Work and family stress: separate but equal for mom and dad

In dual-earner families, mothers' and fathers' stress is caused more by the separate pressures of their job and family roles than by any conflict that arises from the demands of having both job and home responsibilities (i.e., job-family interference). This is one of the findings of a new study by psychologists Neala S. Schwartzberg, PhD, and Rita Scher Dytell, PhD, published in the spring issue of APA's "Journal of Occupational Health Psychology".

As men and women take on increasingly similar levels of responsibility at work and within the home, their perception of work stress and family stress and their level of psychological well-being also become more similar. In their study, Schwartzberg and Dytell looked at how self-esteem and depression in dual-earner mothers and fathers were affected by both work stress and family stress, as well as by job-family interference.

The authors found that both parents derive self-esteem from their accomplishments at work rather than accomplishments at home, while their emotional state of happiness or depression is obtained from the relationships they have within the family.

The study did not find any support for the idea that men's sense of well-being is defined by their work experiences while women's well-being is defined by their experiences within the family. Moreover, while family and work may hold equal importance for working mothers and working fathers, the two spheres may differ in their importance for self-esteem and depression. Work stress was suggested by this study to be more important in determining the self-esteem of mothers than fathers, while family stress appeared to be more important in determining depression for fathers than mothers.

Overall, the family stressors resulting in depression were different for mothers and fathers; dual-earner fathers reported depression due to lack of spousal support or family role insignificance, whereas dual-earner mothers were sensitive to a lack of task sharing.

These findings are consistent with previous studies indicating that working fathers seem more attuned to their emotional relationship with their spouses, whereas working mothers seem more attuned to the amount of actual assistance they receive around the house.

Stress, depression and hormones are linked

Stress during childhood may predispose people to depression as adults by causing hyperactivity of a critical communication system in the brain, according to a recent study.

Studies have recently linked stressful childhood events, such as the death of a parent, sexual abuse or physical abuse, to an increased risk of adult depression. And other studies have long attributed some types of depression to hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis -- a complex network of hormones that allows the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands to communicate. A new study links these earlier findings.

In the study, researchers Charles Nemeroff, MD, PhD, Charlotte Ladd, and Michael Owens, PhD, of Emory University School of Medicine, exposed rat pups to stress by separating them from their mothers for six hours a day from age 6 days to 3 weeks. As adults, these rats overproduced a hormone called corticotropin- releasing factor (CRF), a major player in the HPA axis. They had twice as much CRF in their hypothalami as control rats, who were not stressed as pups.

CRF stimulates the pituitary to produce adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). ACTH in turn triggers the adrenal cortex to secrete hormones, such as cortisol, that prepare the body for stress by raising blood glucose levels and increasing heart rate.

To test whether the long-term overproduction of CRF affected the rats' reaction to stress as adults, the researchers exposed them to a mild foot shock and measured how much ACTH appeared in their blood. They found that the rats deprived of their mothers as pups produced 25 percent more ACTH than the control rats.

They conclude that rats stressed as pups overreact to stress as adults. This overreaction is caused by disruption of the HPA axis, a major player in at least some forms of human depression.

The researchers reported their findings in the April issue of "Endocrinology".

Children benefit more from long-term therapy, landmark study indicates

Long-term, intensive psychological treatments are more effective for children with emotional disorders than the short therapies that have become popular with health insurers, according to a landmark study.

Peter Fonagy, PhD, a child psychoanalyst, and Mary Target, PhD, of the University of London, studied the clinical records of nearly 800 children treated over 40 years, using modern diagnostic assessment methods. They found that young children with the worst emotional disorders respond best to six months or more of psychoanalysis. The long-term therapies proved more effective than faster treatments or therapy combined with medication, Fonagy and Target found.

The conclusions provide important data to managed-care companies and other third-party payers, which are increasingly pushing their enrollees into short-term treatments to save money, Fonagy noted in a report on the study in the April issue of "Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association".

The study, based on the clinical work of child psychoanalysts in London, was conducted in collaboration with the Yale University Child Study Center.

The researchers found that slightly more than half of the children studied improved with one or two years of treatment, and nearly 75 percent improved with treatment lasting at least three years.

Also, treatment success appears to decline with age, the study indicates. Nearly 75 percent of preschool children showed significant improvement after intensive treatment, compared to only 67 percent of children ages 6 to 12 and 58 percent of teenagers.

Found in the APA Monitor.

Should states keep families tied together?

Laws that would make it more difficult to get a divorce could backfire and lead to more conflict in troubled families.
by Nathan Seppa/Monitor staff

No one would say divorcing is easy, but there's no question it was once harder. For earlier generations, divorce often involved hiring a private investigator to spy on an adulterous spouse or trying to prove abandonment or cruelty in court. Even in consensual cases, it could entail driving to Nevada or Mexico. Divorce was messy, divisive and often expensive.

Much of that changed with no-fault divorce, in which either spouse can end a marriage without proving fault or assigning blame. Oklahoma instituted no-fault divorce in the 1950s and over the next 35 years every state followed suit in some fashion. While the emotional trauma of divorce remained, the legalities became quicker and cheaper.

Meanwhile, divorce rates soared and stabilized around 50 percent of all marriages. Now, state lawmakers in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania are blaming no-fault for the rise. They propose measures to prevent fast divorces in hopes of preserving the family, helping children, protecting nonworking spouses and saving the institution of marriage itself.

In Michigan, Rep. Jessie Dalman, a Republican from Holland in the state's southwestern region, wants to reinstate fault divorce in marriages where only one spouse wants out and cannot prove abandonment, abuse or some of the other traditional fault determinants.

"Marriages are too easy to get out of," Dalman said. "If couples put as much time into their marriage as they put into divorce, we'd probably have fewer divorces in this country."

Psychologists say that while some divorces might be unnecessary, they are rarely hasty. Many view the attack on no-fault divorce as troubling and fear a return to the days when someone wanting a divorce had to "show cause" to get one. That meant blaming your partner.

"'Fault' divorce was horrible; it encouraged people to lie," said psychologist Joan Kelly, PhD, executive director of the Northern California Mediation Center in Corte Madera.

If a spouse didn't want to go through divorce, or wasn't permitted by religious beliefs, Kelly said, many just walked out and didn't pay child care. Some started new families.

Hiring investigators was the worst part. "It was a degrading thing to do, and it escalated conflict," said psychologist Mavis Hetherington, PhD, of the University of Virginia.

It all raises doubts about the push to repeal divorce laws, which vary widely from state to state. If anything, some "no-fault" divorce laws may already rely too much -- not too little -- on fault, said Helen Cleminshaw, PhD, a University of Akron psychologist who does divorce mediation in private practice.

For example, being the first to bolt a marriage puts a spouse at a disadvantage in some states. Many attorneys discourage moving out because it jeopardizes their client's ability to get custody and assets. That leaves estranged couples in the same house, she said.

"There's a much higher probability of violence and poor parenting when two people have to stay together for a lengthy period of time when they have already decided to terminate the relationship," Cleminshaw said.

Higher rates

In a 1995 study, University of Oklahoma psychologist Joseph Rodgers, PhD, found that no-fault divorce boosted divorce rates. He analyzed rates in all 50 states before and after a no-fault system was established in each. He found a 20 percent rise in divorce rates for most of them, when one compares the three years before enactment of no-fault with the three years after it.

Lawmakers attacking no-fault cite those findings as proof that it pushes up the rate. But it's not that simple, Rodgers said. States that switched to no-fault early, such as Maryland and Oklahoma, showed little change in divorce rates for years afterward. Latecomers to no-fault, especially Pennsylvania and South Dakota, also saw little effect. The surge in divorce rates occurred in between, from 1963 to 1978.

It's true that most states changed their divorce laws during those years, but other factors were present, too.

"The thing increasing divorce in the most marked fashion is the economic independence of women," Hetherington said.

The push to end no-fault, Kelly said, "ignores massive changes in our society, independent of what happens in divorce legislation-not least of which is recognition by women that they don't need to be the victims of abuse and that, with help, they can get out."

Waiting period

All states have a version of no-fault divorce, Rodgers said, but some require a waiting period. California delays divorce six months. In New York, it takes a year.

That delay can be a hardship for some, but it forces many to face some important reasons for staying married, said Bruce Hillowe, PhD, JD, a psychologist who does mediation and other divorce-related work in private practice in Mineola, N.Y. A couple can see what happens to their children during the one-year separation, he said. They can experience life as a single parent, and their economic standard of living often drops. And they can more realistically assess their prospects of starting anew in another relationship," he said.

Hetherington agreed a waiting period could be beneficial, since many people rethink their actions anyway after divorce. But, she added, "I don't think people in unhappy marriages should have to stay together.-All the research shows kids are worse off in a conflict-ridden, two-parent home than they are in a one-parent home."

A waiting period isn't much good without some marital therapy or another form of counseling, Cleminshaw said.

"I find people usually filing [for divorce] have gone through much more than a whole year in making this decision," she said. "If you don't have [counseling] what's the purpose of waiting?"

Kelly favors a delay, but said reconciliations that form during a waiting period may be short-lived. Research shows that most separated couples eventually break up again after a reconciliation, she said.

New approach

Psychologists generally agree on the need to protect the basics of no-fault divorce.

One dissent comes from psychologist Wade Horn, PhD, director of the National Fatherhood Initiative. Horn favors lowering the divorce rate by repealing no-fault laws, requiring marital counseling before divorce and generally making divorces harder to get.

"Every culture has its models and heroes. We exalt those who seek self-fulfillment instead of those who are caring," he said. In the process, our culture has lost the stigma it once rightfully attached to divorce, and no-fault contributed to that undoing, he said.

The push to end no-fault shows that society recognizes the devastation divorce has brought to children, he said. At least one study shows that in families with only mild to moderate conflict, it's better if the parents stay together, Horn said.

"If you have a culture that says it's better to get divorced for the sake of the kids, you end up with low- to moderate-conflict families getting divorced. Having someone say they are feeling unfulfilled is not a good enough reason to get divorced," he said.

"The old notion of staying together for the sake of the children," Hillowe said, "warrants the consideration it's gotten recently, and used to get a long time ago."

But the attack on no-fault laws fails to address the marital conflict issue fully, Kelly said. The adjustment problems that children of divorce suffer are often traceable to the marriage prior to divorce, she said.

Besides, most divorces are initiated by women. No-fault has given them a way out. "It's hard to argue against a process that makes it possible to disentangle yourself from a harmful relationship," she said.

"There are such things as marriages that just won't work," Hillowe said, "and [repeal of no-fault] won't allow couples to leave those marriages." He suggested mandatory mediation. "It can be quasi-therapeutic-to give couples a last chance to see if they can at least resolve conflicts, if not have a fulfilling relationship," he said.

Ending conflict is key. About 30 percent of children living in homes that are "intensely conflictual" show serious behavior problems, Hetherington said. For children whose parents divorce, it's 25 percent. For children of nondivorced parents, it's 10 percent.

In Michigan, Rep. Dalman's proposals still would allow no-fault divorce if both partners want to end a marriage, but would require counseling before any couple could file for divorce. She has bipartisan support for several of the divorce-related bills, but conceded that repealing no-fault divorce would be the toughest component to get passed.

Found in the APA Monitor

Psychologists cautious about day-care results
by Beth Azar, Monitor staff

Attachment is only the first of many traits that are being measured in the study on child care.

A recent report that child care in and of itself does not impair the mother infant bond in the first year of life is good news for most parents. But psychologists caution that these data only speak to one aspect of child development.

The widely reported finding comes from the most comprehensive child-care study to date, which was initiated and is centrally coordinated by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The 10-site longitudinal study, begun in 1989, is following more than 1,300 children from birth to age 7 to examine the effect of child care on child development.

The study is tracking the type, quality and frequency of day care each child receives, and is measuring the development of such factors as attachment security, general health, cognitive abilities, language development and prosocial behavior.

Because attachment is only one of the developmental factors the study is following, the 25 primary investigators from 14 universities and NICHD caution about drawing too many conclusions.

"Our findings are not preliminary but the conclusions drawn from them have to be," said psychologist Jay Belsky, PhD, of Pennsylvania State University. "We shouldn't rush to judgment that child care poses no threat or that it poses a great threat until we take a look at the three- and four-year data."

"Many [people in the media] want us to draw the conclusion that these data can relieve the guilt of mothers," said Sarah Friedman, PhD, one of the investigators and the study coordinator at NICHD. "But we're not in the business of relieving guilt. We're reporting the findings that we have at this stage."

Sensitive moms

The NICHD study found that child care didn't directly threaten or bolster the mother-child bond for 1,201 of the children they followed to age 15 months. That result held regardless of the quality or type of care, the number of hours per week the children spent in care and the number of times they started a new care arrangement.

These child-care issues only had an effect on attachment if mothers were insensitive and unresponsive to their infants or showed more signs of depression or anxiety. These mothers were more likely to have insecurely attached infants. And that risk was compounded by poor quality child care, being in day care for 10 hours or more a week and switching or starting additional care arrangements: More than half of infants who had both an insensitive mother and one or more of these care situations showed insecure attachment.

"These results are completely consistent with the literature," said study investigator Alison Clarke-Stewart, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine. "When the outcome [you're measuring] is the child's relationship with the mother, her contribution to that relationship is the most important factor."

The results also help explain contradictory findings from studies on child care conducted in the early 1980s, said Belsky. Some of those studies found that children in day care for 20 or more hours a week were slightly more likely to have an insecure attachment to their mothers than children who had less extensive or no day care.

The finding wasn't robust and didn't appear in every study, but it arose rather frequently, said Belsky.

"This study allowed us to identify the conditions under which day care has its effect," he said. "It tells us when quantity, quality and stability of care enhances or undermines a child's secure attachment to his mother."

Gender differences

A correlation that has attracted a lot of media attention may prove nothing more than a chance finding, admit the researchers. They reported that boys who were in child care for 30 hours or more a week were slightly more likely to have insecure relationships with their mothers.

For girls, though, the opposite occurred. Those who spent less than 10 hours in child care a week were slightly more likely to have insecure attachment than girls who spent more than 10 hours a week in child care.

In their report, the research team commented that this pattern is reminiscent of previous studies finding that boys tend to be more vulnerable than girls to psycho-social stress, and that adolescent girls benefit if their mothers work.

However, researchers admitted that the connection between girls and working mothers probably wouldn't apply to children as young as 15 months.

"It's one of our weakest findings," said Cathryn Booth of the University of Washington, an investigator in the study.

"We should keep an eye on it as we analyze more of the data but we can't come to any conclusions yet."

Indeed, the research team is careful to present its data methodically to prevent drawing overreaching conclusions.

Attachment is only one of many outcomes being measured in the study. Certain aspects of day care may well influence cognitive ability, language development, prosocial behavior and empathy.