Gender and depressive symptoms: Parents' sharing of instrumental and expressive tasks when their children are young.

The impact of division of labor, including emotional work, on levels of depressive symptoms was examined. A self-selected sample of 102 middle-class couples with at least 1 child under 5 years of age completed questionnaires. Women's depressive symptoms were predicted by emotional work, as well as by appraisal of conflict between a division of labor that would suit themselves and a division that would be best for the family. Men's depressive symptoms were predicted by their spouse's disagreement with their estimate of how much housework they performed. Depressive symptoms for both men and women were associated with discrepancies between premarital expectations and the current division of labor. Focus on division of labor, especially sharing of emotional work, is recommended for treating depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job Strain, Job Insecurity, and Health: Rethinking the Relationship.

Job strain (high demands and low control) is a widely used measure of work stress. The authors introduce a new way of looking at work stress by combining job strain with job insecurity, a combination increasingly prevalent in contemporary economies, using data from a cross-sectional survey (N = 1,188) of mid-aged Australian managers and professionals. Those reporting both strain and insecurity showed markedly higher odds for mental and physical health problems (depression: odds ratio [OR] 13.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 5.67-34.01; anxiety: OR 12.88, CI 5.12-32.39; physical health problems: OR 3.97, CI 1.72-9.16; and poor self-rated health: OR 7.12, CI 2.81-18.01). Job strain and insecurity showed synergistic associations with health, and employees experiencing both could be at heightened health risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The mental health costs and benefits of giving social support.

Is giving support neutral, beneficial or costly to mental health? The authors identified 2 types of support--companionship and help--and conceptualized their provision as emotional labor. Companionship involves showing care to people, building feelings of happiness, pride, and belonging, whereas help involves assisting with feelings of distress, anger, and conflict and is potentially much more stressful. Using survey data (N=398), the authors found that companionship and help showed opposite associations with support givers' mental health; companionship was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, whereas help was associated with more. Social support helps recipients cope with stress and distress, but it may also affect people who give it, with consequences depending on the type of support given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)