Used nationally representative sample of 2,031 adults aged 18 to 90 to compare housework and family care as primary activity with paid work and with volunteer work, leisure activities, home and yard maintenance, and schoolwork. Found that unpaid domestic work was more routine, and it provided less intrinsic gratification and fewer extrinsic…

Telephone survey of 2,592 people found that their sense of personal control was positively affected by nonroutine, autonomous, fulfilling, or nonisolated work. Women's low personal control was attributed to overrepresentation in part-time work and homemaking. Homemakers reported more autonomy than did paid workers; female paid workers performed…

Married women are more psychologically distressed than married men, but this gap is less pronounced among Mexican Americans than among Anglos. However, this research did not find support for the hypothesis that employment was related to greater happiness for Anglo women but not for Mexican American women. (Author/IS)