Stay-at-Home Moms or Employed Moms: Who’s Happier?

If you had to choose between staying home with your kids or leaving them at a daycare while you worked, which would you choose? What if your happiness depended on it? According to a Gallup poll, you’re better off punching in than staying in.

The Gallup analysis looked at 60,000 U.S. women between the ages of 18 and 64 throughout 2012. They divided women into three categories: stay at home moms, employed moms, and employed women. Stay-at-home moms were women who were not employed and had a child younger than age 18 at home. Employed moms were women who worked full or part time and had a child younger than 18 at home. Women who worked full or part time and did not have a child below 18 at home (either because they never had children or because their children were grown and moved out) were considered employed women.

Stay-at-home moms were more likely than employed moms or employed women to report feeling negative emotions such as worry, sadness, stress, depression, and anger. Forty-one percent of stay-at-home moms reported feeling worry the day before compared to 34% of employed moms. The starkest comparison was in regard to sadness and depression: 28% of stay-at-home moms reported feeling depressed and 26% reported feeling sadness, while 17% of employed moms reported depression and 16% reported sadness.

Stay-at-home moms were also less likely to report feeling positive emotions like laughter, happiness, and enjoyment.

The percentages for both positive and negative emotions were similar for employed moms and employed women, which is interesting in light of a recent study that suggests parents are happier than non-parents.

Another interesting finding of the Gallup analysis is the fact that in terms of sadness, anger, and depression, stay-at-home moms fared worse than employed moms regardless of income level. However, on the other measures (things like laughter, enjoyment, happiness, worry, stress, having a high life evaluation rating), middle- and high-income stay-at-home moms fared just as well as employed moms. Lower-income moms (those with an annual household income less than $36,000) were less likely than employed moms and employed women at the same income level to report smiling or laughing or experiencing enjoyment. They also more frequently reported daily worry and stress than their employed counterparts (again, even at the same income level).

How can this information be put to good use? Gallup suggests things like increasing employer-sponsored or other types of subsidized and low-cost childcare.

Hopefully policy makers will use this information in a way that will boost the emotional health of moms across the board, for as Gallup says, “ensuring that stay-at-home moms are in good emotional shape is critical not only for the sake of these mothers, but also for the sake of their children’s and families’ well-being.”

Olivia Roat is a reporter for GoStrengths.com, a site devoted to boosting the happiness and well-being of both kids and adults.