Mother or Market? Effects of Maternal Employment on the Intellectual Ability of 4-Year-Old Children

Abstract

This article uses the 1986 Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data set to investigate the impact of maternal employment on children's intellectual ability, as measured at the age of 4 by using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Results from multivariate regression analysis show a statistically significant adverse effect of mother's employment on children's intellectual ability, but only for boys in higher income families. Furthermore, the negative impact was related to the timing of maternal employment: employment during the boys' infancy had a statistically significant negative effect on PPVT scores at the age of 4. This pattern was not found for girls, for children in low-income families, or for families in which mothers resumed their employment after the child's first year of life. The impact of other demographic trends in recent yearsdeclining fertility and rising marital instability-are also investigated. The results show an adverse effect of the presence of other siblings on children's PPVT scores; but holding family income constant, the effect of the parents' marital status on children's intellectual ability is not statistically significant. In addition, several family background factors are highly correlated with children's test scores. Three significant and interrelated demographic trends have dominated the social landscape in the United States for the past quarter-century: a dramatic rise in the labor force participation of mothers with young children, a pervasive decline in fertility rates (especially marital fertility rates), and a more than doubling of divorce rates and growing rates of transitory nonmarital cohabitation.

Effects of Maternal Employment and Prematurity on Child Outcomes in Single Parent Families

“…Although Belsky and Eggebeen (1991) and Baydar and BrooksGunn (1991) found negative effects of early employment, Vandell and Ramanan (1992) found positive effects of early maternal employment for children in low-income families. In a sample of mixed-income families, Desai et al (1989) found that outcomes for children in low-income families were not related to either the child's age when the mother began employment or the mother's pattern of employment.…”

“…In that study, 6-year-old children whose mothers changed their employment during the previous 3 years scored significantly lower on teachers' ratings of their cognitive and social competence than children whose mothers were continuously employed. In another study, Desai et al (1989) found no effect of continuous or intermittent maternal employment on 4-year-old children's receptive vocabulary.…”

“…Likewise, employment history was represented with an interval level variable (proportion of the child's life with an employed mother) in half of the regressions, and with a dichotomized variable (employed/not employed in child's first year of life) in the other half. This was done to investigate the effects of timing of maternal employment (Baydar & BrooksGunn, 1991;Belsky & Eggebeen, 1991;Desai et al, 1989).…”

“…Maternal employment during the child's first or second year of life has been reported to have a negative effect on preschool children's adjustment and compliance (Belsky & Eggebeen, 1991) and receptive vocabulary (Baydar & Brooks-Gunn, 1991;Desai, Chase-Lansdale, & Michael, 1989). However, the findings of Desai and colleagues held only for sons in higher income families; in contrast, daughters in higher income families had higher receptive vocabulary.…”

“…However, the findings of Desai and colleagues held only for sons in higher income families; in contrast, daughters in higher income families had higher receptive vocabulary. In low-income families, maternal employment in the first year or two of life had no effect on children's receptive vocabulary in one study (Desai et al, 1989) but had positive effects for children in another (Vandall & Ramanan, 1992).…”