According to a new study, working mothers conduct at least two different tasks at any one time for more than 40 percent of their waking hours.
The study was conducted by researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Michigan State University. The findings concluded that women spend 48.3 hours per week multi-tasking, compared to 38.9 hours for their male counterparts.
Gender differences in multi-tasking are reported to differ in emotional strain and the amount of stress and anxiety it causes. It was reported that mothers view multi-tasking as a negative experience as the report concluded labour intensive tasks such as house work and child care were most common conducted at once, causing a woman to feel stressed and feel immense pressure to get everything done.
Fathers questioned by the study found multi-tasking, on the whole a pleasurable and positive experience, this may have been due to the fact that often men multi-task with less strenuous activities such as errands within the home while also talking to another person or partaking in self-care tasks.
The study researchers reported that their study’s findings support the belief that women take on more emotionally demanding multi-tasking than their partners which could be one influence for the gender differences in diagnosis frequency of mental illness and stress disorders such as acute stress disorder, anxiety and depression with more women suffering from such disorders than men.
