Running a household and being a parent to children can take a toll on some people because there are so many other variables an adult has to do on the daily. The purpose of this paper, according to the author, was to examine how the mental health benefits of employment change as individuals age through their prime employment and child- rearing years. The study collected data from 8,931 individuals whom are in their late 20’s to mid 50’s.
The results from the data collected suggested that among women, the aging of children is especially related for shaping the mental health consequences of employment. Having a child has such a larger effect on women than men because not only do they have to bear a child for nine months, following that a woman can have issues with their emotions, weight, and often are away from the work place for quite some time. While all this is going on, men are able to continue their day to day life after their child is born. Children can affect the mental health and employment for women, as for men it was found that the aging of men themselves, not children alters the magnitude of full-time employment and mental health.
There are many factors that can be beneficial in the work place. It is said that mental life improves up to midlife, because of the increased prevalence of employment, especially for men. A theoretical argument made in the article was that paid work becomes increasingly beneficial to mental health as people age toward midlife. This does not serve for everyone. Past empirical findings show that for parents, the accrual of mental health rewards from employment may be complicated by the demands of child rearing. A couple may both be succeeding in the workplace but once a child is brought into the equation it may flip their lives upside down. Young children are demanding of time and energy which is what limit a parents’ health benefits from their employment they used to receive. Children of young ages can impact parents work as their mind is scattered with all of the things they have to do.
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This can take some time for adjustment as it is different having to care for an individual that is unable to take care of themselves. Having said, as the child becomes older and independent, mental health benefits of employment can increase again. It can increase through two processes: increased job rewards as individuals age and decreased child-rearing demands as children get older. Typically, the one affected the most is the woman. Males can still continue to receive mental health benefits from work and go on with their lives, as for women it can change for them because women are usually the ones to take maternal leave and stay home with the child. This completely eliminates the mental health benefits of employment she once may have experienced.
There are many hypotheses concluded in this article. To test the hypotheses, the author included many variables and surveyed a total of 8,931 people. The variables taken into account were Relationship status, logged family income, race, gender, age, full time or part time employment, logged CES- D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), and the age of their children, if applicable.
The first hypothesis tested to see if employment will be more beneficial for mental health as individuals age toward midlife. Model two adds interaction terms for age and employment, testing hypothesis one. The data concluded supported hypothesis one by showing that the association with full time employment with good mental health becomes stronger as men approach midlife. Hypothesis two was seeking to see is the benefit of employment will increase with individuals’ own age for men more than for women. This was found to be true for women, none of the employment and age interactions improved model fit. Hypothesis three was questioning whether the aging of children contributes to increases in the benefit of employment as individuals age.
Model three tested this hypothesis for the presence of age and children, the findings indicated that the aging of children does not contribute to changes in the mental health effect of employment with age. Hypothesis four states the presence of young children will reduce the mental health benefit of employment more than the presence of older children. Hypothesis five states that young children will diminish the mental health benefit of employment for women more than for men. The models tested both of these hypotheses, addressing how the effects of combining employment and children vary as children age.
For men, the interactions for employment and younger children are not significant, it becomes significant once their child becomes a teen. As for women, their results supported hypothesis four, this is due to the fact that when their child is an infant, their time at work decreases and their time at home increases. This takes away from the mental health benefits they once received at work before their child. The statistical method used in this study was regression. The important variables accounted for were gender, children, and mental health in relation to employment. By using regression this allowed the hypotheses to be measured within relation between the mean value of one variable and corresponding values of other variables.
This study suggests that parenthood remains central to women’s life course because the mental health benefit of employment is interrupted by children. Though men’s mental health gains from full- time employment increase as they themselves age, women’s gains increase as children grow older. Once the child grows older, the woman is able to go back to work and receive those benefits again. The author concluded that young children do not diminish the mental health benefits of employment for men. The benefits for men increase as they approach midlife as for women, their employment is more beneficial at a younger age and do not increase as they approach midlife. The findings suggest the timing of work and family roles within the life course shapes mental health in ways not captured by the timing of role transitions and illustrate the productivity of greater attention to the meaning of time within the life course.
