The name is absent

Indian ethnic group are consistently less satisfaction with their life currently while those
who were employed during pregnancy, those with higher education, those with smaller
numbers of children, those without illness and those with a partner are consistently more
satisfied with life. These effects also survive when income is included.

Table 14 considers another measure of the mother’s well being, or mental health, in terms
of malaise. The survey used an abbreviated (9 item) version of Rutter’s Malaise
Inventory (Shepherd et al 2003). We took as an indicator of depression scoring at least
three adverse symptoms out of nine. Once again delaying motherhood appears to reduce
malaise. However this peaks at 31 - 33 and the differentials are smaller than most of the
variables considered earlier. Including antecedent disadvantages (mostly significantly
associated with malaise) accounts for much of this gradient, finding malaise only
significantly different for those entering motherhood aged 25- 33. Including the current
factors without income reduces the age terms substantially, and in Model 4 malaise is
well predicted by low income, low qualifications, lack of partner, large family size, being
Pakistani or Indian, and in contrast to the life satisfaction model, living in a
disadvantaged area. Once all this is taken into account there is no significant differences
(at the 95% level) by age at first motherhood, we have more insight into why this
outcome varies across women who start motherhood from their teens to their early
thirties, and material resources play a clear role in subjective wellbeing. If one wishes to
argue early motherhood has non-pecuniary compensations it would be necessary to say
that their well-being in the counterfactual condition of delayed motherhood would have
been even more inauspicious.

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