Impact of Work Organization on Women’s Postpartum Health

Details

• Personal Author:
  Marshall NL
• Description:
  This research addressed the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) priority area of Work Environment and Workforce: Organization of Work. This award provided R03 funding for Dr. Marshall, an established investigator of employment and health, for secondary analysis of existing data to examine the relationship between the organization of work and women's postpartum health. Maternal employment rose dramatically over the second half of the 20th century. While employment has had positive effects for women and for their families, working mothers of young children continue to face specific health risks. Women are susceptible to the same health risks as men related to poor job quality and working long hours. However, women continue to spend more time than do men on housework and child care in the family, and face additional health risks associated with combining these family demands with employment. With more than half of all mothers of infants returning to work within the first three months postpartum, understanding women's postpartum health requires an examination of both family factors and work factors, as well as the work-family interface. This study examined work and family characteristics and depressive symptomatology among over 700 working mothers of infants, from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD), a prospective longitudinal study of 1,364 families from 10 sites around the United States. 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, while other work-family variables had direct effects on depressive symptomatology. While women who worked' longer hours reported greater workfamily conflict at both 6- and 15-months post-partum, hours worked were unrelated to levels of depressive symptomatology. Addressing the impact of these factors on working mothers' health requires action from a variety of directions. First, the trend of fathers' increasing time in parenting is positive; as men become more involved in the day-to-day family care and housework, the demands on working mothers should be lessened. However, change is also warranted in the workplace and in government policy. While some employers are increasing efforts to become more family-friendly, greater availability of paid sick leave for the care of sick children and other accommodations for working mothers of infants would likely reduce the stress of combining employment with caring for an infant. In addition, some families would benefit from access to paid parental leave. The current U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act is limited, providing only three months unpaid leave ("Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993," 1993). Changes in public and private parental leave policies that provided more time off and provided paid leave would also support the health of working mothers of infants. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Mental Health Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological Women
• Keywords:
  Age-groups Children Humans Psychological-effects Psychological-factors Psychological-reactions Psychological-stress Stress Work-capability Work-organization Worker-health Workers

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• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-15
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20039942
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2012-102036
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R03-OH-008351, 2008 Nov; :1-15
• Contact Point Address:
  Nancy L. Marshall, Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Women, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02131
• Email:
  nmarshal@wellesley.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• Performing Organization:
  Wellesley College
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050801
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20080731
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:87c2b852af6e201d014ea59e202f26f3357a3c5c60d4c197d8fb6b02aa67951be81f08779008880dc25ddb4a58eb2e502c7406033b07a4a63a5ade2928bdf5d5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218439/cdc_218439_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 306.95 KB ]