Identifying the psychosocial conditions of 'work athome' caring for an infant - what are the potentiallinks with postnatal depression and anxiety?

This project investigates a series of important and virtually unexplored potential risk factors for postnatal psychological distress - the conditions of 'work at home' caring for an infant. Great advances have been made in occupational health research showing that key risk factors for poor mental health include: shift work, high job demands, low autonomy over work-load, over-commitment, occupational fatigue and an unsupportive supervisor (Stansfeld et al. 2006). Similarly, primary carers (usually mothers) of infants are often 'on-call' 24 hours, have little control over infant's demands, may perceive little reward for their efforts, and in some cases receive scarce support from partners. This project will apply the extensive theory and research on psychosocial job quality and health to a unique environment - work at home caring for an infant.