Mothers

[lgd2013]

I hope you won't mind me posting on this forum and asking for input from the mothers of East Dulwich.

My name is Leonie Duff, a Psychology Postgraduate student at Royal Holloway University. I am currently running a study which is looking at mothers and their roles in the family and work place. I am deeply interested in how mothers manage their roles and the consequent impact on their self-perception and life satisfaction.

I was wondering if the mothers on this forum would be willing to participate in my study?

The study consists of a ten minute questionnaire which can be accessed anonymously by these links:

http://www.pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/surveys/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=8204l7KI7p2KG

http://www.pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/surveys/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=m53586635o7KG

These are two separate questionnaires, please only fill out one of the two.

I hope that you find this project worthwhile and would very much appreciate your help.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Leonie Duff

[Goodliz]

Hello

I've got a couple of questions:

What is the difference between the 2 surveys? They both have the same title.

What is the information sheet referred to in the first question?

Once I know I can complete it.

Thanks.

[bawdy-nan]

Your survey is flawed - impossible to proceed if employed as you *must* give reason for unemployment before leaving the page

[lgd2013]

Hi, thank you for bringing these problems to my attention, I have now changed the question.

The information sheet referred to in the first question is the information that is presented on the first page, explaining the study and who I am.

The 2 surveys have almost but not quite the same title, the differences between the two are almost indistinguishable.

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken part.

[EmilyPie]

Have done this but not sure how much sense my answers will make as have ticked unemployed, maternity leave but I still have an employed identity and have answered all the questions thinking about my job, including last questions which are only for those employed. Tricky to get right but given the survey is about identity might be worth thinking about how this works in the survey.

[lgd2013]

Thank you very much for your contribution, you make an interesting point which I will keep in mind when looking at the data.

[katgod]

The second link allows you to not answer why you are unemployed. But I don't think the student wants everyone on the second link. Leonie you do need to set it out more clearly everyone will do the second one if they cannot proceed with the first one.

[BeccaL]

If the differences between the surveys are almost indistinguishable why have two, or are you trying to get two different groups of responses? Happy to take the survey but would like to understand the differences between the two...

[lgd2013]

The difference is just the order of the questions, to control for the effect that this might have on responses.

[standswithfist]

completed it thanks

[BeccaL]

thanks - done.

[carebear]

I have completed this, will you be sharing the results? I would be interested to hear about them if so.

Also, and sorry for being a pedant, it is inaccurate to say (as you do on the last page) that we have been 'randomly' assigned to the two groups as we were self selecting, particularly on the back of the conversation above.

[lgd2013]

Good morning! I would like to thank everyone who kindly took part in my study. Many of you asked to be updated on the results so I have summarised the findings which I hope you find interesting, I certainly did!

Clear effects of identity conflict on mothers? well-being were found in this study: perceived conflict between the mother and worker identities fostered (perceived) identity incompatibility (the belief that two identities are not harmonious) and encouraged disidentification (distancing of one's self) from the worker identity but not from the mother identity. Identity conflict triggered a reduction in life satisfaction and self-esteem and a surge in job and mother stress.

Interestingly, employment was shown to positively enhance mothers? life satisfaction and self-esteem, demonstrating the benefits of being a working mother. The findings that employment positively impacted upon life satisfaction could be explained by the increased satisfaction resulting from an increased income which accompanies employment (Frijters, Haisken-DeNew & Shields, 2004). Higher self-esteem of employed mothers could also be a result of a feeling of independence and achievement which is associated with procuring and maintaining paid employment. These findings are in line with other work by researchers who found employment to have a positive effect on self-worth (Paul-Majumder and Begum, 2000).

This study has shown that mothers are susceptible to identity conflict which is an important contributor to perceived identity incompatibility, identification and well-being. Only in understanding the antecedent of these outcomes can we begin to resolve them, through interventions targeted expressly at alleviation of perceived identity conflict. The added findings that employment is a positive contributor to life satisfaction and well-being, is motivation for the continued research into facilitation of the lives of working mothers. These findings are even more remarkable when one recognises that mothers are still responsible for the majority of childcare and housework (Coltrane, 2000). Despite the necessity to multi-task and manage large workloads, mothers still reap the benefit from employment and it is impressive to consider the impact if identity conflict were to be alleviated by due recognition of the family identity in the workplace, for instance by the provision of cr?ches and flexible hours.

Thank you once again.

Leonie