Stay-at-Home Moms Report More Depression, Sadness, Anger

But low-income stay-at-home moms struggle the most

Stay-at-home moms at all income levels are worse off than employed moms in terms of sadness, anger, and depression, though they are the same as other women in most other aspects of emotional wellbeing. Employed moms, however, are doing as well as employed women without children at home -- possibly revealing that formal employment, or perhaps the income associated with it, has emotional benefits for mothers.
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While many mothers are rightfully dedicated to parenting as an important and fulfilling vocation, those who desire to work should feel encouraged by these data to pursue it. And for those who choose to stay home, more societal recognition of the difficult job stay-at-home mothers have raising children would perhaps help support them emotionally.
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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' wellbeing.

There's also a writeup of this story on BlissTree that concludes working mothers are happier than the childfree. Although there is a 1% difference in some of the numbers, this doesn't necessarily mean there was statistical significance enough to indicate a real difference between the groups. The Gallup site doesn't seem to indicate there is.

Technorati Tag: childfree