After the Baby: Work‐Family Conflict and Working Mothers' Psychological Health

2009/09/24 by Nancy L. Marshall, Allison J. Tracy · 52 citations
Social Sciences · Health Professions · Psychology · #Work-Family Balance Challenges #Employment and Welfare Studies #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Psychology #Family conflict #Depressive symptoms #Work–family conflict #Clinical psychology #Developmental psychology #Work (physics) #Psychiatry #Anxiety

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2009.00560.x

published in Family Relations 58(4), 380-391 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2009/09/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/18

Abstract

This study examines work and family characteristics and depressive symptomatology among over 700 working mothers of infants. Working mothers in poorer quality jobs, as well as working mothers who were single or whose infant's health was poorer than that of other infants, reported greater depressive symptomatology. The effect of job quality on depressive symptomatology was mediated by work‐family conflict, whereas infant health and marital status had direct effects on depressive symptomatology.

Citations

• Ecological systems theory.
• Is Anyone Doing the Housework? Trends in the Gender Division of Household Labor
• The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.

Cited by

• Women's health [wikipedia]

Related

• Maternal Stress: The First 14 Months Postpartum
• Childrearing Stages and Work–Family Conflict: The Role of Job Demands and Resources
• Postpartum Depression: An Update
• Work–family conflict: A classed phenomenon?
• Disentangling the trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms and partnership problems in the transition to parenthood and their impact on child adjustment difficulties