Originally published January 12 2006
Research examines the stressful effects of bringing your work home
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The journal Developmental Psychobiology has published a study that finds low job satisfaction in mothers leads to higher levels of stress in their children.
Low job satisfaction in working mothers increases the stress levels of their children, but allowing them to spend more time in childcare can help overcome these effects, according to new research published in Developmental Psychobiology.
Children whose mothers found their jobs emotionally exhausting or otherwise less rewarding had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol than children whose mothers reported more enjoyment from their jobs, researchers found in a study involving more than 50 nursery school children.
Greater support is needed for working mothers to help improve their job satisfaction and increase the availability of affordable childcare options, says the report.
To measure cortisol levels, they took saliva samples in the morning and evening from 56 children aged three to four years old.
They also surveyed mothers about their workplace conditions and home life over a six month period.
"Spending more time in childcare makes a big difference to the stress levels in children whose mothers have low job satisfaction," says Dr. Turner-Cobb.
Ensuring that mothers of young children have good support in the workplace is essential for supporting both mothers and their children," she adds.
"Improving the job satisfaction of working mothers means that they are less stressed themselves," says Dr. Jessop, "and extending the availability of affordable and adequate childcare may not only improve the quality of life for the mothers but, in doing so, may improve the long term health of their children."
Cortisol secretion increases in response to stress experience, whether physical -- such as illness, trauma, surgery or temperature extremes -- or psychological.
It is important to promote healthy adaptation to stress in children, and good quality childcare is one way of doing this, say the authors.
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