Effects of maternal employment patterns on adolescents' substance use and other risk-taking behaviors

Abstract

Employment for mothers with school-age children has generated great concern regarding its possible harmful effects on adolescents and their families. We examined the influence of maternal employment on the risk-taking behavior of adolescents in two-parent families. Three hundred and eighty-nine high school students completed a 48-item survey in which they indicated their mother's and father's employment patterns, and their own risk-taking behaviors (e.g., substance use, driving while under the influence). Results showed no significant effects of maternal employment on adolescent risk-taking behaviors.KEY WORDS: maternal employment; adolescence; substance use.The increasing quantity and nature of women's participation in the American work force has been an area of societal change of enormous proportions during the 20th century. Although the extension of work for women from inside to outside of the home for pay did not take place immediately in response to the urbanization and industrialization of the previous century as it did for men (Voydanoff, 1988), notable changes have occurred. At the turn of the century only 20% of women (of which 70% were not married) were working outside of the home. HUiman, Sawilowsky, and Becker women in the prime working years of 25 to 54 were in the labor force (Green & Epstein, 1988).In recent decades, dramatic changes have occurred among married women with school-age children. For these two-parent families, the rate of maternal employment outside of the home has climbed from 40% in 197040% in (Hayghe, 1984 to the current employment rate of 71% (Hoffman, 1989). Of this group, the majority (approximately 1989). It has been projected that the rate increase to 75% by the year 1995 (Phillips, 2000(Green & Epstein, 1988. 70%) work full-time (Phillips, of maternal employment will 1989) and to 81% by the year This expanding dual-wage earner status of the American family has created a "natural experiment of enormous proportions" (Matthews & Rodin, 1989, p. 1389, stimulated increased research, and brought about considerable public and policy concerns (Scarr, 1984). Much of the research extending from these issues has focused on the short and long term consequences of maternal employment on prepubescent-age children (Hoffman, 1989;Orthner, 1990), even though it is the mothers of adolescents who are more likely to be employed than the mothers of younger children (U. S. Bureau of Labor, 1987). It is also during this time of adolescence that many mothers are likely to return to work, assuming a greater degree of independence on the part of their children (Orthner, 1990).Although it has been assumed that maternal employment has negative effects on children's development, in the majority of studies few consistent differences have emerged (Hoffman, 1984). For example, in most studies of mother-infant attachment, no significant differences between full-time employed mothers and single-wage earning families have been found (Chase-Lansdale & Owen, 1987). Where difficulties have been in evidence, ...

The Impact of Low-Ability Peers on Cognitive and Noncognitive Outcomes

“…Results presented in Columns 4 and 5 show that having a larger proportion of repeater peers affects students from families without regular homework checking more severely on cognitive assessment score and school engagement compared to students whose parents check their homework regularly. Finally, given the ample evidence that establishes the connection between mother's education and children's cognitive and social development (for example, Menaghan and Parcel 1991;Parcel and Menaghan 1994) Table 7 Heterogeneous and delinquency (Hillman, Sawilowsky, and Becker 1993;McCord 1991), we further examine whether the negative effects of repeaters are moderated by mothers' education level, where we divide the sample in half by mothers with "a college degree or higher" versus mothers with "a high school degree or less." Results show that the negative spillovers of repeaters on academic performance and cognitive assessment score are primarily driven by students whose mothers have below-college education (Panel A, Column 8).…”