Predictors of mood and anxiety in employed mothers with preschool children

This research thesis examines the influence of maternal employment on both mothers and their preschool infants (aged 0 to 4 years). Paper one is a literature review, examining twelves studies on the relationship between maternal employment and the attachment of preschool infants to their mothers. Maternal employment was measured by the timing of return to employment, employment hours per week and employment status. The findings suggest that maternal employment may have limited influence on the attachment of preschool infants to their mothers. However, the timing of returning to employment was found to be associated with infant-mother attachment although more research is needed to understand the direction of this relationship. Clinical and future research implications are discussed, which include consideration of the overreliance on white, middle-class American samples. It is recommended that future research is needed with diverse samples from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Paper two is an empirical study on internet-mediated research which investigated whether marital (cohabiting) status, number of preschool children, perfectionism, perceived social support and number of employment hours per week were predictors of mood and anxiety in employed mothers of preschool infants. The study explored whether perfectionism significantly moderated the relationship between two of the variables, perceived social support and marital status, and mood and anxiety. Perceived social support and perfectionism significantly predicted mood and anxiety, accounting for 40.6% and 31.6% of the variance, indicating that they may be risk factors for poorer mood and higher anxiety. Perfectionism was not a significant moderator. Employed mothers reported better mood, lower anxiety and perfectionism than anticipated. The implications of the findings, clinical and research implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed. Paper three is an executive summary that summarises the main points, findings and recommendations found in the empirical paper, 'Predictors of Mood and Anxiety in Employed Mothers with Preschool Children.' It is written to disseminate the findings of the empirical study to employed mothers and the general population.