Middle-aged women in S’pore anxiety survey findings

Caregiving duties, despite being a major part of midlife for many women, ranked lower at 35.3%.

Women in midlife can face several pressures at once, including career demands, caring for children and ageing parents, financial responsibilities and menopause, SCWO said.

Aw added that mental health concerns rarely stemmed from a single source, with workplace demands, caregiving and family pressures accumulating over time.

The researchers added that a subtle form of stress for working women could be gendered ageism.

“In the workplace, the experience of gendered ageism can limit women’s career opportunities, skew their social interactions with colleagues, and thus impair their mental health,” they said in the report.

Among survey respondents who were working, those who felt their male colleagues were supportive reported higher life satisfaction, less stigma towards mental health conditions and greater willingness to seek support for mental health concerns.

Cost a concern

Around 63% of women who had experienced a mental health concern said they had sought professional help, while 37% had not.

But the likelihood of seeking help fell as respondents’ current distress rose.

Those with greater distress were less likely to say they would seek help from formal sources such as a mental health professional, or from informal ones such as family and friends.

Highlighting this as a public health concern, the researchers said the findings pointed to the need to make mental health services seem approachable and within reach, and to normalise help-seeking in families, workplaces and communities.

A gap between women’s willingness to seek professional help and their awareness of female professional health services was shown in the survey.

About three in four respondents (75.9%) said they would be likely to seek help from a mental health professional if they had a concern. A smaller share (63.2%) would turn to their partners, while 56.9% would turn to friends.

But more than half, or 58.4%, were unaware of the female-specific services listed in the survey, including the Women’s Mental Wellness Service at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the Women’s Emotional Health Service at National University Hospital.

About 92.4% had never used any of them.

Cost was another concern for the women in the study.

About 53% regarded mental health services in Singapore as unaffordable or highly unaffordable; only 17% saw them as affordable or highly affordable.

In any case, when respondents were asked what kind of support for women’s mental health should be prioritised, they ranked peer support first, followed by counselling and workplace mental wellness policies.

They were also less inclined to use phone helplines than to turn to professionals. The researchers said this might point to concerns about trust or effectiveness, or to a preference for more relational support.

“Given the greater push (in Singapore) for more accessible mental health support options through phone and WhatsApp hotlines, such as the launch of Mindline.sg, it would be important to understand individuals’ perceived barriers to the use of such hotlines, in comparison to face-to-face help-seeking from mental health professionals,” the study said.

Most respondents did not report feeling ashamed about seeing a therapist.

For example, 62.9% disagreed that doing so would make them feel inadequate.

The researchers said the findings should not be taken as representative of all middle-aged women. About 74.4% of respondents had a university degree or higher, compared with 42% of women aged 40 to 59 in the wider population. Malay women were also underrepresented.

SCWO said it will use the findings to inform its advocacy, partnerships and public education efforts.

Its president Seow Yian San said: “Too often, women in midlife are expected to seamlessly balance careers, caregiving and countless invisible responsibilities, yet the cumulative impact on their own well-being remains under-recognised.”