The Empty Nest, Employment, and Psychiatric Symptoms in College-Educated Women

The relationship of employment status to symptoms was studied in 40 graduates of an Eastern woman's college who had been out of college 35 years and were in their late fifties at the time of the study. All subjects were married women in the "empty nest" stage of life. Women employed full-time were found to have significantly lower symptom scores than women not employed outside the home, with women employed part-time occupying an intermediate position.