Parenting and depression: the impact of the division of labor within couples and perceptions of equity.

This study assesses the psychological impact of children under age 18 years on parental depression adjusting for prior depression in the US. It is hypothesized that children reduce parents social and economic resources and expose parents to stress such as increased household labor and role overload. The psychological benefits of children are overshadowed by the burdens faced by parents particularly mothers. The study used longitudinal data on married adults under age 60 years in the US from the National Survey of Families and Households. The results revealed that although mothers report higher depression levels than fathers and men and women without children adjusting for prior depression and economic resources children are negatively associated with depression. However findings indicate that children were associated with certain factors which increase depression. These include time demands of increased household labor feelings of overload and lower marital quality. Among parents the amount and the division of household labor explained a significant proportion of gender differences in depression. It was predicted that if parents particularly mothers did not experience lower levels of social and economic resources and larger amounts of household labor than adults without children then parents with children under age 18 years would experience lower depression levels than other adults and the presence of an additional child would not increase depression.