Self-help Articles

by Neala S. Schwartzberg, Ph.D. & Rita Scher Dytell, Ph.D.

In dual-earner families, mothers' and fathers' stress is caused more by the separate pressures of their job and family roles than by any conflict that arises from the demands of having both job and home responsibilities and interference.

As men and women take on increasingly similar levels of responsibility at work and within the home, their perception of
work stress, family stress and their level of psychological well-being also become more similar. In this unique study, Drs. Schwartzberg and Dytell looked specifically at how self-esteem and depression in dual-earner mothers and fathers were affected by both work stress and family stress, as well as by job-family interference.

The authors found that both parents derive self-esteem from their accomplishments at work rather than accomplishments at home, while their emotional state of happiness or depression is obtained from the relationships they have within the family.

The study did not find any support for the idea that men's sense of well-being is defined by their work experiences while women's well-being is defined by their experiences within the family. This finding could offset the widely held belief that men's well-spring for good feelings comes primarily fromwork accomplishments than women's, and similarly, that women's source of good feelings come more from home accomplishments that from work.

As women compete with men in the workplace, they are finding their sense of well-being is related to the workplace rather than home.

However, while family and work may hold equal importance for working mothers and working fathers, the two spheres may hold not only differing but also surprising importance for self-esteem and depression.

Interestingly, this study concluded that the change is even more widespread than previously imagined. Work stress was suggested by this study to be more important in determining the self-esteem of mothers rather than fathers. Even more surprisingly, family stress appeared to be more important in determining depression for fathers than mothers.

Overall, the family stressors resulting in depression were different for mothers and fathers; dual-earner fathers reported depression due to lack of spousal support or family role insignificance, whereas dual-earner mothers were sensitive to a lack of task sharing at home.

These findings are consistent with previous studies indicating that working fathers seem more attuned to their emotional relationship with their spouses, whereas working mothers seem more attuned to the amount of actual assistance they receive around the house.Over time, fathers are increasingly becoming more senstive to emotions, and mothers are becoming more focused on the practicalities of who is going to get things done at home. These shifts signal an important merger and acceptance of the need for both parents to work as a unit, sharing emotional as well as practical responsibilities for the family.

Reference:

“Dual-Earner Families: The Importance of Work Stress and Family Stress for Psychological Well-Being” by Neala S. Schwartzberg, Ph.D. & Rita Scher Dytell, Ph.D.; in Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Volume 1, Number 2, pp. 211-223.

This information received from the American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC.