Early Maternal Employment Research Articles

Dual-Earner Couples’ Gender Role Attitudes and Their Parental Leave Decisions: A Longitudinal Study of Partner Influences

This study examines how men and women in heterosexual partnerships influence each other’s parental leave decisions through their gender role attitudes. We differentiate between attitudes toward women’s parental role, women’s worker role, men’s parental role, and men’s worker role, and consider the role of traditional gender ideology denoting an attitude of negatively evaluating mothers’ employment when children are young. We investigated communal traits as a potential moderator to better understand partner effects, i.e., one partner’s role attitudes affecting the other partner’s leave decision. We analyzed longitudinal data from N = 365 heterosexual, mainly German dual-earner couples, collected between pregnancy and about 18 months after the birth of their first child, using the actor-partner interdependence model. We examined mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes toward all five types of gender roles and found that both mothers and fathers were influenced in their leave decisions by their partners’ attitudes toward early maternal employment. Mothers whose partners were more traditional in this regard took longer leaves; fathers whose partners were more traditional took shorter leaves. Fathers’ leave length was also influenced by their partners’ attitudes toward men’s worker role, with more traditional attitudes resulting in shorter leaves. The latter relationship was moderated by fathers’ communal traits, such that more communal fathers were more strongly influenced by their female partners’ attitudes. Overall, this research extends the understanding of mutual influences and decision-making dynamics in dual-earner couples in the early family phase.

Maternal Labor Force Participation During the Child's First Year and Later Separation Anxiety Symptoms.

Separation anxiety symptoms are frequent among preschool-aged children, but it is also a possible gateway for diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder. Early maternal employment after childbirth can increase the risk for the development of separation anxiety symptoms. From an economic perspective, however, securing employment is one effective strategy to ensure child well-being. This study investigated how mothers' participation in the labor force (vs. maternal leave) and the financial state of families when the child was 5 months old was prospectively associated with separation anxiety symptoms. This study is based on 1,295 Canadian families with children assessed longitudinally from 17 months to age 6 on their levels of separation anxiety. Separation anxiety was measured during face-to-face interviews with the mothers. Maternal labor force participation, financial status, and risk factors were measured at 5 months. Results adjusted for propensity scores and for sample weight revealed that children of working mothers, despite having sufficient income (n = 245, 18.9%), were at higher risk of separation anxiety during early childhood. In contrast, maternity leave was most beneficial for children's separation anxiety, whether they were in a family with sufficient income (n = 950, 73.4%) or temporary low income (n = 100, 7.7%). Children of mothers in maternity leave were at risk of heightened separation anxiety only if they experienced chronic economic hardship. Therefore, maternity leave uptake could help prevent the development of separation anxiety. Providing families with opportunity to care for the baby as their main occupation during this sensitive developmental period could help improve children's mental health.

Early Maternal Employment And Children's School Readiness: Changing Associations Over Time?

This study assessed whether the links between early maternal employment and children’s school readiness have changed over time. Research has examined mothers’ labor force participation and its associations with children’s well-being. As maternal employment has become more normative, these associations may have changed, particularly among subgroups of families. Data come from two large, longitudinal samples of children born in the U.S. in 1991 (N = 1042) and in 2001 (N = 7850). OLS regression models estimated changes between cohorts in the associations between early maternal employment and children’s reading/language skills, math skills, and conduct problems at age 4 and school entry. Despite similar prevalence rates of maternal employment by 9 months between the 1991 and 2001 samples, there were differences in the demographic characteristics of mothers in each employment pattern over the decade. Examining associations between the early maternal employment patterns and children’s school readiness, results revealed that full time employment by 9 months in comparison to non-employment shifted to having more positive associations with reading/language skills at age 4 and school entry from 1991 to 2001. However, full time maternal employment by 9 months was associated with children’s higher conduct problems at school entry in 1991 and 2001, and by 2001, part time employment had similar repercussions. The results differed by family income. There have been small changes in the associations between early maternal employment and children’s school readiness over time.

Do children influence their mothers' decisions? Early child development and maternal employment entries after birth.

This study investigates whether early child development influences mothers' decisions regarding when to return to the labor market in Germany. Previous research has examined how institutional, individual and household factors affect maternal work interruption durations after childbirth. This study extends the literature by focusing on the impact of children on mothers' return-to-work behavior after childbirth and by examining mechanisms that might explain this impact. The study builds on data from NEPS Starting Cohort 1, the first large-scale newborn panel study in Germany, which provides measures on four different aspects of early child development, sensorimotor skills, habituation, regulatory capacity and negative affectivity, as well as information on mothers' labor market behavior and household settings. The analytical sample consists of 2,548 mothers with valid child information and contains data from the first four panel waves of the study until the child is 3 years old. The results from discrete-time event history models indicate a differentiated pattern of effects of child development indicators: higher sensorimotor skills and lower regulatory capacity are weakly associated with earlier maternal employment, while habituation and negative affectivity are unrelated to mothers' work behavior. Effects are the strongest among mothers returning to part-time work and among those with a medium level of education.

Early Maternal Employment Status and Attachment Quality: An Investigation of a Conditional Process Model

This study examined how maternal employment status during the first year of a child’s life influenced later attachment quality. A sample of 1,364 mothers participated in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development was categorized into five groups including consistent working, transition to working, transition to nonworking, consistent nonworking, and multiple transitions. Results supported the hypothesized model by showing two interrelated mediating mechanisms of depressive symptoms and maternal sensitivity. Mothers who have not worked consistently and experienced transition to nonworking showed higher levels of depressive symptoms when compared with mothers who have worked consistently, which in turn negatively influenced maternal sensitivity. Tests of moderated mediation indicated that among nonworking mothers, only those with negative attitudes toward employment showed lower levels of depressive symptoms compared with the consistent working group. Findings suggest different mechanisms involved in the relationship between early maternal employment and the development of secure attachment.

Trajectories of maternal postpartum distress and employment profiles: implications for parenting

ABSTRACTThis study examined the roles of growth patterns of early maternal distress and employment profiles in subsequent parenting with 1,337 Korean mothers participating in the Panel Study on Korean Children. Data collected from childbirth to 14 months postpartum were used. Using latent class growth modeling, we identified three trajectories that had their unique timing and course of distress symptoms: consistently low distressed (70.7%), early and briefly distressed (10.4%), and later and chronically distressed (18.9%). Mothers in the consistent low distressed and in the early and briefly distressed groups exhibited a significantly more positive parenting, compared with mothers in the later and chronically distressed group. Further, we found that positive associations of asymptomatic status with parenting were attenuated by working in the late postpartum. This finding underscores the importance of considering the relation between maternal mental health and employment in accounting for parenting in the transition period to motherhood.

Child’s Behavioral Problems in Relation to Early Maternal Employment

Child’s Behavioral Problems in Relation to Early Maternal Employment

Early Maternal Employment and Children’s Later Depression: A Reverse Goldilocks Phenomenon

Concerns about how maternal employment affects the development of children continue to attract research attention. Most of the literature focuses on how maternal employment affects children’s behavioral development. However, some studies have examined the longer term impact of maternal employment on adolescent and young adult affective functioning, including risk of depression. The current study explored the relationship between maternal employment during four developmental stages and subsequent risk of depressive symptoms in young adulthood. The BDI-II, DIRI Personal Distress Scale, and measures assessing maternal employment history were administered to 452 undergraduates. Four 2 x 3 MANOVA (sex x maternal employment status [full-time, part-time, nonemployment] during the participants’ infancy, preschool years, elementary school years, and adolescence) were conducted to investigate the effect of maternal employment during each of the four stages of development on subsequent development of depressive symptoms and personal distress. A significant interaction effect showed that sons whose mothers were employed part-time during their infancy reported higher rates of subsequent depression on the BDI-II than those whose mothers were nonemployed or employed full-time. For both men and women, a history of part-time maternal employment during the child’s infancy was associated with reports of greater personal distress in young adulthood. Maternal employment during the other three developmental stages was not associated with significant differences in subsequent depression or personal distress.

Early Maternal Employment and Children's Vocabulary and Inductive Reasoning Ability: A Dynamic Approach.

This study investigates the relationship between early maternal employment history and children's vocabulary and inductive reasoning ability at age 5, drawing on longitudinal information on 2,200 children from the Growing Up in Scotland data. Prior research rarely addresses dynamics in maternal employment and the methodological ramifications of time-variant confounding. The present study proposes various measures to capture duration, timing, and stability of early maternal employment and uses inverse probability of treatment weighting to control for time-variant confounders that may partially mediate the effect of maternal employment on cognitive scores. The findings suggest only modest differences in the above ability measures between children who have been exposed to very different patterns of eary maternal employment, but with similar observed covariate history.

The impact of early maternal employment on infant wellbeing and attachment

This article presents the findings of a non-exhaustive critical literature review, which investigates the effects of early maternal employment (EME) on infant attachment and wellbeing. EME is defined as maternal employment commencing in the first year of the infant's life ( Brooks-Gunn et al, 2010 ). As the number of mothers who return to work after having children has increased drastically over the past 30 years ( O'Reilly, 2012 ), there is very little evidence and no current UK policy or guidance in relation to EME to support women in making the often difficult decision to return to work after giving birth.

Early Maternal Employment and Children's Academic and Behavioral Skills in Australia and the United Kingdom.

This study assessed the links between early maternal employment and children's later academic and behavioral skills in Australia and the United Kingdom. Using representative samples of children born in each country from 2000 to 2004 (Australia N=5,093, U.K. N=18,497), OLS regression models weighted with propensity scores assessed links between maternal employment in the 2years after childbearing and children's skills in first grade. There were neutral associations between maternal employment and children's first-grade skills in both countries. However, there was a slight indication that more time away from parenting was negatively linked to children's behavioral functioning in Australia and employment begun between 9 and 24months was positively linked to cognitive skills for U.K. children of low-wage mothers.

Role of Early Maternal Employment and Family Systems in Child’s Psychological Development

Role of Early Maternal Employment and Family Systems in Child’s Psychological Development

Early maternal employment and children's school readiness in contemporary families.

This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among children generalized to modern families. Using a representative sample of children born in the United States in 2001 (N = 10,100), ordinary least squares regression models weighted with propensity scores assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and children's school readiness skills at kindergarten. There were neutral associations between maternal employment and children's school readiness, which were not differentiated by maternal time, stress, or wages. However, as nonmaternal household income decreased, maternal employment begun prior to 9 months was linked with higher cognitive skills, while employment begun between 9 and 24 months was linked with lower conduct problems.

Are Parental Welfare Work Requirements Good for Disadvantaged Children? Evidence from Age-of-Youngest-Child Exemptions

This paper assesses the short-run impact of first-year maternal employment on low-income children's cognitive development. The identification strategy exploits an important feature of the U.S.'s welfare work requirement rules – namely, age-of-youngest-child exemptions – as a source of quasi-experimental variation in maternal employment. The 1996 welfare reform law empowered states to exempt adult recipients from the work requirements until the youngest child reaches a certain age. This led to substantial variation in the amount of time that mothers can remain home with a newborn child. I use this variation to estimate local average treatment effects of work-requirement-induced increases in maternal employment. Using a sample of infants from the Birth cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, the OLS results show that children of working mothers score higher on a test of cognitive ability. However, the IV estimates reveal sizable negative effects of early maternal employment. An auxiliary analysis of mechanisms finds that working mothers experience an increase in depressive symptoms, and are less likely to breast-feed and read to their children. In addition, such children are exposed to non-parental child care arrangements at a younger age, and they spend more time in these settings throughout the first year of life.

Predicting the timing of maternal employment after birth among a low-income and ethnically diverse sample

Policy pressures in the USA to transition parents from public assistance to work and concerns about the effects of early maternal employment on children highlight the importance of studying predictors of the timing of postpartum maternal employment. Little attention has been given to postpartum employment patterns of low-income ethnic minorities and immigrants, whose working conditions and employment prospects are different from white, middle-class mothers. Using a sample of low-income Mexicans, Dominicans, and African-Americans (N = 310), we studied whether and when mothers start working the first year following childbirth, and what factors promote or delay postpartum employment. Using discrete-time survival analysis, we modeled the odds of working at each month and tested the influence of family context, mothers' work and family values and plans, maternity leave benefit, and instrumental support availability on the timing of employment. By 11 months, half of the mothers had started working. Having maternity leave, plans to work, childcare arrangements, and a strong work orientation increased the odds of working. Household earnings were related to postpartum employment, but this effect varied over time. For African-Americans, instrumental support availability predicted earlier returns to employment, whereas for Mexicans and Dominicans it related to later returns to employment.

From the Shop Floor to the Kitchen Floor

Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics we explore the relationship between current and early maternal occupational complexity and preadolescent children’s academic achievement in mathematics and reading. We measure white-collar occupational complexity with an index that incorporates task complexity, authority, and autonomy. Blue-collar occupational complexity is observed with a measure of task complexity with things. Controlling for differential selection into employment, we find that current maternal occupational complexity has positive associations with reading and mathematics scores for children, with stronger associations for sons. We find mixed associations between early maternal employment and children’s academic achievement, suggesting that the influence of early maternal employment on child development declines as children age.

Does Maternal Employment Following Childbirth Support or Inhibit Low‐Income Children’s Long‐Term Development?

This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among middle-class and White children generalized to other groups. Using a representative sample of urban, low-income, predominantly African American and Hispanic families (n = 444), ordinary least squares regression and propensity score matching models assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and children's functioning at age 7. Children whose mothers were employed early, particularly in their first 8 months, showed enhanced socioemotional functioning compared to peers whose mothers remained nonemployed. Protective associations emerged for both part-time and full-time employment, and were driven by African American children, with neutral effects for Hispanics. Informal home-based child care also heightened positive links.

Effects of early maternal employment on maternal health and well-being

This study uses data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study on Early Child Care to examine the effects of maternal employment on maternal mental and overall health, self-reported parenting stress, and parenting quality. These outcomes are measured when children are 6 months old. Among mothers of 6-month-old infants, maternal work hours are positively associated with depressive symptoms and parenting stress and negatively associated with self-rated overall health. However, maternal employment is not associated with quality of parenting at 6 months, based on trained assessors' observations of maternal sensitivity.

Early maternal employment and childhood obesity among economically disadvantaged families in the USA

Research indicates a link between maternal employment and children's risk of obesity, but little prior work has addressed maternal employment during children's infancy. This study examined the timing and intensity of early maternal employment and associations with children's later overweight and obesity in a sample of low-income families in low-income urban communities in the USA (n = 322). Logistic regression and propensity score models suggested that mothers’ entry into employment when a child was 9–23 months old predicted a higher risk of child overweight/obesity at age 7 in comparison to both earlier entries and remaining out of the labour market for at least two years. This association was more pronounced with full-time work and existed mainly for children who remained in mother care or attended child care centres. Further work is necessary to determine mechanisms for this relationship, such as breastfeeding and nutrition.

Have children adapted to their mothers working, or was adaptation unnecessary? Cohort effects and the relationship between maternal employment and child well-being

Drawing on previous theoretical and empirical work, we posit that maternal employment influences on child well-being vary across birth cohorts. We investigate this possibility by analyzing longitudinal data from a sample of children and their mothers drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We introduce a series of age, cohort, and maternal employment interaction terms into multilevel models predicting child well-being to assess whether any potential short-term or long-term effects of early and current maternal employment vary across birth cohorts. Results indicate that maternal employment largely is inconsequential to child well-being regardless of birth cohort, with a few exceptions. For instance, children born in earlier cohorts may have experienced long-term positive effects of having an employed mother; however, as maternal employment became more commonplace in recent cohorts, these beneficial effects appear to have disappeared. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications of these findings.