New Longitudinal Study Finds That Having A Working Mother Does No Significant Harm To Children -- Earlier Research Had Drawn Mixed Conclusions Regarding Mothers' Employment
WASHINGTON - A mother's employment outside of the home has no significant negative effect on her children, according to new research reported in the March issue of Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
The finding, which both supports and contradicts earlier studies on the question of the effect of mothers' employment on young children, is based on an analysis of data collected in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). The NLSY is a survey of approximately 12,600 individuals who have been interviewed annually since 1979 when they were between 14 and 22 years of age. Beginning in 1986, the children of women in the group were also assessed.
The study's author, psychologist Elizabeth Harvey, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, used a longitudinal design to examine the long-term effects of early parental employment - employment during the child's first three years of life -- on the functioning of the child.
Dr. Harvey examined four employment variables: Whether the mother worked during the first three years of the child's life, how soon a mother returned to work after childbirth, how much she worked (hours per week) during the first three years of her child's life, and the discontinuity of employment (if there were any periods of unemployment during the same time frame). She compared these variables with five child outcome measures: compliance, behavior problems, cognitive development, self-esteem and academic achievement.
Dr. Harvey found that children whose mothers worked during the first three years of their lives were not significantly different from children whose mothers did not work during that time frame. Among mothers who worked during the first three years of their child's life, the only significant effect of the timing of their return to work and the discontinuity of the employment was on compliance in three and four year olds. Three and four year olds whose mothers returned to work later showed slightly higher compliance than the same age group whose mothers returned to work sooner, but these differences were small and disappeared by the time the children were five to six years of age.
Children whose mothers worked long hours were found to have slightly lower scores on tests, which measures children's vocabulary and individual student achievement, but again these differences were small and faded over time.
Effects of fathers' employment status and working hours were also studied. No significant effects of fathers' employment hours on children's development were found.
This study follows six previous studies based on NLSY data, some of which found negative effects of maternal employment. The author submits that the new study was based on data collected over a longer period of time and with a larger, more representative survey sample. The author further notes, however, that the quality of daycare was not part of this study and should be looked at in additional research on the effects of parental employment on young children.
Article: "Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Early Parental Employment on Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth," Elizabeth Harvey, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Developmental Psychology, Vol. 35, No. 2.
Full Text Available from the APA Public Affairs Office
Lead author Dr. Elizabeth (Lisa) Harvey can be reached at 413-545-0073
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 155,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 50 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 58 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
Journal
Developmental Psychology