Study: Working Moms Healthier Than Their Stay-At-Home Counterparts

6:45 pm, August 20th | by Amy Tennery

Is a working mom a healthier mom? According to one new report, yes.

Despite the many doomsday studies that claim your stressful office is definitely killing you, as we speak, a new study suggests mothers who work full-time may actually be healthier — mentally and physically — than their non-working counterparts.

The University of Akron and Penn State study (which HealthDay first reported on), shows that moms who work full-time suffer from depression less and even report higher energy levels than stay-at-home mothers.

The report followed women who had their first child between 1978 to 1995, and showed that women “with interrupted employment face more job-related barriers than other women, or cumulative disadvantages over time.”

Of course, if you want to be a stay-at-home mom (and you’re fortunate enough to afford it) it’s not like you’re automatically doomed to a low-energy, depression-riddled life — that’d be taking this report to too great an extreme. But what the study puts to rest (making it particularly valuable) is the stereotype of the endlessly striving, endlessly harried career mom. She’s the Sisyphus in the skirt suit, who just can seem to ever “have it all” — or strike a kind of happy equilibrium between work and home life. And just maybe she’s a myth.

Work can make you happier, even less mentally anguished? Could be.

TAGS: working moms | working moms stress