Insecure maternal employment and children's behaviour difficulties: Evidence from the longitudinal study of Australian children

Abstract

Although a large body of research has documented the negative effects of insecure employment for adult workers, less is known about the consequences for their children's well-being. Our understanding of the mechanisms through which insecure maternal employment may affect children is particularly limited. This study examines the relationship between insecure maternal employment and child behaviour difficulties from the age of 4–16 using seven waves of data for nearly 5000 families from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Employing fixed effects models to account for unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity, we found that children whose mothers were casual contract employees or economically inactive had greater behaviour difficulties, on average, than their peers whose mothers were permanent employees. Maternal mental health and parenting, rather than household financial strain, contributed to explaining the association between insecure maternal employment and child behaviour difficulties. These results were more pronounced for younger children (up to the age of 12). This study contributes to the literature on the consequences of maternal employment insecurity for child mental health in high-income countries by clarifying the mechanisms behind this association.