Conventional social mobility research, which measures family social class background relative to only fathers' characteristics, presents an outmoded picture of families--a picture wherein mothers' economic participation is neither common nor important. This article demonstrates that such measurement is theoretically and empirically untenable.…

Major hypothesis tested is that significant changes have occurred since 1940 in the effects of the factors influencing working by wives. The research supports this hypothesis for the early stages of marriage and child bearing only. (Author/AM)

Analyzes data from eight epidemiological surveys to estimate the relative importance of income, education, and occupational status in predicting the distress of people in the normal population. Finds that the most important predictors of distress are different for men, women in the labor force, and homemakers. (Author/GC)