Council on Contemporary Families Releases New Research on Moms' Depression.
Study Includes a Win-Win Finding for Working Moms AND Stay-at-Home Moms
But Findings Pose a Challenge to Employers and Politicians

CONTACT: Virginia Rutter Framingham State University Sociology

vrutter@gmail.com; 508-626-4863

Neither side is right, according to a new briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families. The impact of working for pay or staying home on a woman's risk of depression depends on her preferences and on the quality of her job, the researchers find.

**Mothers who stay home because they want to have a relatively low risk of depression.

**But mothers who stay home when they would rather be working for pay face a heightened risk of depression.

**In fact, such women have the same risk of depression as mothers who want to stay home but have to work and end up in low-quality jobs.

The quality of the job has an independent effect on women's depression and can even trump a woman's preference.

**Mothers employed in low-quality jobs have more risk of depression even when they do want to work for pay.

**But mothers in high-quality jobs have a low risk of depression even if they do NOT want to work for pay.

**Since many women today work outside the home, regardless of preference, this finding has important policy implications, the researchers conclude.

The CCF briefing paper, by Rachel Gordon and Margaret Usdansky, is based on a study that will appear in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues in 2012. It focuses on mothers with children from birth through age three who were interviewed as part of The Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), conducted by the Eunice Shriver Kennedy National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Early Child Care Research The full report is available at http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/temporary/working-mothers-stay-at-home-mothers-and-depression-risk.html.

For more information, contact:

Margaret L. Usdansky, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Senior Research Associate with the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University. mlusdans@maxwell.syr.edu.

Rachel A. Gordon, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and faculty member of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) at the University of Illinois. ragordon@uic.edu.

Information on related topics:

• On how maternal depression affects children's well-being, contact Philip A. Cowan, Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley at pcowan@berkeley.edu Carolyn Pape Cowan Professor of Psychology Emerita at theUniversity of California, Berkeley at ccowan@berkeley.edu.
• On the higher risks of depression and low-self-esteem for homemakers in the 1950s and 1960s, and on continuing feelings of social isolation even for contemporary stay-at-home parents who prefer to stay home, contact Stephanie Coontz, Professor of History and Family Studies, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA. coontzs@msn.com; 360 556-9223
• On social policies that can make parents' lives easier, contact Professor Jennifer Glass, Dept. ofGender, Women's& Sexuality Studies and Dept. of Sociology, University of Iowa; phone: 319 621 6304, email: jennifer-glass@uiowa.edu
• On job quality, definitions of "good jobs" and how work conditions shape our private lives, contact Professor Naomi Gerstel, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; email: gerstel@sadri.umass.edu.
• On definitions of a "good job" and the changing access to "good jobs" in the United States, contact John Schmitt, Senior Economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research, at schmitt@cepr.net.

The Council on Contemporary Families is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of family researchers, mental health and social practitioners, and clinicians dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best practice findings about American families. Founded in 1996 and based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Council's mission is to enhance the national understanding of how and why contemporary families are changing, what needs and challenges they face, and how these needs can best be met. For more information, or to receive future briefing papers from the Council, contact Stephanie Coontz, Director of Research and Public Education of CCF and Professor of History and Family Studies at The Evergreen State College. coontzs@msn.com; 360 352-8117.

For further information on related topics:

-end-