Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between working mothers' stress level and two child characteristics, gender and temperament, in addition to the daily routines of the mothers, in an attempt to ascertain why working mothers are stressed. Studies of maternal employment have demonstrated that working mothers are exposed to the numerous, often conflicting roles of being a wife, a mother, and an employee (Apter, 1993, Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985; LeMesurier, 1995). These opposing roles usually result in role conflict or role overload, which in turn leads to stress (Greenhaus Br: Parasuraman, 1986). The reasons for the increased stress levels of working mothers, however have not been clearly identified. Gender and child temperament are two factors that may be linked to the stress working mother experiences (Alvarez, 1985; Hoffman, 1984). Furthermore, preliminary evidence suggests that it is possible that certain daily rituals of a working mother with a child in day care may be related to the elevated stress levels (LeMesurier, 1995). Fifty-seven parents of three-to five-year-old children in community and corporate day care centres in the greater metropolitan Montreal and Toronto areas participated in this study. Demographic information was obtained through telephone interviews along with information related to maternal employment. Level of parental stress was assessed (Abidin, 1986) and information about child temperament (Buss & Plomin, 1984) was obtained from parents and teachers. Parents also completed the Going to Day care and Getting Home survey (Jacobs & Jiwa, 1996). Working mothers were not found to be highly stressed and no differences were found between the parenting stress levels of mother of boys and mothers of girls.