No abstract

Introduction: Most Western women work during their reproductive years, but past research has often neglected the influence of work-related factors on postpartum health. Especially postpartum depression (PPD) puts an enormous psychological burden on mothers. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the prospective impact of precarious working conditions and psychosocial work stress (such as work-privacy conflict and effort-reward imbalance at the job) during pregnancy on symptoms of maternal PPD. Methods: In the prospective-longitudinal cohort study DREAM ( DR esdner Studie zu E lternschaft, A rbeit und M entaler Gesundheit), N = 587 employed women were questioned about their work during pregnancy and mental health 8 weeks after delivery. Results: Multiple regression analyses revealed that work-privacy conflict, low reward at work, and precarious working conditions significantly predicted symptoms of PPD, even when controlling for lifetime depression, anxiety, education, parity, and age. Conclusion: Our results indicate that psychosocial work stress and precarious working conditions have important implications for maternal peripartum mental health and might act as prospective risk factors for PPD even during the period of maternal leave. Hence, preventative measures targeting work life need to be investigated in more detail.

The recent rise in maternal workforce participation has led to more research regarding the role of maternal employment for (early) childhood mental health. This systematic review with meta-analysis covers new evidence on the association of both variables. A systematic literature search was conducted. Studies had to compare children 0–7 years of age on the basis of their mothers’ employment status, working amount, employment duration, i.e., how long the mother had been back at work after birth, or timing of return to work. Child mental health was operationalized as behavior problems and prosocial behavior. Narrative and meta-analytic syntheses of evidence were conducted. Maternal employment was associated with more conduct problems but less internalizing behavior problems and anxious/depressed behavior in children; full-time employment was linked to more externalizing behavior problems and more hyperactivity/inattention. Longer employment duration was related to less (internalizing) behavior problems and more prosocial behavior but also more externalizing behavior problems. Narrative syntheses indicated early maternal return to work to be associated with more child externalizing behavior problems and less prosocial behavior. Whether maternal employment is associated with child mental health strongly depends on both variables’ operationalization. Especially part-time employment, longer employment duration, and return to work only after the first year postpartum may be beneficial for child mental health. Practical implications pertain to an expanded offer of family leave and the endorsement of maternal employment after the first year postpartum. Here, factors that may buffer the negative associations with full-time employment warrant consideration.