MATERNITY LEAVE AND WOMEN'S MENTAL HEALTH

Psychology of Women Quurterly, 19 (1995), 257-285. Printed in the United States of America.

MATERNITY LEAVE AND WOMEN’S MENTAL HEALTH

Janet Shibley Hyde, Marjorie H. Klein, Marilyn 1. Essex, and Roseanne Clark University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health Study addresses an important policy issue, parental leave, by investigating the work status, maternity leave, and mental health of 570 women. In the longitudinal design, the women, all of whom were living with a husband or partner, were interviewed during the fifth month of pregnancy, 1 month postpartum, and 4 months postpartum. At 4 months postpartum, full-time workers, part-time workers, and homemakers did not differ in depression or anger, but full-time workers showed elevated anxiety compared with the other two groups. In multiple regression analyses, length of leave interacted significantly with marital concerns when predicting depression; women who took a short leave (6 weeks or less) and were high on marital concerns had the highest depression scores. Short maternity leave can be conceptualized as a risk factor that, when combined with other risk factors such as marital concerns, places women at greater risk for depression.

Employment has become the norm for women in the United States, even for those with preschool children or infants younger than 12 months of age. Among women with children under 18, 67% are in the labor force, and among women with children younger than 3 years of age, 55 % are in the labor force (U.S. Department of Labor, 1993). Reflecting this growing

This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. MH44340 to Janet Hyde and Marilyn Essex, with Marjorie Klein and Roseanne Clark. Developmental phases of this work were funded by the University of Wisconsin Graduate School and the Wisconsin Psychiatric Research Institute. Special thanks are extended to project staff, Will Shattuck, Laura Haugen, Nancy Smider, Francine Horton, and Ashby Plant and to the Wisconsin Survey Research Laboratory and its staff. Rosalind Barnett and Joseph Pleck were helpful consultants to the project in its early stages.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Janet Hyde, Department of Psychology, 1202 W. Johnson Street, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.

Bitnet: HYDEJS@WISCMACC.

Published by Cambridge University Press 0361-6843195 $7.50 + .lo 257

258 HYDE ET AL.

trend, psychologists and sociologists have investigated the consequences of maternal employment in several domains. One body of research has focused on the effects of maternal employment on children. Earlier studies examined the consequences for school-aged children (e.g. , Hoffman, 1974), and more recent studies have examined the consequences for pre- schoolers and infants (e.g., Crockenberg & Litman, 1991). A second body of research has focused on the consequences of women’s employment for the marriage (e.g., Spike, 1988). A third body of research has examined the consequences of maternal employment for the mother herself, particularly in terms of her physical health and mental health (Repetti, Mat- thews, & Waldron, 1989; Spike, 1988). The present article focuses on this last question, investigating the mental health of women 4 months postpartum and how it is related to their employment status, maternity leave, and the quality of their work and family roles. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between the length of women’s maternity leaves and their mental health. It is critical to provide social science evidence on this question in order to inform the rapidly growing body of family policy.

Maternity leave, or parental leave, is a relatively new concept in the United States. The term “maternity leave” refers to a work leave granted a woman at the time of the birth of a child, which generally extends for a period of time necessary for physical recovery from childbirth (Hyde & Essex, 1991). “Parental leave” may be used by either mothers or fathers, and refers more often to leave from work for purposes of childrearing. We use the term “maternity leave” here because it is more widely recognized than parental leave, and use it to refer to the entire leave a woman takes following the birth (i.e. , including both the period of physical recovery and any additional time for childrearing).

Theoretical Frameworks

Two different underlying models are found in research on women’s mental health, employment, and multiple roles: (a) the scarcity hypothesis (Bar- uch, Biener, & Barnett, 1987; Goode, 1974); and (b) the enhancement hypothesis (Baruch et al., 1987; Coser, 1991; Marks, 1977; Thoits, 1983).

According to the scarcity hypothesis, humans have a fixed amount of time and energy ( Goode, 1974). Adding a role therefore creates stress and overload, with negative psychological consequences. Thus a woman who has an infant (mother role) and then adds the work role is likely to feel increased stress, leading to depression or anxiety. An employed woman who has her first baby is adding the mother role to the employment role and is expected to experience stress and psychological distress.

In contrast, the enhancement hypothesis does not see human energy as

Maternity Leave and Mental Health 259

limited (Baruch et al., 1987; Marks, 1977; Thoits, 1983). Just as aerobic exercise, paradoxically, uses energy but makes the person feel more ener- getic, multiple roles may function to promote psychological well-being. According to the enhancement hypothesis, additional roles, rather than being a drain on energy, may create more potential sources of self-esteem, social support, social status, and social identity, all of which contribute to mental health. From a symbolic interactionist perspective, Thoits (1983) termed this view the “identity accumulation hypothesis,” arguing that the individual who possesses few social identities experiences social isolation, which increases the risk of anxiety and depression. Conversely, multiple social identities, enacted in role relationships, guide behavior and give meaning to it, thus reducing the risk of anxiety and depression. In yet another conceptualization of this view, Rosenfield (1989) argued that employment for women gives them more power within the family because of their earnings, and this enhanced sense of power in turn reduces symptoms of depression.

It may be, of course, that both underlying models have merit, although at first glance they seem to be in direct opposition to each other. For example, the scarcity hypothesis predicts that mothers of infants who add the employment role should feel role overload, stress, and therefore increased depression, whereas the enhancement hypothesis predicts that these same mothers should experience enhanced self-esteem and social support, and therefore less depression. It may be that employed mothers of infants experience overload and stress, but also enhanced self-esteem, social support, and power within the family so that, on balance, they do not differ from homemakers on an outcome measure such as depression.

In applying the scarcity and enhancement hypotheses specifically to women in the first 4 months postpartum, it is important to recognize that this is a unique period in a woman’s life. At 4 months postpartum, employed women must balance work and family roles, but they also are likely still to be in the process of physically recovering from childbirth (Tulman & Fawcett, 1991), to be concerned about finding adequate child care (Ross & Mirowsky, 1988), and so on. Combining work and family in this period is likely to be more stressful than at other times in a woman’s life, and therefore scarcity processes may predominate over enhancement processes. Because of these stresses, length of maternity leave is likely to be a critical factor, insofar as it allows more time for physical recovery, more time to arrange child care, more time to renegotiate division of labor with the husband, and so on.

Current research and theorizing framed by the enhancement hypothesis no longer focuses simply on the number of roles, but also on the quality of roles (e.g., Barnett, Marshall, Raudenbush, & Brennan, 1993). According to this view, a woman’s mental health at 4 months of postpartum is af- fected not only by whether she is employed, but by how rewarding or

260 HYDE ET AL.

stressful her job is, as well as how rewarding or stressful her relationship with her husband or partner is. Empirical research based on this model is reviewed in the following section.

Employment and Women’s Mental Health

Warr and Parry (1982), reviewing both British and American research through 1980, found no differences, in general, between employed women and homemakers, on measures of psychological distress and well-being. However, the authors cautioned that comparisons between employed and nonemployed women were oversimplified, and that a variety of other variables needed to be taken into account, including the quality of her nonoccupational environment (e. g., marital status and parental status), and, if she has a job, the quality of her work environment.

Repetti, Matthews, and Waldron (1989; see also Crosby, 1991), reviewing more recent studies, concluded that employment was associated with improved health for single women and married women who have a positive attitude toward employment. They noted that the effects were less consistent for mental health than for physical health. Several studies found employed women to be less depressed than nonemployed women (e.g., Aneshensel, 1986; Kandel, Davies, & Raveis, 1985), whereas there were no significant differences between the groups in other studies (e.g., Bar- uch & Barnett, 1986; Repetti & Crosby, 1984). In no studies were employed women more depressed than nonemployed women ( Repetti et al., 1989). In another review, Crosby (1991) concluded that women who juggle multiple roles are less depressed than other women.

Wethington and Kessler (1989) also used depression as the outcome measure, but examined changes in labor force participation over time in relation to psychological distress. They found that women who increased their work force participation - from homemaker (not employed or employed less than 10 hr per week) to part-time worker (employed 10-34 hr) to full-time worker (employed 35 or more hr) -showed lower levels of depression over the period of the longitudinal study.

When other measures of mental health are used, employed women again do not show deficits. For example, in a large, national sample, employed married women showed not only less depression, but also less anxiety and more positive self-esteem than nonemployed married women (Kessler & McRae, 1982).

The studies cited above generally looked at employed women as an aggregate and nonemployed women as an aggregate, not differentiating them according to factors such as marital status or parental status. Repetti et al. (1989) concluded, reviewing studies that examined interactions between work status and parental status, that the mental health effects of employment do not vary as a function of parental status. For example,


Kessler and McRae (1982) found that, although the presence of preschool children in the home was associated with psychological distress among women, employed women showed less distress than nonemployed women, and the effect remained even when number of children was controlled. More recently, Russo and Zierk (1992), using a large national sample, found that, after childbearing was controlled, women’s well-being was positively related to employment, although it was negatively related to total number of children.

There is a consensus among current researchers in the field that the relationship between employment status and mental health for women is not simple; rather, there is a complex set of moderator variables that must be taken into account. These include satisfaction in parental, marital, and work roles (Greenberger & ONeil, 1993), job-role quality and marital- role quality (Barnett et al., 1993), husband’s contribution to household tasks (Ross, Mirowsky, & Huber, 1983), and infant temperament (Mc- Bride & Belsky, 1988). Research indicates that it is not so much the husband’s actual contribution of hours to household labor, but rather the wife’s satisfaction with or perception of equity in the division of labor that is related to wives’ depression (Glass & Fujimoto, 1994). Women’s employment itself must be regarded as complex, having several facets including job satisfaction, hours worked, and flexibility of scheduling (Spike, 1988).

Evidence is rapidly accumulating regarding the importance of role quality in the relationship between employment and mental health. Green- berger and O’Neil ( 1993), in a study of men and women in dual-earner marriages and parenting a preschool child, found that satisfaction in the parental, marital, and work roles were particularly potent predictors of distress (depression and anxiety) for women. High levels of parental, marital, and work satisfaction were associated with low levels of depression and anxiety. Similarly, Barnett et al. (1993; see also Baruch & Barnett, 1986) found that job-role quality and marital-role quality were significantly associated with psychological distress (a measure combining symptoms of anxiety and of depression) for women in a sample of dual-earner couples. Higher role-quality scores were associated with lower symptom scores.

McBride and Belsky ( 1988) found that infant temperament (ratings of the infant’s adaptability) was a significant predictor of maternal separation anxiety, unadaptable infant temperament being associated with higher maternal separation anxiety. Unfortunately, McBride and Belsky did not examine interactions between work status and infant temperament. We take infant temperament to be an important aspect of parenting role quality.

All these studies point to the conclusion that role quality (including work-role quality, marital-role quality, and parental-role quality) is significantly related to measures of psychological distress in women, and may

262 HYDE ET AL.

moderate any relationship between work status and distress, or between maternity leave and distress.

Maternity Leave

As noted earlier, maternity leave and parental leave are relatively new concepts in the United States, and so there are few prior studies on this topic. Indeed, to our knowledge the present study is the first to investigate the relationship between maternity leave and mental health.

Bond, Galinsky, Lord, Staines, and Brown (1991) surveyed both em- ployers and employees regarding parental leave. They found, for example, that in states with parental leave legislation, 78% of mothers took some parental leave, and an additional 12.4 % quit work to be full-time mothers. Women took an average of 12 weeks of leave. However, no measures of mental health were collected in this study, making an investigation of the relationship between length of leave and mental health impossible. Joesch (1994) predicted the timing of women’s return to work following childbirth, using variables such as work status and family income. Again, however, mental health was not assessed.

Methodological Issues

As Barnett, Marshall, and Singer (1992; see also Spitze, 1988) have pointed out, the most common paradigm for research on the relationship between employment and women’s mental health has involved a cross- sectional comparison of differences between employed and nonemployed women. This research has two limitations: (a) it examines only role occu- pancy, not role quality; and (b) it does not examine mental health longitu- dinally. The current study addresses both limitations, by including role- quality variables and measures of prebirth psychological functioning.

Researchers who have investigated the relationship between work and women’s physical health have been concerned about the “healthy worker” effect - that healthier women are more likely to become employed and stay employed (Repetti et al., 1989; see also Crosby, 1991). Therefore, cross-sectional findings of better health among employed women may not be a result of the health benefits of work, but rather of the healthy worker effect. The same concern must be raised in research on employment and women’s mental health. The current research addresses this issue by pro- viding longitudinal data that permit one to control for baseline, prebirth levels of mental health.

An additional methodological concern arises from the finding that negative mood encourages negatively distorted perceptions of the environment (Bower, 1981; Gotlib, 1981; Gotlib & Cane, 1987). Applied to the current research question, a woman who is depressed may rate her marriage,


parenting, and work negatively as a result of the depressed mood, making it difficult to determine the direction of influence between psychological distress and role quality from a cross-sectional study. Again, the longitudinal nature of the current data set allows us to control for women’s prebirth levels of mood or psychological distress.

Previous studies of employment and mental health in women have generally used measures of depression, and a few have also included measures of anxiety. In the present study, we have also included a measure of anger in order to assess a broader spectrum of negative affect. Reviews by Berkowitz ( 1!N3), Lazarus (1991), and Spielberger (Spielberger, Krasner, & Solomon, 1988) suggested that anger may be related to frustration or threats to identity, and thus may be particularly relevant to some of the stresses experienced by mothers of infants who are trying to balance the demands of family and work roles. Anger is also recognized to be but one manifestation of the more general construct of negative affect, along with depression and anxiety (Berkowitz, 1993; Lazarus, 1991; Watson & Clark, 1992). Although some studies have failed to differentiate among these components of negative affect (e.g., Feldman, 1993), others have identified both common and specific sources of variance in measures of depression, anxiety, and anger (e.g. , Endler, Cox, Parker, & Bagby, 1992; Wat- son & Clark, 1992). Moreover, feminist theorists and feminist therapists have stressed that anger is an aspect of women’s affect that has long been overlooked, but must be addressed when considering women’s mental health (Lerner, 1988; Miller, 1983; Robins & Siegel, 1983; Worell & Remer, 1992).

THE CURRENT STUDY

Although many studies have investigated the effects of employment on women’s mental health, little is known about the effects of maternal employment on the mother in the first year after giving birth, and nothing is known about the effects of the timing of return to work (i.e., the effects of maternity leaves of various lengths).

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between work status and mental health, and length of maternity leave and women’s mental health at 4 months postpartum, while taking into account a variety of variables that may be important moderators of these relationships. These variables (marital-role quality, work-role quality, parenting- role quality) have been shown to be potent in prior research.

Framing hypotheses for outcomes of this study is difficult because (a) there are no prior studies on the length of maternity leave; and (b) studies of work status and women’s mental health have generally not examined women in the year following a birth. With these caveats in mind, our hypotheses were framed to reflect, in order: (a) the simplest version of the

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scarcity hypothesis; (b) the current version of the enhancement hypothesis, which takes into account role quality; and (c) special issues having to do with the first months postpartum, specifically the length of maternity leave. The hypotheses were as follows:

1. Following from the scarcity hypothesis, women who are employed at 4 months postpartum, and especially those employed full time, will show elevated symptoms of psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and anger) compared with homemakers. We expect these findings to contrast with those of other studies that found no differences or less distress among workers, because we believe that the first months after a birth are a time of increased stress arising from factors such as the transition to parenthood, the process of physical recovery from childbirth, and difficulties finding child care and feeling comfortable with it. Role overload is likely, and scarcity processes are likely to predominate at 4 months postpartum.

2. Based on the premise that enhancement processes and role quality are also important, enhancement variables (work rewards, marital rewards) and other role-quality variables (infant temperament, work concerns, marital concerns, occupational status) will significantly predict psychological distress for employed women at 4 months postpartum in multiple regression analyses, after scarcity variables (number of hours worked per week, number of children) have been taken into account. Consistent with Rosenfield's (1989) explanation of the enhancing effects of employment, we hypothesize that the percentage of family income contributed by the woman should negatively predict psychological distress.

3. In general, among women who are employed at 4 months postpartum, those who took longer maternity leaves will show less psychological distress than those who took shorter leaves, because longer leaves allow more time for physical recovery and psychological adjustment to the new baby, as well as time for the baby to become more regulated.

4. Related to the previous hypothesis, we also hypothesize that length of leave may not show a simple main effect, but rather will interact with variables such as the quality of the marriage, the quality of the parenting role, or the quality of the job. This hypothesis derives from research reviewed earlier showing that role quality is important in predicting women's psychological distress; moreover, a short leave may act to amplify any negative effects of poor role quality, which will be evident in a significant interaction.

METHODS

Participants

A total of 570 pregnant women, and 550 husbandslpartners of the women (all partners were men), were recruited for participation in the Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health (WMLH) Project. Approximately 78% of the sample was recruited in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Standard Metro-


politan Statistical Area (SMSA) through two independent obstetrics clinics and one hospital clinic, the last specializing in care for low-income women. The remaining 22% of the sample was recruited through clinics in the Madison, Wisconsin, SMSA. Two were clinics of a large health maintenance organization, two were clinics of the University’s hospital, and one was a hospital clinic serving a low-income population.

Female participants had to meet the following criteria for inclusion in the sample: (a) over the age of 18; (b) between weeks 12 and 21 of pregnancy (second trimester); (c) not disabled in a way that would significantly alter physical functioning as a parent (e.g., in a wheelchair); (d) living with the partner, although not necessarily married (our intention was to include fathers as an integral part of the study); (e) at least one member of the couple working for pay or profit; ( f ) not a student; (g) not self-reported as “unemployed; (h) have a telephone in order to set up appointments for interviews; (i) speak English well enough to understand the interviewer; and ( j ) be sufficiently literate to complete paper-and- pencil questionnaires.

All patients in the second trimester were identified daily by clinic staff, and a recruiter from the WMLH Project staff approached them individu- ally. Of those women eligible to participate, 75 % agreed to do so.

The average age of the mothers in the sample at the beginning of the study was 29 years, ranging between 20 and 43 years; 95 % of the mothers were married to the father. Regarding ethnic heritage, 93 % of the mothers (n = 530) were White (not of Hispanic origin); 2.6% (15) of the mothers were African American (not of Hispanic origin); 1.8% (10) of the mothers were Hispanic; 1.9% (11) of the mothers were Native Ameri- can; and 0.7 % (4) of the mothers were Asian American. ’

In regard to the mothers’ educational level, 1.8% had achieved less than a high school education; 15.4% graduated from high school; 9.6% received some technical training beyond high school; 19.8% had some college; 34.9% had earned a college degree; 7.5% received some education beyond the college degree; and an additional 10.9% had completed a masters, doctoral, or professional degree.

Household income, defined as the family’s total income before taxes, averaged $49,803 (median = $45,000, range $2,000-$200,000) per year at the beginning of the study; for the employed women, the mother’s average contribution to the total was $18,429. In 1991 (our first wave of data was collected in 1990 and 1991), the median income of married couple families in the United States with the wife in the paid labor force was $48,169 (U.S. Department of Labor, 1993). Therefore, our sample matches the national figure well.

At the time of the first interview, 81.5% of the women were employed. Of those women who were employed and whose husbands also partici- pated in the research, 97.5% had husbands who were employed at Time

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1. For 215 (38 % ) of the women, this was their first child, for 213 (37 % ) it was the second, for 108 (19 % ) the third, for 18 (3 % ) the fourth, and for 17 (3 % ) the fifth or later.

Procedure

Mothers were interviewed in their homes by a female interviewer on each of three occasions: (a) during the second trimester of pregnancy (Time 1); (b) 1 month after the birth (Time 2); and (c) 4 months after the birth (Time 3). In addition, mothers completed mail-out questionnaires at each of the interview times. The analyses reported here focus on Time 1 and Time 3 data. Participants for the study were recruited over a period of 15 months, so that the first wave of data collection extended from June 1990 through September 1991.

Of those 570 women who completed the Time 1 interview, 96.1 % completed the Time 2 interview; about half of this attrition was because of miscarriage or stillbirth. Of those who completed the Time 2 interview, 98.7% ( n = 541) completed the Time 3 interview.

Measures

The CES-D, which was designed for use in general population surveys (Radloff, 1977), was used to assess mothers’ self-reported symptoms of depression at Time 1 and Time 3. It consists of 20 items (e. g., “I felt that I could not shake off the blues even with help from my family or friends”). The respondent is asked to focus on the past week and rates the frequency of occurrence of each item on a scale from 0 (rarely M none of the time, less than 1 day) to 3 (most or all of the time, 5-7 days). The overall score is calculated by summing the ratings over 20 items.

Large-scale surveys of two communities have provided psychometric information (Radloff, 1977). Internal consistency measured by coefficient alpha ranges from .85 to .90 in various samples. Validity was indicated by significantly higher scores for a depressed patient group compared with a nonpatient group, and more patients at or above the cutoff of 16 (70 % vs. 21 % ). For the mothers in the WMLH sample at Time 3, alpha was .88.

The Time 3 depression scores are an important outcome measure in this study. Time 1 scores are used as a baseline measure, nonetheless recogniz- ing that the Time 1 interviews occurred during pregnancy. We chose the middle trimester as the time of least elevation in depression (e.g., Leifer, 1980). Pragmatic issues of sampling and recruiting participants made it impossible to obtain an earlier baseline measure before pregnancy.

Anxiety was measured at Time 1 and Time 3 by the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory, a 10-item instrument (short form; Spielberger, 1983). Items (e.g., I was tense) were rated on a scale from 1

Depression.

Anxiety and anger.


= not at all to 4 = very much. Therefore, high scores indicate high levels of anxiety. Respondents were asked to focus on their feelings during the previous week. Its validity and reliability are well established (Spiel- berger, 1983). For example, coefficient alpha, for a sample of working adults, was .93. Test-retest reliability for college students, over a 20-day interval, was low to moderate (.27), as would be expected for a state measure. For mothers in the WMLH Project at Time 3, reliability measured by coefficient alpha was .87.

Anger was measured at Time 1 and Time 3 using the Spielberger State Anger Inventory (Spielberger, Jacobs, Russell, 81 Crane, 1983), a 10-item instrument (short form). Items (e.g., I was furious; I felt irritated) were rated on a scale from 1 = not at all to 4 = u e y much. Therefore, high scores indicate high levels of anger. Respondents were again asked to focus on their feelings during the previous week. Coefficient alpha reliability for a sample of college students was .95 (Spielberger et al., 1983). For mothers in the WMLH Project at Time 3, reliability measured by coefficient alpha was .92.

Work status. At Time 3, mothers were asked whether they worked for pay or profit. If they responded yes, they were asked how many hours per week they worked and whether they worked primarily outside the home, at home, or both. Those who responded no were asked whether they were still on parental leave, a homemaker, a student, laid off or unemployed, or something else. For purposes of the analyses reported here, a woman was classified as a worker if she said that she worked for pay or profit, reported working 6 or more hr per week, and did her work exclusively or primarily outside the home. Women working less than 6 hr per week ( n = 7), students ( n = 2), women who were laid off or unemployed ( n = 3), and women still on maternity leave ( n = 39) were not included in the analyses. Women who worked for pay, but worked primarily at home ( n = 28, many of whom were home daycare providers) were also not included in the analyses for the following reasons: There were too few of them to examine them separately as a group, yet they did not clearly belong in the same category as women who worked primarily outside the home; women working at home do not face many of the issues-finding acceptable child care, separation from the infant - that women working outside the home do.

Occupational status. The Bose Index (Bose, 1985) was used to code occupational prestige. Women’s occupations at Time 1 were assigned seven-digit Census codes. The Bose Index uses the three-digit occupation code and assigns prestige values separately for each gender. The Bose scores of women in our sample ranged between 10 and 100.

Based on Rosenfields (1989) argument that women’s employment gives them more power

Woman’s income as percent of family income.

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within the family because of their income, we computed a variable that was the ratio of the woman’s reported annual income to the reported total family income at Time 1.

Job-role quality. Barnett and Marshall (1989) have developed a set of role-quality scales. We used the Job-Role Quality Scale, which measures both positive (rewards) and negative (concerns) aspects of the role. The Rewards scale consists of 23 items such as “When you think about your job right now, how rewarding is it because of the sense of accomplishment and competence you get from your job?” The Concerns scale consists of 25 items such as “When you think about your job right now, how concerned are you because you have too much to do?” Each item was rated on a scale from 1 = not at all to 4 = extremely. The individual’s score is the average of their scores on the items. High scores on the Rewards scale therefore indicate that the person perceives many rewards in the job, and high scores on the Concerns scale indicate that the person has many concerns about the job. Barnett and Marshall (1989) found a reliability measured by coefficient alpha of .88 for the Rewards scale and .89 for the Concerns scale. Test-retest reliability for the scales was .87 for Rewards and .81 for Concerns. For women in the WMLH Project at Time 3, coefficient alpha was .90 for Rewards and .89 for Concerns.

Znfant temperament. A scale assessing infant temperament was used to measure parenting-role quality, the Infant’s Distress to Limits Scale from the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ; Rothbart, 1981). The Dis- tress to Limits scale measures how “easy” or “difficult” the baby is; insofar as babies’ temperament has an impact on mothers, infant temperament is an important component of the mother’s experience of her parental role. The IBQ is a parental report questionnaire. It consists of 94 items, which fall into six scales: activity level; smiling and laughter; distress and latency to approach sudden or novel stimuli; distress to limitations; soothability; and duration of orienting.

The mother was asked to rate her baby’s behavior in the past week, for items such as “When being held, how often did the baby squirm, pull away, or kick?” on a scale from 1 = never to 7 = always, with 8 indicat- ing “does not apply.”

Rothbart (1981) administered the IBQ to 463 parents of 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month-olds. Internal consistency was computed for each scale, with coefficient alphas ranging from .67 to 3 5 , with a mean alpha of .78. Evidence of validity was indicated by significant correlations between the IBQ and home observations of infant temperament, particularly when the infant was 9 months old (Rothbart, 1986). For mothers in the WMLH Project at Time 3, coefficient alpha was .78 for the distress to limits scale, the scale used in the current analyses. High scores indicate high distress (i.e., a more difficult temperament).


The Partner Role Quality Scale was developed by Barnett and Marshall (1989) and is similar in conceptualization to the Job Role Quality Scale. The Partner Role Quality Scale measures both positive (rewards) and negative (concerns) aspects of the marital/partner relationship. The Rewards scale consists of 19 items, such as “When you think about your relationship right now, how rewarding is it because your partner appreciates you?” The Concerns scale consists of 22 items such as “When you think about your relationship right now, how concerned are you because your partner does not understand who you really are?” All items were rated on a scale from 1 = not at all to 4 = extremely. The rewards score is the average of the rewards items and the concerns score is the average of the concerns items.

Barnett and Marshall (1989) obtained a reliability, measured by coefficient alpha, of .93 for the rewards scale and .88 for the concerns scale. The test-retest reliability was .87 for rewards and .78 for concerns at a 1- to 3-month interval. For the WMLH sample, coefficient alpha was .93 for marital rewards and .93 for marital concerns.

We use the term “marital concerns” and “marital rewards” (rather than partner rewards and concerns) for the dimensions measured by these scales, reflecting the fact that 95% of our sample was married at the beginning of the study.

Based on the finding that it is the woman’s satisfaction with or perception of equity in household division of labor (rather than the actual hours contributed by the husband) that is associated with women’s depression (e.g., Glass & Fuji- moto, 1994; Steil, 1994), we used a single item to measure the woman’s perception of equity in the division of household labor between herself and her partner. The item asked “Overall, how would you describe the contribution your (husband/partner ) makes to household and family chores in the past month?” on a scale from 1 = much too little to 5 = much too much.

At the Time 3 interview, women were asked whether they had returned to work and, if they had, the date on which they had returned. Length of maternity leave was computed as the length of time from the baby’s birth to the mother’s return to work, in a metric of weeks. Prebirth maternity leave was therefore not included.

Partner-role quality.

Perceived equity in division of household labor.

Length of maternity leaue.

RESULTS

Simple descriptive statistics, including means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations of all variables,2 are shown in Table 1. Note especially the high correlations between Time 1 and Time 3 depression, and the same pattern for anxiety and anger. It should also be noted that this is

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Table 1

Bivariate correlations among variables

1

1. Depression T1 2. Depression T3 3. AnxietyT1 4. AnxietyT3 5. Anger T1 6. Anger T3 7. Mother’s age 8. Number of children 9. Infant temperament

10. Household labor 11. Marital rewards T3 12. Marital concerns T3 13. Job rewards T3 14. Job concerns T3 15. Work-family concerns 16. Work-family rewards 17. Mother’s percentage of

18. Bose occupation status 19. Hours worked per week 20. Length of leave Mean Standard deviation

family income

.57

.48

.46 -35 .42

- .04 - .03

.ll - . l l - .%

.30 - .%

.22

.10 - .04

.01 - .ll - .oo

.04 8.61 7.05

2 3

.32

.52 .48

.27 .SO

.47 .38 -.01 -.11 .oo -.01 .13 .15

-.24 -.05 -.32 -.26

.38 .30 -.33 -.21

.29 .20

.12 .14 -.07 .08

-.04 .04 -.07 -.09 -.04 -01 -.05 .02 6.05 19.09 6.12 5.16

4 5

.33

.59 .a -.02 -.11

.01 .09

.27 .16 -.14 -.12 -.37 -.28

.42 .31 -.24 -.lo

.32 .09

.24 .05

.05 .05

.oo -.02 -.02 -.14

.15 .02

18.16 15.90 4.98 5.45

.02 -.06

6

.oo

.10

.18 - .18 - .31

.40 - .19

.28

.14

.02

- .07 - .06

.08 -.16 16.01 5.21

7

.34

.03

.02 - .05 - .01

.16 - .07 - .13 - .02

- .07 .36

.07 31.75 4.35

- .05

8

.02

.02 - .02 .oo .03

-.lo -.16 -.13

- .38 - .04 -.14 - .22

.97 1.02

Note: See footnote 2 for an explanation of the n contributing to correlations. The maximum n was 570. at the .05 level of significance, or if it exceeds ,148 testing at the .01 level.

a relatively mentally healthy sample. For example, a score of 16 or greater on the CES-D scale is generally considered to be indicative of depression; the mean scores for women in the WMLH sample were 8.61 (SD = 7.05) at Time 1 and 6.05 (SD = 6.12) at Time 3.

In regard to length of maternity leave, 93 (27.0 % ) of the women took 6 weeks leave or less, 173 (50.1%) took between 7 and 11 weeks, and 79 (22.9 % ) took 12 or more weeks. Time 3 interviews were conducted between 15 and 18 weeks postpartum; women who were still on leave at the time of the interview are not included in the distribution, because their total length of leave was not known at the time of the Time 3 interview.

Work Status and Women’s Mental Health

To examine the first hypothesis, that women employed full-time (32 or more hr per week, n = 151) at 4 months postpartum would show elevated levels of psychological distress compared with women employed part time (between 6 and 31 hr per week, n = 141) and homemakers (n = 132), a


9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

- .15 -.22 .31

.20 -.38 -.69 -.05 .05 .31 -.21

.05 -.06 -.22 .38 -.41

.04 -.03 -.07 .13 -.I9 .52

.05 -.01 .06 -.05 .38 -.21 .51

.03 .02 -.06 .04 .05 $22 .36 .33

.ll .01 .02 - .03 .28 .01 .04 .09 .29 -.01 .LO -.02 .02 -.03 .29 .33 .ll .43 .09

.03 .10 .04 -.08 .03 .04 .03 -.01 .I1 .14 -.03 3.28 2.72 3.01 1.48 2.69 1.44 1.55 2.04 .33 52.15 29.70 8.49 .a .% .54 .45 .53 .35 .62 .98 .22 16.70 12.75 3.82

The minimum, for variables related to employment, was 316. For n = 300, r is significant if it exceeds .113 testing

$group MANCOVA was conducted, with Time 3 depression, anger, and anxiety as dependent measures. Time 1 levels of depression, anger, and anxiety were controlled (i.e., were covariates). There were significant differences among the groups, multivariate F(6, 834) = 3.87, p c .001. The univariate tests indicated that there were no differences among the groups in Time 3 depression when Time 1 depression was controlled, F( 2, 456) = 1.49. Neither were there significant differences among the groups in anger at Time 3 with Time 1 anger controlled, F(2, 428) = 1.08. There were significant differences among the groups in Time 3 anxiety, with Time 1 anxiety controlled, F( 2,428) = 4.31, p < .01. Women employed full time showed higher levels of anxiety (M = 18.95) than women employed part time (M = 17.61) and homemakers (M = 17.73).

Length of Leave and Employed Women’s Mental Health

Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine what factors, including length of maternity leave, predicted employed

2 72 HYDE ET AL.

women’s psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and anger) at Time 3, 4 months postpartum.3 These analyses address hypotheses 2, 3, and 4 stated previously. This set of analyses was longitudinal (i.e. , it controlled for Time 1 , baseline levels of depression, anxiety, and anger). All variables in these analyses were measured at Time 3, unless otherwise specified. In all analyses, mother’s age at the time of the first interview was controlled by entry as the first step. Then Time 1 depression (when predicting Time 3 depression), Time 1 anger (when predicting Time 3 anger), or Time 1 anxiety (when predicting Time 3 anxiety) was entered in the next step. In the following step, two variables were added, representing the simplest version of the scarcity hypothesis: number of hours worked per week, and number of children. According to the scarcity hypothesis, psychological distress should be elevated the greater the number of hours worked per week and the greater the number of children. In the next step, seven variables were added that represent the enhancement hypothesis and the importance of role quality: infant temperament, work rewards, work concerns, occupational status, marital rewards, marital concerns, mother’s percentage contribution of family income, and perception of equity in division of household labor. Finally, the last two steps added length of maternity leave and an interaction term reflecting an interaction between length of leave and, in turn, one of the other 10 variables.

Depression. The regression analysis predicting depression is shown in Table 2. After controlling for age, baseline level of depression was a strong predictor of Time 3 depression, multiple R = S76, adjusted R 2 = .327. In the next step, scarcity variables were added. These variables did not significantly increase R 2 , and neither variable, number of hours worked and number of children, was a significant predictor. In the next step, enhancement and role quality variables were added. These variables were significant, raising R to .655, and adjusted R 2 to .402, p < .001. Work rewards and perception of equity in household division of labor were the significant predictors. Higher depression scores were associated with lower levels of work rewards and less perceived equity in household division of labor, as expected. In the next step, length of maternity leave was added. It did not result in a significant change in R 2 . In the final step, the interaction of length of leave and marital concerns was added. It had a significant beta coefficient. The interaction term added significantly to R 2 , and the final multiple R was .666, adjusted R 2 = .412.

The interaction between length of leave and marital concerns is shown in Figure 1 and can be interpreted as follows: There was a strong positive association between marital concerns and depression for those taking short leaves (6 weeks). The combination of a short leave and greater marital concerns was associated with elevated depression scores.

In other hierarchical regression analyses predicting depression, the following interactions with length of leave were examined, placing them in turn as the last step in the equation: length of leave x hours worked per

Maternity Leave and Mental Health 273 Table 2

Longitudinal regression analysis examining length of leave and employed women’s depression

Independent Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Variables P P P P P

1. Time 1 depression .575*** .577*** .479*** .484*** .485 * * *

2. Scarcity variables Hrs worked/

Number of chil- week -.094 -.091 -.099 -.lo0

dren -.037 -.046 -.056 -.056 3. Enhancement

and role-quality variables Infant tempera-

ment -.026 -.026 -.009 Work rewards -.126* -.124* -.125* Work concerns ,076 .082 .096 Bose occupa-

tional status .039 .045 .052 Marital rewards -.121 -.121 -.121 Marital concerns .073 .065 .327 Mother’s per-

centage of

Equity house- family income -.068 -.059 -.065

hold division

4. Length of leave

5. LL x marital

of labor -.104* -.099 -.Of31

(LL) - .066 .337

concerns - .474* R .576*** .584*** .655*** .658*** .666** Adjusted R 2 .327*** .331*** .402*** .404*** .412*** R change .330*** .009 .088*** .004 .010*

~

Note: N = 266. Mother’s age was controlled in the analysis by entry as step 1. It produced a nonsignificantR = .MI.

p < .05: * * p < .01; * “ p < .001.

week; length of leave x number of children; length of leave x infant temperament; length of leave x work rewards; length of leave x work concerns; length of leave x marital rewards; length of leave x occupational status; length of leave x mother’s percentage of family income; and length of leave x perceived equity in division of household labor. The only one of these interactions that was significant was length of leave x work rewards, final multiple R = .665. This interaction is shown in the bottom portion of Figure 1. The relationship between work rewards

274 HYDE ET AL.

-1 ~ I

LOW High Marital Concerns

E .: 7.0

5.0

f

- - * - - 6 weeks leave

+ 12 weeks leave .. 0..

LOW High Work Rewards

RGURE 1. Time 3 depression as a function of the interaction between length of maternity leave and marital concerns (top graph) and the interaction between length of maternity leave and work rewards (bottom graph).

and depression was much stronger for those taking 6 weeks of leave than for those taking 12 weeks of leave. Specifically, the combination of a sense of that one’s job is unrewarding (low work rewards) and a short leave (6 weeks) is associated with the highest levels of depression.

A second set of hierarchical multiple regression analyses was conducted, predicting employed women’s anger scores at Time 3. The results are shown in Table 3. Again, mother’s age was controlled by entry as the first step. Time 1 anger was entered as the next step and was a significant predictor, R = .531, adjusted R2 = .277. Scarcity variables

Anger.

Maternity Leave and Mental Health

Table 3 275

Longitudinal regression analysis examining length of leave and employed women’s anger

Independent Model1 Model2 Model3 Model4 Model5 Variables P P P B P

1. Time 1 anger 2. Scarcity vari-

ables Hrs worked/

week Number of

children 3. Enhancement

and role-quality variables Infant tempera-

ment Work rewards Work concerns Bose occupa-

tional status Marital rewards Marital concerns Mother’s per-

centage of family income

Equity household division of labor

4. Length of leave

5. LL x workre- (LL)

wards R Adjusted R 2 R 2 change

.536*** .524*** .471*** .470*** .466***

.046 .024 .022 .017

.063 .065 .061 .067

.042 .043 ,053 - . lo2 - . lo1 -.330**

.151* .153* .165*

.038 .040 .024

.030 .030 .026

.133 .130 .120

-.074 -.071 -.067

-.019 -.017 - . O N

-.025 -.555*

.599 .531*** .536*** .604*** .604*** .613*** .277*** .276*** .335*** .333*** .341* * .282*** .005 .078*** .001 .010*

Note: N = 266. Mother’s age was controlled in the analysis by entry as step 1. It produced a nonsignificant R = .013.

p < .05; * * p < .01; * * * p < ,001.

did not add significantly to the regression equation. The enhancement and role quality variables increased R significantly to .604, adjusted R 2 = .335. Work concerns was the significant predictor. High anger scores were associated with higher scores on work concerns. Length of leave was not significant as a main effect. However, the interaction of length of leave and work rewards was significant, R = .613, adjusted R 2 = .341 (see Figure 2). The relationship between work rewards and anger is stronger for women taking shorter leaves than for women taking longer leaves. The

276

18.0-

17.0- a, w

16.0- 4

15.0-

HYDE ET AL.

---*--- 6 weeks leave

-t- 12 weeks leave

-. 1.

-..._ *.

-. *..-

0 *-.. -..*

/

FIGURE 2. Time 3 anger as a function of the interaction between length of maternity and work rewards.

combination of a short leave and an unrewarding job is associated with the highest levels of anger.

In additional regression analyses, the following variables were selected as the interaction term: length of leave x hours worked per week; length of leave x number of children; length of leave x distress to limits; length of leave x work concerns; length of leave x marital concerns; length of leave x marital rewards; length of leave x occupational status; length of leave x mother’s percentage of family income; and length of leave x perceived equity in division of household labor. None of these interactions were significant, except length of leave x mother’s percentage of family income. The nature of that interaction was as follows. Mothers who contributed a higher percentage of family income were less angry, but this relationship was stronger for those who took longer leaves; women who took a long leave and contributed a high percentage of family income showed the lowest levels of anger.

A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted, predicting employed women’s anxiety at Time 3, paralleling the analyses predicting depression and anger described above. The results are shown in Table 4. Time 1 level of anxiety was a strong predictor, R = ,473, adjusted R 2 = .218. Next, scarcity variables were added, but did not significantly increase the R 2, although number of hours worked per week was a significant predictor. More work hours were associated with higher levels of anxiety. This finding is consistent with the results of the MANCOVA comparing full-time workers, part-time workers, and homemakers, reported earlier. Next, role-quality variables were added and they brought multiple R to .597, adjusted R 2 = .326. Infant temperament, mother’s income as percent of family income, and work concerns were significant

Anxiety.

Maternity Leave and Mental Health

Table 4

Longitudinal regression analysis examining length of leave and employed

277

women’s anxiety

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Independent Variables P P B P

1. Time 1 anxiety 2. Scarcity variables

Hr worked/week Number of children

3. Enhancement and role- quality variables Infant temperament Work rewards Work concerns Bose occupation status Marital rewards Marital concerns Mother’s percentage of

family income Equity household division

of labor 4. Length of leave (LL)

R Adjusted R R ’ change

.477* * * .469 * * .343* * * .343**

,121’ .123* - ,038 - ,049

.161**

.136* - .023

- .010 -.121 .lo4

-.121*

.017

.473* * * .491* * * .597* * *

.218* * * .229*** .326* * *

.221* * * .017 .116* * *

.124* - .048

.161*’

.136* - .024

- .010 - .121 .lo4

- .122*

.017

.005

.597***

.324***

.om Note: N = 266. Mother’s age was controlled in the analysis by entry as step 1. It produced a nonsignificant R = .054. No interaction with length of leave was significant; therefore, that step is not shown. * p < .05; * * p < .01; * * * p < ,001.

predictors of anxiety. High levels of anxiety were associated with high levels of work concerns, an irritable infant, and mother’s income being a low percentage of family income. Length of maternity leave was not significant as a simple main effect, nor did it interact significantly with any of the other variables.

The Healthy Worker Effect

Although the Healthy Worker Effect discussed in the Introduction was not of primary interest in the current article, the data set does permit analyses relevant to this issue. The question is whether the lesser depression of employed mothers compared with homemaker mothers, found in many studies, is cause or effect of employment status. Are mothers less depressed because they are employed, or are less depressed women more likely to be employed? To address this issue, we selected women who were employed at Time 1, and then separated them into three groups as a function of their work status at Time 3: employed full time, employed part time, or

278 HYDE ET AL.

homemaker. A MANOVA then examined whether there were differences among these groups at the earlier interview (i.e., at Time 1). The results indicated that there were no significant differences between the groups, multivariate F(6, 676) = .70, n.s. Neither were there significant differences among the groups on any of the individual variables. That is, the women who became homemakers (n = 51) were no more depressed, anx- ious, or angry, than the women who remained employed (n = 151 for full time, n = 140 for part time).

DISCUSSION

This study investigated the mental health of women 4 months after the birth of a baby, in relation to work status and length of maternity leave, as well as a set of psychosocial factors expected to be moderators of these relationships. The results indicate that the relationship between work status, maternity leave, and mental health is complex: It differs for different measures of mental health, and both main effects and interactions are present.

Work Status

The answer to the question of whether women employed at 4 months postpartum show more or less psychological distress than homemakers is complex. First, it depends on the measure of distress. There were no differences between employed women and homemakers for depression or anger, but there were differences for anxiety. Second, the data indicate that there is a meaningful distinction between full-time and part-time employment. Women employed full time showed elevated levels of anxiety compared with women employed part time and homemakers.

Our findings of no differences in depression between employed women and homemakers are consistent with other studies (e.g., Baruch & Bar- nett, 1986; Repetti & Crosby, 1984). Our research provides new data on this phenomenon by looking at women at a different stage of the life course - 4 months postpartum -than other studies have.

Our finding of elevated anxiety among full-time employed women con- trasts with the findings of Kessler and McRae (1982) for anxiety; however, several factors differ between the studies. Kessler and McRae combined part-time and full-time workers, and they looked at employed married women in general, not specifically women 4 months after a birth. It seems likely that any stressful aspects of combining multiple roles would be heightened during this unique period, compared with, for example, mothers whose children are school-aged.

In summary, our findings provide partial support for the first hypothesis. Women employed full time showed elevated levels of psychological

Maternity leave and Mental Health 279

distress on the anxiety measure, but did not show elevated levels of depression or anger.

The Scarcity Hypothesis and the Enhancement Hypothesis

As noted earlier, the scarcity hypothesis asserts that additional roles should create psychological distress, whereas the enhancement hypothesis argues that multiple roles should reduce psychological distress, and, in its current version, that role quality is important as well. Which hypothesis is more consistent with the data from the current study?

In regard to depression among women with a 4-month-old infant, the results of the MANOVA indicated that the addition of the worker role appeared to have no effect. This may indicate that both enhancement and scarcity processes are operating and balance each other. That is, employed women may experience more stress from the additional role, but also more social support, self-esteem, and power within the family. On balance, then, employed women do not differ from homemakers in depression 4 months after the birth.

The MANOVA findings for anxiety are consistent with the scarcity hypothesis and the notion that adding the work role - at least for women 4 months postpartum, and for full-time work- increases anxiety. It may be that the beneficial effects of employment, such as increased opportunities for social support and enhanced self-esteem, act to reduce depression, but are not effective in reducing anxiety. In addition, anxiety may be a more sensitive indicator of stress associated with poor working conditions or overload from multiple responsibilities.

The multiple regression analyses examined the predictions of the scarcity and enhancement hypotheses in more complex ways. The scarcity variables generally were not powerful predictors. Number of children was not a significant predictor in any analysis; number of hours worked per week was not significant in predicting depression or anger. However, hours worked per week significantly predicted anxiety, consistent with the MANOVA results. There is evidence, then, that hours of work per week, at 4 months postpartum, contributes to role overload and anxiety.

Enhancement and role quality variables contributed significantly to R in predicting depression, anxiety, and anger. Work rewards predicted, negatively, depression; and work rewards interacted significantly with length of leave in predicting depression and anger. Marital concerns interacted significantly with length of leave in predicting depression. The woman’s percentage of family income (which we used as a measure of the enhanced power a woman has in the family as a result of the income she contributes from working) interacted significantly with length of leave in predicting anger. Infant temperament, reflecting quality of the parenting role, predicted anxiety. Role quality emerged as an important factor in this study as in previous ones.

280

Maternity Leave HYDE ET AL.

Of primary interest in this study was the length of maternity leave and its relation to women’s mental health. The findings on length of leave are, again, complex rather than simple. Length of leave did not show simple main effects, but rather showed significant interactions. For example, in regard to depression, length of leave interacted significantly with marital concerns.

The results, then, indicate that length of maternity leave is related to women’s mental health at 4 months postpartum, but the relationship depends on the quality of work and family roles and the outcome measure used. For depression, marital-role quality was an important variable inter- acting with length of leave, and women who took short leaves and had poor-quality marriages were most vulnerable to depressive symptoms. This is consistent with other studies that have found associations between depression and marital conflict for women (e.g., Brown & Harris, 1978; Hops, Biglan, Sherman, Arthur, Friedman, & Osteen, 1987; Weissman & Paykel, 1974). Work rewards interacted significantly with length of leave in predicting both depression and anger, but not anxiety. And mother’s percentage of family income had an interactive effect for anger, but not for depression or anxiety.

The results provided support for the interaction hypothesis regarding length of leave. Length of leave, as a predictor of psychological distress, did not show main effects but rather showed interaction effects.

Role Quality

As Baruch and Barnett (1986) pointed out, too much research on the effect of employment on women’s mental health has focused on role occu- pancy, ignoring role quality. The results of the current research provide ample evidence of the importance of role quality. In the multiple regression analyses, the role-quality variables were significant predictors of depression, anger, and anxiety. Marital-, parenting-, and work-role quality all had effects in various analyses. The longitudinal nature of the data set and our ability to control for baseline levels of depression, anger, and anxiety, lends greater support to the claim that role quality influences psychological distress.

It must be said that the best predictor of Time 3 depression is Time 1 depression. The same is true for anxiety and anger. The very power of these predictions over time in some sense reduces the potential for the role quality variables to have an effect in the analyses presented in Tables 2,3, and 4. We repeated, for example, the multiple regression shown in Table 2, predicting depression, but omitting Time 1 depression. With the interaction of length of leave x marital concerns in the equation, R = .495,

Maternity leave and Mental Health 281

p < .001. Scarcity variables were not significant, but enhancement and other role-quality variables were significant and built a model with good predictive power. This cross-sectional analysis is similar to many reported in other studies. However, it is vulnerable to the criticism raised in the introduction, that negative affect may color other ratings, such as of the quality of the marriage, when the ratings are done concurrently. This criticism is addressed by our longitudinal analyses. What is perhaps most impressive is that role-quality variables still are significant even with Time 1 depression, anxiety, and anger controlled.

Psychological Distress: Depression Versus Anger Versus Anxiety

The three outcome measures - depression, anger, and anxiety- showed quite different patterns of results. In comparisons of homemakers, part- time, and full-time workers, there were no significant differences for depression or anger, but there were for anxiety. In the multiple regression analyses, different factors were important in predicating the different outcome measures. Although the correlations among these measures of negative affect were moderately high in this sample (Time 3 correlations between depression, anxiety, and anger ranged between .47 and .59-see Table l), the fact that we found distinct predictors of these outcome variables supports the view that these different forms of psychological distress may also be associated with different sources of stress.

These findings point to the importance of looking at distinct aspects of psychological distress, such as depression, anxiety, and anger, in research on women and employment, rather than focusing exclusively on depression, or using a global measure of negative affect.

Implications for Policy

A debate regarding parental leave legislation has raged over the last several years. Congress passed parental leave legislation several times, only to have it vetoed by thenpresident Bush. President Clinton signed the Fam- ily and Medical Leave Act in January 1993. It went into effect in August, 1993, and provides for up to 12 weeks of job-guaranteed parental leave for mothers or fathers at the time of birth or adoption.

Social scientists’ expert testimony on the bill, as well as their scholarly publications (e.g., Zigler & Frank, 1988; Zigler & Muenchow, 1983) have focused on the needs of infants and the importance of having a parental leave policy that addresses those needs. Missing from the debate has been a consideration of the psychological needs of mothers and a parental leave policy that addresses them. Our data show that short leaves (e.g., 6 weeks or less) when combined with other risk factors such as a poor marriage or an unrewarding job, place women at greater risk for depression and anger.

282 HYDE ET AL.

We argue that a short maternity leave is a risk factor for psychological distress when combined with other risk factors.

The results showing elevated levels of anxiety in women employed full- time point to the importance of workplace policies that allow part-time work, job sharing, and gradual return to work for women in the year after a birth. Part-time work appears to avoid the pile-up of demands (Lavee, McCubbin, & Olson, 1987) that may occur when full-time employment is combined with being a parent to an infant. Changes are needed in the family as well, such as a more equitable division of household labor between partners (Steil, 1994).

One limitation of the present study should be noted, particularly when considering its implications for policy. Single mothers - or, more precisely, mothers not living with a husband or partner - were not included in this study. It seems likely that stress and scarcity processes would be even more acute for this group, making options for a longer parental leave even more important.

CONCLUSION

The current study provides new data on the mental health of women 4 months postpartum, in relation to their work status, length of maternity leave, and significant moderator variables. Short leave can be conceptualized as a risk factor that, when combined with other risk factors such as marital concerns, is related to elevated levels of depression. In this contin- uing longitudinal study, we will investigate whether the effects of length of leave and the pattern of results for full-time workers are transient or are still present 12 months after the birth.

First draft received: October 12, 1994 Final draft received: December 27,1994

NOTES

1. We made special efforts to recruit a sample that was ethnically and socioeconomically diverse, yet only 7% of the final sample consisted of ethnic minority women. Analysis of our recruiting data indicated that this was a result primarily of one criterion for participation, that the mother be married to or living with the baby’s father at the time of entry into the study. This criterion was stipulated to ensure that fathers were full participants in the study, so that this research would not contribute to beliefs that parental leave and balancing work and family are just women’s issues. In addition, a study of single mothers was beyond the scope and budget of the project. Nonetheless, a much larger percentage of African American women, compared with white women, reported not living with the baby’s father when they were recruited, and therefore were ineligible to be in the sample.

2. Numbers of persons on which the correlations in Table 1 are based fluctuate. This occurred for the following reasons. A total of 570 women mmpleted the Time 1 home interview. However, some of them neglected to fiU out the Time 1 mail-out questionnaire. Therefore, variables in that questionnaire (e.g., marital rewards, marital concerns) have a reduced

Maternity Leave and Mental Health 283 n. Of the 570 women who completed the Time 1 interview, 541 completed the Time 3 interview. Any varjables in the Time 3 interview therefore have a maximum n of 541. Again, not all 541 women completed the Time 3 mail-out questionnaire, so n is further reduced for scales contained in it (e.g., infant temperament, marital rewards, marital concerns, anxiety, anger). Some scales (e.g., work rewards, work concerns) were completed only by women who were employed at the time of the interview, reducing n for computations involving those scales. Finally, in a few cases women neglected to complete or refused a few items on a scale, so that a scale score could not be computed for them.

3. Women were included in these regression analyses if, at Time 3, they worked exclusively or primarily outside the home and worked 6 or more hours per week.

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