A New Perspective on Maternal Employment and Child Mental Health: A Cautionary Tale

• In Event: 570 - Regular Session. Mental Health: Economic and Education Antecedents

Abstract

The literature on the impact of maternal employment on children now spans four decades. We question some of the basic assumptions in this literature, specifically regarding the specification and operationalization of maternal employment and child well-being. Given a focus on early life in that literature, we demonstrate that longer-term beneficial effects on child mental health may surface by adolescence or early adulthood. We also demonstrate that maternal reports, necessary when focusing on early life, may seriously compromise findings. Using data from two studies, one a family study in Toronto and the other the Child Development Supplement of the PSID, we present findings showing positive effects on child mental health due to maternal employment, via reductions in internalizing symptoms in the long run, when using child self-reports, long term followups, full range coding of symptom outcomes, and status based definitions of full-time vs. part-time employment reported by the mother rather than hours-based definitions. Our findings suggest that the effects of maternal employment may be quite the opposite of what concerns in the early literature suggest. We offer some leads on explaining these positive effects in the discussion.

Authors

• Blair Wheaton, University of Toronto

• Patricia Joy Louie, University of Toronto