Zoe Williams also picks up on the child care/mothers/groups thing. Outraged she is:

Mainly, though, I want to
know: what is the purpose of a study like this? Who does it help? Have
you ever seen a study of the mental health of adults who work, set
against those who don’t? Or a paper on the incidence of cancer among
people with jobs, compared with the jobless? Of course not – because it
doesn’t matter, ultimately, whether work depresses you or makes you ill.

Well, actually, there’s tens of thousands of such studies. Do you ever read Polly Toynbee? Can’t quite remember which paper she writes for but this is the sort of thing she picks up all the time. The unemployed are less healthy than the employed, for they’re at the bottom of the social heirarchy. Yes, mental health is worse amongst those unemployed, not just because those with problems tend to be unemployed but because, again, being at the bottom of the heap leads to mental problems. As Polly says, inequality kills.

Indeed, she uses this as a club with which to beat us about how we should be working (sorry) for greater equality. So, umm, Zoe, I guess you don’t read The Guardian?