Marriage, motherhood and psychiatric morbidity in New Zealand.

The prevalence of psychiatric disorder, as assessed by both the GHQ-28 and the short PSE, is described for a random community sample of New Zealand women. In contrast to previous studies, married and widowed women and mothers showed lower rates than the never married and childless women. A plausible explanation is provided by available analysis of New Zealand gender roles. Such an explanation would reconfirm the importance of socio-cultural factors in community psychiatric disorder.