Passage 1 Working moms: Stressed to Excess Working women with children- at least mothers in full-time clerical and customer service jobs- tote a particularly heavy load of mental strain. This strain increases production of a critical stress hormone that may, in turn, promote heart disease, a new study finds All sorts of mothers endure this burden in the workplace, reports a scientific team at the duke University Medical Center in Durham. N C Stress weighs just as heavily on married women who have a decent family income, plenty of contact with friends and family, and only one or two kids as it does on single women who scrape by financially and spend most of their time outside the workplace caring for a handful of youngsters Combination of pervasive pressures at work and at home exacts a unique physiological toll on women raising children, contend Linda J. Luecken and her coworkers in the July-August PS YCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE. Single and married working moms who hold midlevel jobs over which they have little control also perform most child-rearing and household tasks, the researchers note. Moreover working mothers must tackle unexpected family problems, such as a childs illness, on a moment s notice Luecken's team studied 109 women age 21 to 61 who hold clerical and customer service jobs at a large company. The researchers collected urine samples on two consecutive workdays, For the premenopausal women, the samples were taken in the first week of the menstrual cycle Women who had at least one child living at home excreted substantially more of the stress hormone cortisol in their urine than did their counterparts without kids at home regardless of marital status or number of social contacts. Independent studies indicate that ling -term elevations of cortisol contribute to heart disease. the duke scientists Working women with children reported more demands on their time and more mental strain at home but not on the job Other indications of stress, such as depression, anger, and negative feelings about the workplace, that have been linked to physical ailments also occur in both single Even if their husbands perform a fair share of household tasks, working women still take responsibility for seeing that the work gets done, comments psychologist Kathleen C. Light of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine The working woman's sense of vigilance and being on call is virtually constant spouse more often does his assigned chores and then relaxes, Light contends VocabularPassage 1 Working Moms: Stressed to Excess Working women with children – at least mothers in full-time clerical and customer service jobs – tote a particularly heavy load of mental strain. This strain increases production of a critical stress hormone that may, in turn, promote heart disease, a new study finds. All sorts of mothers endure this burden in the workplace, reports a scientific team at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham. N.C Stress weighs just as heavily on married women who have a decent family income, plenty of contact with friends and family, and only one or two kids as it does on single women who scrape by financially and spend most of their time outside the workplace caring for a handful of youngsters. Combination of pervasive pressures at work and at home exacts a unique physiological toll on women raising children, contend Linda J. Luecken and her coworkers in the July-August PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE. Single and married working moms who hold midlevel jobs over which they have little control also perform most child-rearing and household tasks, the researchers note. Moreover, working mothers must tackle unexpected family problems, such as a child’s illness, on a moment’s notice. Luecken’s team studied 109 women age 21 to 61 who hold clerical and customer service jobs at a large company. The researchers collected urine samples on two consecutive workdays, For the premenopausal women, the samples were taken in the first week of the menstrual cycle. Women who had at least one child living at home excreted substantially more of the stress hormone cortisol in their urine than did their counterparts without kids at home, regardless of marital status or number of social contacts. Independent studies indicate that ling-term elevations of cortisol contribute to heart disease, the Duke scientists note. Working women with children reported more demands on their time and more mental strain at home, but not on the job. Other indications of stress, such as depression, anger, and negative feelings about the workplace, that have been linked to physical ailments also occur in both single and married working women. Even if their husbands perform a fair share of household tasks, working women still take responsibility for seeing that the work gets done, comments psychologist Kathleen C. Light of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. “The working woman’s sense of vigilance and being on call is virtually constant, whereas her spouse more often does his assigned chores and then relaxes,” Light contends. Vocabulary