Working mothers and stress

This research was designed to assess, from the level of the individual family, the daily conditions and experiences of employed and single mothers. The data were also collected to assess the implications of these findings for children and for policies and practices relating to employment, families, and women. The sample consists of 545 families in metropolitan Toronto, stratified to include adequate numbers of single mothers, age representation of children, and use of various child-care arrangements. The main instrument of the survey was a time budget completed by each member of the family above age 10. Mothers completed surveys for all children under 10. The time budget required respondents to list in detail what they did on the day in question, activity by activity. Each entry includes mention of the time, nature of the activity, location, other people present, simultaneous activities also performed, and a subjective evaluation consisting of seven-point scales describing the degree of voluntariness and stress entailed by the activity. The participants also completed a mental health and happiness scale. The interviewer observed interactions in the family while the budgets were being completed. After the completion of the time budgets, the mother was administered a structured interview covering factual information about childcare arrangements and employment, and subjective questions covering time pressures, dilemmas of working mothers, sources of pressures, suggested solutions, and family responsibilities. Computer-accessible data are available.