Working parents are especially healthy

Working parents are especially healthy

17/02/2014

Parents between the mid-20s and early 40s are no longer stressed than children of the same age, according to a study. At this age, the so-called „Rush hour of life“ Many have to cope with the multiple burden of careers, children and pensions. Therefore, it was fortunately found that parents of this age group are especially healthy.

A positive message
According to the latest health report of the German Employees Health Insurance Fund (DAK), parents between the mid-20s and early 40s do not feel more stressed than children of the same age. At this age, many people need to find a life partner, make a career, have children, or build a house. As Hans Bertram, a sociologist at Berlin's Humboldt University, says, young people in Germany today have much less time for this traditional marathon of the first half of life than before. Bertram speaks in this context of the „Rush hour of life“, where far more decisions are made for life between the end of 20 and the beginning of 40, compared to 20 or 30 years ago. He was therefore positively surprised by the DAK study. „There are significantly fewer overwhelmed young parents than expected“, so Bertram. „That's a positive message.“

Fear of excessive demands
According to the health report, parents would despite „rush hour“-Stress does not feel worse than childless. And although fathers and mothers are under pressure because of the multiple burden, this does not affect the sick leave. The group aged between 25 and 39 years is even very healthy. Parents have the same levels of stress from chronic stress as working people without children. „Even full-time mothers do not have higher stress levels than mothers working part-time or non-working mothers“, writes the DAK. This is hopeful, because the fear of excessive demands in many couples continue to defer the desire to have children. Around 3,000 Germans between the ages of 25 and 40 were interviewed in December for the study.

Lowest birth rate in Europe
If you look at the circumstances of today „Generation internship“ sometimes shows, speaks for the Rush Hour thesis of Bertram. Nowadays, many people often start working in a job with good and regular income only at the end of their 20s. Until the 1970s, this usually happened from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century. This shift is also reflected in the German birth statistics. Until the 1970s (in the GDR until 1989), women usually had their first child from the beginning to the end of 20. Today, they are on average already 29 years old. To sit professionally in the saddle before a baby break, academics often wait even longer. Often, however, it is then too late or it is only enough for a child. As a result, Germany has the lowest birth rate of all 28 EU countries.

Career and child get under one hat
On the subject of babies, the DAK representative survey initially showed a positive trend for population statisticians, as many childless young people in their mid-20s would assume that they would be able to reconcile career and child. Men are more optimistic than women. Nearly two-thirds of the men believed that this dream came true, with their partners being only about half. Another quarter of young women are even more skeptical and are afraid that this balancing act will not succeed. Even parental allowance or other family policies have not been able to change that. Young women would want to have children, but did not dare.

From the age of 30, the right partner for a baby is often missing
Similar results with respect to this anxious mood came from a large study conducted by the Berlin Social Science Research Center in 2012. Around half of the women and men surveyed at the time thought that nothing positive had been achieved in reconciling work and family life. And almost a third saw the situation even more negative than in 2009. According to the new study, the main reason for waiting with children was initially a desire for career advancement. However, that changes significantly from the age of 30, because then the right partner for a baby is missing in the first place. All childless people are agreed that a stable partnership is a prerequisite for being a parent. More than three quarters would have said that they also counted a good and safe income.

West German 1950s family model
After an analysis of the „rush hour“- For the DAK CEO Herbert Rebscher, the survey is lacking above all a parental-friendly working world, which offers, for example, company nursery schools, emergency care and better career opportunities for mothers. According to the study, around half of the women indicated that they would be further away without a child. In men, this feeling is not so strong. Above all, this is because many young people still lived a family model, similar to the West German of the 50s. The father works full-time and the wife earns it.

After the parental phase study from 40
„We have to organize the career patterns so that children do not cross them“, Bertram says. For example, those who become parents during their studies would already have their offspring at school age during their first career steps and thus have less organizational problems. The sociologist goes even further, saying that it must become more normal to study after the parental phase of 40 and over. „Then there is enough time left to make a career“, so Bertram. (Sb)