Mothers' subjective employment experiences and the behaviour of their nursery school children

Abstract

Most research on the effects of maternal employment on children has followed the ‘maternal deprivation’ hypothesis, which focuses on differences in the behaviour of children of employed and non‐employed mothers. Yet this framework may have impeded an examination of a more relevant question, namely the impact of mothers' employment‐related experiences. Accordingly, this study assesses the influence of mothers' job satisfaction, job involvement and role conflict on the behaviour of their nursery school sons and daughters (n=46 and 45 respectively). The effects of maternal employment on their nursery school children were found to be mediated by (a) the nature and quality of the employment experience (i.e. positive or negative), (b) the type of child behaviour assessed, and (c) the sex of the child. Mothers' job satisfaction was positively associated with daughters' self‐control and negatively with conduct problems; their role conflict was negatively related to sons' and daughters' self‐control, and positively associated with sons' conduct problems and daughters' immaturity. These results support the hypothesis that the quality of the maternal employment experience influences nursery school children's behaviour.