Maternal Employment and Adolescents' Academic Achievement: A Developmental Analysis

Bogenschneider, Karen; Steinberg, Laurence

doi:10.2307/2112750

Cited by 36 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…For instance, children from middle-and upper-middle-class families appear to be more likely to suffer adverse effects of early maternal employment (Bogenschneider & Steinberg, 1994;Desai, Chase-Lansdale, & Michael, 1989;Gregg, Washbrook, Propper, & Burgess, 2005), consistent with the notion of diminished (or lost) resources from alternate care compared with what mothers would have provided (Desai et al, 1989;NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003). In families with higher SES, maternal employment may not be a financial necessity; therefore, the benefits of a mother's work may not outweigh the negative effects of decreased maternal attention and supervision and the risk of poor quality child care arrangements.…”

Section: Sample Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Maternal work early in the lives of children and its distal associations with achievement and behavior problems: A meta-analysis.

Lucas‐Thompson¹,

Goldberg²,

Prause³

2010

Psychological Bulletin

101

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This meta-analysis of 69 studies (1,483 effect sizes) used random effects models to examine maternal employment during infancy/early childhood in relation to 2 major domains of child functioning: achievement and behavior problems. Analyses of studies that spanned 5 decades indicated that, with a few exceptions, early employment was not significantly associated with later achievement or internalizing/externalizing behaviors. The exceptions were for teacher ratings of achievement and internalizing behaviors: Employment was associated with higher achievement and fewer internalizing behaviors. Substantial heterogeneity among the effect sizes prompted examination of moderators. Sample-level moderator analyses pointed to the importance of socioeconomic and contextual variables, with early employment most beneficial when families were challenged by single parenthood or welfare status. Maternal employment during Years 2 and 3 was associated with higher achievement. Some moderator analyses indicated negative effects of employment for middle-class and 2-parent families and for very early employment (child's first year). Associations also differed depending on whether effect sizes were adjusted for contextual variables. Only 1 study-level moderator (sex of first author) was significant after adjusting for other moderators. The small effect size and primarily nonsignificant results for main effects of early maternal employment should allay concerns about mothers working when children are young. However, negative findings associated with employment during the child's first year are compatible with calls for more generous maternal leave policies. Results highlight the importance of social context for identifying under which conditions and for which subgroups early maternal employment is associated with positive or negative child outcomes.

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Section: Sample Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Maternal work early in the lives of children and its distal associations with achievement and behavior problems: A meta-analysis.

Lucas‐Thompson¹,

Goldberg²,

Prause³

2010

Psychological Bulletin

101

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“…The findings from this research have been somewhat uneven, with some studies reporting that children whose mothers work in paid employment are not disadvantaged by this experience (Gottfried, Bathurst, & Gottfried, 1994 ;Gottfried et al, 1988), other studies reporting detrimental effects for at least some subgroups of children and notably boys (Bogenschneider & Steinberg, 1994 ;Gold & Andres, 1978 ;Goldberg et al, 1996 ;Milne, Myers, Rosenthal, & Ginsberg, 1986 ;Myers, Milne, Baker, & Ginsberg, 1987), and others reporting beneficial effects for maternal labour force participation (Cherry & Eaton, 1977 ;Haveman, Wolfe, & Spaulding, 1991 ;Muller, 1995 ;Vandell & Ramanan, 1992). Despite these inconsistencies, what most clearly emerges from most studies is that, once selection factors associated with maternal labour force participation are taken into account, any effects of maternal labour force participation on academic achievement are relatively small or inconsequential (Gottfried et al, 1988 ;Heyns & Catsambis, 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 76%

A Longitudinal Study of Maternal Labour Force Participation and Child Academic Achievement

Horwood

Fergusson

1999

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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The associations between maternal labour force participation and child academic achievement were examined in a birth cohort of New Zealand children who have been studied from birth to age 18. The results of this analysis suggested the presence of small associations between the extent of maternal labour force participation and scores on standardised tests of word recognition, reading comprehension, and mathematical reasoning. Similar associations were found between maternal labour force participation and success in school leaving examinations. These associations arose predominantly because children whose mothers worked had better performance than children whose mothers who had not worked in paid employment. However, patterns of maternal labour force participation were also related to a series of family and child factors including: maternal education, family socioeconomic status, race, birth order, family composition, early mother-child interaction, and child IQ. Adjustment for these factors reduced associations between maternal labour force participation and academic achievement to the point of practical and statistical nonsignificance. These results were found to be robust and similar conclusions were found for (1) a range of measures of maternal labour force participation, and (2) subgroups of the cohort defined by gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or family type.

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“…Many researchers (Hillman and Sawilowsky, 1991; Gottfried and Gottfried, 1994; Paulson, 1994; Vander Ven et al, 2001) conclude that maternal employment does not affect outcomes such as academic achievement, delinquency, or substance abuse. However, some obtain positive impacts (Richards and Duckett, 1994; Muller, 1995) or negative consequences (Bogenschneider and Steinberg, 1994), and there is a tendency to find greater gains or lower costs from part-time (versus full-time) work and for girls, blacks or children with less educated parents (Richards and Duckett, 1991; Bogenschneider and Steinberg, 1994; Wolfer and Moen, 1996). …”

Section: Maternal Employment and Adolescent Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal employment and adolescent development

2008

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This study investigates how maternal employment is related to the cognitive development and body weight of 10 and 11 year olds, controlling for a wide variety of child, mother and family characteristics. The results suggest that limited market work benefits youths who are relatively “disadvantaged” and even long hours, which occur infrequently, are unlikely to leave them much worse off. By contrast, maternal labor supply is estimated to have more uniformly harmful consequences for “advantaged” adolescents. The negative cognitive effects for these youths probably partly occur because maternal labor supply reduces the time spent in enriching home environments. Some of the growth in obesity may be related to determinants of excess weight common to the child and mother.

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Maternal Employment and Adolescents' Academic Achievement: A Developmental Analysis

Cited by 36 publications

References 26 publications

Maternal work early in the lives of children and its distal associations with achievement and behavior problems: A meta-analysis.

Maternal work early in the lives of children and its distal associations with achievement and behavior problems: A meta-analysis.

A Longitudinal Study of Maternal Labour Force Participation and Child Academic Achievement

Maternal employment and adolescent development

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