Stay-at-Home Moms Are More Likely to Be Depressed
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Could staying at home with baby put you at higher risk for depression? A new Gallup poll suggests it could. For the poll, women from three different groups — stay-at-home moms, working moms and women without children — were asked questions about their own emotions and lives. Working moms reported similar rates of sadness and anger as women without children did, while stay-at-home moms has slightly higher levels of those emotions. The biggest difference, however, was in stay-at-home moms’ reported feelings of depression. 28 percent of them said they’d felt depressed, while only 17 percent of working moms and 17 percent of women without children did.
Those who seemed to have it worst were those with low incomes. When asked if they were struggling, the women with lower household incomes (under $35,000 per year) were most likely to say they were. The stay-at-home moms who were in the low income category were also less likely to say they smiled or laughed a lot, learned something interesting, experienced enjoyment or experienced happiness than the low-income working moms and low-income childless women did.
Do you work or stay at home? How do you think your employment status affects your happiness?
Plus, more from The Bump:
Checklist: Decide Whether to Work or Stay at Home
Back to Work Guide for New Moms
The Knot Blog
The Nest Blog
I am a stay at home mom and it would be so bad if I could just have my days with my son, but I sit for two other kids and I am unable to quit. My head hurts now every day, I am not cheerful like I use to be and all I want to dois sleep….. I want to say it’s because I’m prego but I think it’s something else…..
It *wouldn’t be so bad…..
I am a SAHM (of many) and don’t really see a “higher” rate of depression in SAHM’s. I think it all depends on your attitude as well. I know allot of SAHM’s and they don’t seem to have any of those “issues” at all, we just “buck-up” and get the job done! Their dh’s, as well as mine, don’t make much; but we survive. I have to honestly say that i don’t really agree with these findings at all. I would really challenge these findings.
I think it is all dependent on the kind of support that you have. I have SAH and worked FT. I prefer working for the most part. But a lot of that has to do with needing a social outlet and intellectual stimulation. When I SAH in big city and it was fine, there was plenty to do and plenty of other moms to hang out with. When we moved to a very rural, small town there was NOTHING – the nearest mom’s group was 3 towns over. Not having a single adult interaction most days was unbearable for me. I think it would be interesting to see if the poll took into account SAHMs who were members of mom groups versus those who felt alienated and isolated.
I didn’t have to worry about the finances at all, but I do think if I had the burden of having to budget every little thing and not going on vacations, etc, it would have been very hard for me to SAH even in the city.
I work 3 days a week and stay home with my daughter for 2. I was working 4 days a week and I was so depressed. So going back to 3 days – it is finacially going to be hard but I dont want my day care provider seeing my daughter more than me. Plus i will never get this time back. And I have worked full time since I was 16. I have none friends of mine that have stayed home with their children and now they are very depressed and it is also hard for them to get back into the workforce.