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The family life cycle: a forgotten variable in the study of women's employment and well-being

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Catherine E. Haw
Catherine E. Haw*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Catherine E. Haw, Department of Clinical Psychology, Hackney Hospital, Homerton High Street, London E9 6BE.
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Synopsis

One hundred and sixteen working-class housewives, part-time and full-time employees were compared on a range of well-being measures in three different lifestages. A group of factory employees was contrasted with a ‘mixed occupation’ group for a comparison of type of employment. The general contention that the association between employment and well-being would vary with position in the life cycle was confirmed for distress, physical illness and some of the satisfaction measures. Only one measure (personal competence) suggested that employment had a positive influence on well-being irrespective of lifestage. Young employees working for longer hours and older housewives were both defined as ‘cases’ by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). However, their profiles on the other well-being variables were very different.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , July 1995 , pp. 727 - 738
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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