Centre for Policy on Ageing



Long-term payoffs of work? — women's past involvement in paid work and mental health in widowhood
Author(s)	Manacy Pai, Anne E Barrett
Journal title	Research on Aging, vol 29, no 5, September 2007
Pages	pp 436-456
Keywords	Widows ; Employment ; Self esteem ; Morale ; Depression ; Symptoms ; Social surveys ; United States of America.
Annotation	It is argued in this article that involvement in paid work and the workforce increases women's economic, social and psychological resources, and that these compound over the life course to ease their adjustment to widowhood. Using a sample of 207 widows interviewed in Miami-Dade County, Florida in 2001-2002, findings from ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model support the hypothesis that widows with work histories report fewer depressive symptoms than their peers without employment experience. Further analyses reveal that social and psychological resources mediate this association, suggesting that employment enhances social support and self-perceptions, which reduce the negative health effects of widowhood. This study illustrates the importance of incorporating work histories into examinations of widowhood, particularly as cohorts of women with considerable life course investment in paid work enter their later years. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-080121204 A
Classmark	SP: WJ: DPA: DQ: ENR: CT: 3F: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.