a buffer
against the stress of the workplace, and indeed
the role of paid worker is likely to cause physi-
cal and mental ill-health rather than improve a
woman’s mental health.
It must be recognized, however, that
although many studies have found employed
women to be advantaged over non-employed
women, the results are by no means consis-
tent. For example, Noor[32] found that there
was no relationship between women’s
employment status and their well-being.
Despite these contradictions, very few studies
have actually found non-employed women to
have better health than employed women. In
short then, it could be suggested that the
results of the present study provide further
seminal evidence that employment may actu-
ally be beneficial to a mother’s mental health.
Another important implication of the
findings is that they are inconsistent with the
assumption underlying the “scarcity hypothe-
sis” which asserts that the more roles a person
occupies the greater the role strain and resul-
tant decrements in well-being. The results of
the present study, however, are more in
accordance with those of Thoits[14] and
Verbrugge[21] who reported a positive
272
Women in Management Review
Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275
correlation between the number of roles a
person occupies and psychological well-being.
These results substantiate the argument of
Bolger et al.[41] that “alternative resources
provided by multiple roles outweigh the
stresses and help dampen their emotional
effects”.
The working mothers who felt that their
partners did a fair share of the household
chores had better mental health and reported
lower levels of somatic anxiety and depression
than those working mothers who felt that their
partners did not do a fair share. These results
are therefore consistent with the findings of
Krause and Markides[36] who found that
among employed women who received little
or no help with housework from their hus-
bands, paid employment was associated with
significantly higher levels of depressive symp-
toms than are reported by women who do
receive significant help. But other
researchers[27] found that it is the assistance
with child care and not with housework that
modifies the relationship between employment
and distress. The results lead to a suggestion
that perhaps help with household chores rather
than assistance with child care is the most
important factor in determining the impact of
employment on mental health. It is possible
that those mothers who are assisted by a part-
ner around the home are more likely to reap
maximum psychological benefits from outside
employment. It can be suggested that these
benefits arise even when mothers only perceive
their partners to be doing their fair share.
There are a number of explanations for the
results. The results may be due to the fact that
the average age of the non-working mothers’
children was younger than those of the work-
ing mothers. The health of the non-working
mothers, therefore, may be affected by having
to look after very young children. Another
possible explanation for these results may be
as Gove and Geerken[40]suggest, that the
main reason why employed mothers have
lower depression scores and have better men-
tal health is because they are linked into two
major social networks, one at home and one at
work. These two networks serve as major
sources of gratification for such persons, and
as a consequence they have a broader struc-
tural base than housewives who remain at
home.
One cautionary factor should be consid-
ered regarding the possible explanation of the
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake
relationships presented. To some extent,
employed mothers are a self-selected group,
and it is possible that there is a tendency for
mothers who seek employment to be in
better health than those who do not. With
cross-sectional data it is extremely difficult
to disentangle reciprocal effects of this sort.
Some instrumental variable would have to be
found that has a causal influence on the
decision to enter the labour force but not on
mental health, or the variable would have to
influence mental health directly but not the
decision to enter the labour force. However,
a variable of this sort is hard to imagine, as
Verbrugge[25] argued, selection factors
account for only a small proportion of the
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findings, therefore suggesting that paid
employment is beneficial to women’s health.
There was no significant difference
between working and non-working mothers
on measure of self-esteem. This contradicts
other research findings that involvement in
the role of the paid worker provides self-
esteem and a sense of efficacy alleviating
effects of stressors[25]. These results may be
due to the fact that the sample size was too
small, especially non-working mothers. Also
it was found that the working and non-work-
ing mothers did not differ in their experience
of satisfaction in the mother role. Similarly,
with the previous results this may have been
due to the small sample size.
The primary stressors identified by the
working mothers were children, finances and
household duties. A common theme was the
stress of “trying to do it all well”, to be a
good wife, mother, homemaker and success-
ful career woman. One of the most difficult
tasks that employed women have to cope
with is meeting the expectations imposed on
them by the work and family. Their stress
may be caused by the fact that they feel they
must excel both at work and at home, and
that they must prove themselves competent
in handling a job and the family unit.
Although both working and non-working
mothers used similar coping strategies fre-
quently, the non-working mothers also used
“keep to self ” strategies and self-blame
which are negative coping strategies. On the
other hand, the working mothers used “seek-
ing social support” strategies, for example,
“I let my feelings out somehow”, which is
positive coping strategy. However, no firm
conclusion can be drawn from this finding.
273
Women in Management Review
Volume 12 · Number 7 · 1997 · 264–275
Future research
Instead of simply comparing mothers who
work with mothers who do not work, future
research could compare different groups of
women, for example, different racial and/or
ethnic groups. In short, relations between
well-being and involvement in social roles
may vary not only for different roles and
different measures of well-being but for differ-
ent groups of women.
Understanding how working mothers
choose to remain fully involved in their
careers and cope with the competing
demands of their multiple roles should be
considered as a research priority. Investigation
is needed to discover how working mothers
integrate, organize and balance the various
problems and activities in their different roles
simultaneously.
Future research should address attitudes
towards employment (having to work versus
working by choice) and the amount of expo-
sure (full-time versus part-time work). Fur-
thermore, the whole area of work-family
overlap needs to be more carefully conceptu-
alized and precisely measured. Sex role atti-
tudes and the distribution of responsibility as
well as tasks among family members regard-
ing housework, child care, and related family
functions, need to be measured. Also the
questionnaire could be modified by including
several details, such as professional vs non-
professional women; paid help at home; socio
economic status; as these may affect the
differences.
The trends in the participation of women
in the workforce indicate that work outside
the home will be an increasingly important
part of the lives of women. One cannot con-
clude at this stage of research that the increas-
ing workforce participation of women will not
lead to increased stress-related illnesses
among women. More research is needed
specifying the complex interrelationships
among job conditions, individual responses
and role responsibilities outside of work in the
genesis of stress and stress-related illness.
One of the main limitations of the study
was that there was an over-representation of
working mothers and an under-representation
of non-working mothers. This may have
affected the results and therefore they had to
be taken with caution. However, it could be
suggested that these statistics may be an
indicator and further evidence of the
 Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study
Usha R. Rout, Cary L. Cooper and Helen Kerslake
increased numbers of mothers who are now in
the labour force and the decline of mothers
who stay at home. As this is a pilot study and
based on a small sample within the north-west
region, no firm conclusions could be drawn.
Another limitation of the study is that the data
collected were self-reported and the non-
responders might be under more pressure
than the responders or vice versa.
The limitation of this study and similar
studies is that although the results suggest that
working mothers have better health than the
non-working mothers, it is difficult to know
the relative importance of social causation
(“roles influence health”) and social selection
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(“health influences roles”). This is not yet
known. To unravel their impact longitudinal
data are needed that measure both health and
roles over time.
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