Abstract
Objectives This study aims to investigate (1) whether the health of working women with young children differs from that of working women without young children, and (2) which social factors mediate the relationship between economic and maternal role performance and health among mothers with young children. Methods The analyses uses panel data from 697 women present in both waves of the Women’s Health Study for Accra (WHSA-I and WHSA-II); a community based study of women aged 18 years and older in the Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana conducted in 2003 and 2008–2009. Change in physical and mental health between the survey waves is compared between women with a biological child alive at WHSA-II and born since WHSA-I and women without a living biological child at WHSA-II born in the interval. To account for attrition between the two survey waves selection models were used with unconditional change score models being used as the outcome model. Results We found in our sample of working women that those who had a child born between WHSA-I and WHSA-II who was still alive at WHSA-II did not experience a change in mental or physical health different from other women. Among working women with young children, educational status, relationship to the household head and household demography were associated with change in mental health at the 5 % level, whilst migration status and household demography was associated with change in physical health scores. Conclusion The results suggest there are no health penalties of combining work and childbearing among women with young children in Accra, Ghana.
Highlights
Since the 1960s there has been a substantial volume of literature investigating the interface between work and family [15], with early writing focusing on the consequences of maternal employment for both women and other family members [34]
We found in our sample of working women that those who had a child born between Women’s Health Study for Accra (WHSA)-I and WHSA-II who was still alive at WHSA-II did not experience a change in mental or physical health different from other women
Among working women with young children, educational status, relationship to the household head and household demography were associated with change in mental health at the 5 % level, whilst migration status and household demography was associated with change in physical health scores
Summary
Since the 1960s there has been a substantial volume of literature investigating the interface between work and family [15], with early writing focusing on the consequences of maternal employment for both women and other family members [34]. Whilst research has investigated the association between maternal employment and child health in this context [1, 41], relatively little literature exists on the implications of maternal employment for maternal health. Using panel data this study aims, first, to investigate the health impact of motherhood on working women in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA) of Ghana; and, second, to examine the associations between socio-economic characteristics and household structures and change in health among working mothers with young children. The return of women to work soon after giving birth in the AMA [22] suggests that this population is combining economic activity with having young children. We focus on mothers of young children as parental demands have been highlighted as an important antecedent of work-family role conflict [21, 43]
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