Employment, sense of well-being, and use of professional services among women.

Abstract

Utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1971 -1975, comparisons were made of general well-being scores and utilization of professional services between employed and non-employed women. Employed women tend to have a higher sense of well-being and utilize fewer professional services to cope with personal and mental health problems than their non-employed counterparts. This tendency is more pronounced among non-married and less-educated women, with an indication of a counter-tendency among college-educated non-White women. (Am J Public Health 1983; 73:908-911.) IntroductionIn recent years, considerable attention has been given to women's changing work role and health status;1-5 nevertheless, evidence for the impact of employment on women's health is uneven. In general, the employed seem to enjoy better mental health than the nonemployed,5-7 yet the workplace and home may pose conflicting demands and expectations." Many previous studies have been restricted to small samples of select persons in certain areas and offer limited generalizability to heterogenous populations and varying circumstances. The purpose of this study, based on a national probability sample, is to determine the net effect of women's employment on their sense of well-being and utilization of professional services.

Young Adults, Mortality, and Employment

“…In fact, being employed has been shown to be an indicator of overall, particularly psychological, well-being. 25, 26 Thus, there may be a cluster of positive characteristics that certain young adults have, including being employed and not engaging in risky activities that increase mortality risk. These hypotheses need to be studied to truly understand the mechanisms behind the protective effect of working on mortality risk.…”

Stress on and off the job as related to sex and occupational status in white‐collar workers

“…A series of epidemiological investigations (e.g. Baruch, Biener, and Barnett, 1987;Graves and Thomas, 1985;Waldron, Herold, Dunn and Staum, 1982;Wheeler, Lee and Hardy, 1983) failed to show enhanced health risks in employed women.…”

Untitled

“…Regarding sexual-risk behavior, among Latino and non-Latino populations, unmarried status has been identified as a correlate of consistent condom use (Harrison et al, 1996;Newcomb et al, 1998), along with higher levels of education (Harrison et al, 1996;Kelly et al, 1995;McCoy and Incardi, 1993;Potter and Anderson, 1993;Strathdee et al, 1998), and being employed (Harrison et al, 1996;McCoy and Incardi, 1993). Regarding current employment, when compared with women who do not work outside of the home, women with external employment appear healthier across numerous physical and psychological health parameters, including fewer sick and hospital days, fewer acute conditions, fewer limitations in activity resulting from chronic conditions, better self-reported health status, and better psychological well-being (Anson and Anson, 1987;Arber, 1991;Elliott and Huppert, 1991;Hibbard and Pope, 1985;Reviere and Eberstein, 1992;Rosenfeld, 1992;Wheeler et al, 1983). However, the relative salience of social support (e.g., from marriage) versus employment remains unknown with regard to HIV sexual-risk behavior, particularly among Latina women.…”

“…Furthermore, given the health-enhancing benefits of employment for women overall (Anson and Anson, 1987;Arber, 1991;Elliott and Huppert, 1991;Hibbard and Pope,1985;Reviere and Eberstein,1992;Rosenfeld, 1992;Wheeler et al, 1983), we hypothesize that current employment (e.g., via the socioeconomic benefits of working outside the home, an increase in available social support from fellow students, coworkers or supervisors, a sense of selfefficacy, or all of these, LaCroix and Haynes, 1987) will facilitate sexual protective behaviors, such as condom use. Moreover, we propose that employment will mediate the relationship between negative mood and condom use, such that heightened depressed mood may alter whether women access (participate in) current employment, which may then influence condom use.…”