Early Maternal Employment and Children’s Academic and Behavioral Skills: A Comparative Analysis

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

The dramatic increase in maternal employment worldwide has spurred a substantial body of research on mothers’ labor force participation and its associations with children’s health and well-being. This research has focused primarily on cohorts of middle class, White children in the U.S. born several decades ago, with results suggesting full-time employment in the first year after childbirth is linked with lower child cognitive and behavioral skills. It is unclear if these same patterns exist in more recent cohorts and in other countries with similar economic structures, but differing cultural expectations and policy environments for young families, most notably more comprehensive parental leave policies.
The goal of the current study was to delineate the repercussions of early maternal employment for children’s early developmental competencies in three countries: the U.S., Australia, and the U.K. I also sought to test economic and psychological theories regarding potential mechanisms linking maternal employment with children’s development, including time, money, and stress.
Data for this study came from three datasets: (1) the U.S.’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECSL-B; N=10,100), (2) Australia’s Longitudinal Study of Australian Children Birth Cohort (LSAC-B; N=5,093), and (3) the U.K.’s Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; N= 18,497). These datasets are unique in that they contain a breadth of information on a representative sample of children in each country born between 2000 and 2004 with data measured across comparable time points. Key features of each study are reported in Table 1. In each dataset, mother’s employment data were coded to assess the month of entry into employment following childbirth. Extensive, well-validated direct assessment, mother report, and teacher report measures assessed children’s cognitive skills and conduct problems following entry into formal schooling.

Author

• Caitlin Lombardi, Boston College