Study finds mothers are more stressed at home than in work

All jobs can be stressful - deadlines, targets, bosses and office drama mean your nine-to-five isn't always plain sailing.

But new research suggests that being at home could be even more stressful for parents than working outside the home. Female participants in a study at Penn State University in the US were shown to be more stressed at home than at work and reported feeling happier at work. Meanwhile, men were also more stressed at home but conversely, were happier at home than at work. However, all of the participants on the study who were parents, both men and women, reported being happier at work than at home. To find out how stressed participants were, researchers monitored their cortisol (stress hormone) levels throughout their week, reports Working Mother. Professor Sarah Damaske, one of the authors on the study, recommended that employers do more to accommodate working parents and make their lives less stressful.

"Telecommuting, paid sick days, paternity and maternity leaves are all policies that make it easier for workers to retain the health benefits of employment and for companies to retain the financial benefits of having loyal employees rather than having to deal with constant job turnover,” she said.