The effect of maternal employment during preschool years on school readiness

Abstract

Many children referred because of “learning disability” have mothers in full‐time employment. This study was undertaken to examine the effect of maternal employment on school readiness. One hundred and seven children were studied. Forty‐six were the offspring of women who had not gone out to work since the birth of the child (group A). The mothers of the other 61 had worked for 1 year or more during the lifetime of the child (group B). The mother of each child completed a detailed questionnaire. Each child was subjected to standardized tests of reasoning, numerical ability, Gestalt, verbal comprehension, eye‐hand co‐ordination, visual and auditory perception and IQ. Groups A and B were compared with regard to marital status of parents, their educational attainments, family size, ordinal position of the index child and years of nursery school experience. Educational attainments of both fathers and mothers were significantly higher in group A and children had spent significantly longer at nursery school. Gr...