Whether or not a single mother is employed, and how much her job pays, significantly affects her adolescent children's self-esteem, educational attainment, and the likelihood that they will remain in school. Those findings, reported in the January/February 2005 issue of the journal Child Development, have significant implications in today's post-welfare reform world, note University of Chicago researchers. Researchers Ariel Kalil, PhD and Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, MPA, investigated the links between single mothers' employment and the well-being of their adolescent children (ages 14 to 16) over a two-year period using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative sample that began following 12,686 youth aged 14 to 22 in 1979.
"The booming economy of the mid-to-late 1990's, along with sweeping social policy changes, helped single mothers reach unprecedented employment levels," notes Dr. Kalil, an associate professor in the university's Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. "Economists studying the labor market experiences of single mothers in the past decade have been concerned with whether those entering the workforce will be able to earn a living wage, and with the stability of their jobs over time. Meanwhile, psychologists and sociologists have been concerned with how these women's work experiences will affect their children's well-being."
She and her co-author looked at both issues in their study, which examined the role of single mothers' employment dynamics on their adolescents' well-being.
The researchers found that teenagers of single mothers who lose their jobs and remain unemployed for two years showed declines in their sense of self efficacy and self esteem compared to teens whose mothers remain employed in jobs that paid a living wage. Additionally, adolescents whose mothers were employed in a lower-wage job were significantly more likely to have to repeat a grade compared to teens whose mothers worked in higher-wage jobs.
Finally, researchers found, those adolescents whose mothers were either persistently unemployed or who lost more than one job during the two-year period were more likely to drop out of school than adolescents whose mothers were stably employed in a higher-wage job. Changes in family income, the researchers note, do not explain these findings.
Overall, Dr. Kalil says, these findings suggest that employment instability may negatively affect adolescent's educational progress and psychological well-being. Moreover, she says, persistent employment at a lower-wage job, as well as persistent non-employment, may affect educational achievement.
"The results from this study point to the importance of not only helping single mothers keep jobs once they find them," she concluded, "but also providing the economic supports that make these jobs as much like higher-wage ones as possible."
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Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Single Mothers' Employment Dynamics and Adolescent Well-Being by Kalil A and Ziol-Guest KM (University). Copyright 2005 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/sfri-mja013105.php
And other article...
Mom's work schedule significantly impacts her child's cognitive development
A mother who works nonstandard hours, such as evenings, nights or rotating shifts, may significantly affect her young child's intellectual development, Columbia University School of Social Work Assistant Professor Wen-Jui Han, PhD found.
Her work, published in the January/February 2005 issue of Child Development, comes as an increasing number of mothers entering the workforce find employment with nonstandard hours. Single, low-income mothers and/or welfare mothers are more likely to work such nonstandard hours, Dr. Han notes, and earlier studies suggest they often have difficulties balancing work and family responsibilities on such schedules.
Now, it appears, those difficulties are affecting their children's cognitive development.
Dr. Han used information from the National Institute of Child Health Development's (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care, which tracked 1,364 children from 10 sites around the country from birth in 1991 through 36 months. Her study focused on 900 children whose mothers had worked in the first three years of their child's life. About half the working mothers worked at nonstandard hours during this time.
Even after controlling for the quality of the home environment and child care, maternal depression, and the mother's sensitivity towards her children, researchers found that the children of mothers who worked nonstandard work schedules during their first three years of life performed much worse on cognitive tests. Those tests evaluated such things as language development, memory, learning, problem solving, and children's knowledge of colors, letters, numbers, and shapes.
One reason for the effect, Dr. Han suggests, may be the type of care children receive when their mothers work such hours. Earlier studies find that mothers working nonstandard hours were less likely to put their children in center-based child care than mothers who worked more traditional hours. Such child care has been linked with better child cognitive outcomes.
"The children of mothers working at nonstandard hours may miss out on this opportunity to get what could be a form of school preparation that many other children receive," notes Dr. Han.
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Maternal Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Cognitive Outcomes by Han, WJ (Columbia University). Copyright 2005 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/sfri-mws020105.php
"The booming economy of the mid-to-late 1990's, along with sweeping social policy changes, helped single mothers reach unprecedented employment levels," notes Dr. Kalil, an associate professor in the university's Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. "Economists studying the labor market experiences of single mothers in the past decade have been concerned with whether those entering the workforce will be able to earn a living wage, and with the stability of their jobs over time. Meanwhile, psychologists and sociologists have been concerned with how these women's work experiences will affect their children's well-being."
She and her co-author looked at both issues in their study, which examined the role of single mothers' employment dynamics on their adolescents' well-being.
The researchers found that teenagers of single mothers who lose their jobs and remain unemployed for two years showed declines in their sense of self efficacy and self esteem compared to teens whose mothers remain employed in jobs that paid a living wage. Additionally, adolescents whose mothers were employed in a lower-wage job were significantly more likely to have to repeat a grade compared to teens whose mothers worked in higher-wage jobs.
Finally, researchers found, those adolescents whose mothers were either persistently unemployed or who lost more than one job during the two-year period were more likely to drop out of school than adolescents whose mothers were stably employed in a higher-wage job. Changes in family income, the researchers note, do not explain these findings.
Overall, Dr. Kalil says, these findings suggest that employment instability may negatively affect adolescent's educational progress and psychological well-being. Moreover, she says, persistent employment at a lower-wage job, as well as persistent non-employment, may affect educational achievement.
"The results from this study point to the importance of not only helping single mothers keep jobs once they find them," she concluded, "but also providing the economic supports that make these jobs as much like higher-wage ones as possible."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Single Mothers' Employment Dynamics and Adolescent Well-Being by Kalil A and Ziol-Guest KM (University). Copyright 2005 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/sfri-mja013105.php
And other article...
Mom's work schedule significantly impacts her child's cognitive development
A mother who works nonstandard hours, such as evenings, nights or rotating shifts, may significantly affect her young child's intellectual development, Columbia University School of Social Work Assistant Professor Wen-Jui Han, PhD found.
Her work, published in the January/February 2005 issue of Child Development, comes as an increasing number of mothers entering the workforce find employment with nonstandard hours. Single, low-income mothers and/or welfare mothers are more likely to work such nonstandard hours, Dr. Han notes, and earlier studies suggest they often have difficulties balancing work and family responsibilities on such schedules.
Now, it appears, those difficulties are affecting their children's cognitive development.
Dr. Han used information from the National Institute of Child Health Development's (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care, which tracked 1,364 children from 10 sites around the country from birth in 1991 through 36 months. Her study focused on 900 children whose mothers had worked in the first three years of their child's life. About half the working mothers worked at nonstandard hours during this time.
Even after controlling for the quality of the home environment and child care, maternal depression, and the mother's sensitivity towards her children, researchers found that the children of mothers who worked nonstandard work schedules during their first three years of life performed much worse on cognitive tests. Those tests evaluated such things as language development, memory, learning, problem solving, and children's knowledge of colors, letters, numbers, and shapes.
One reason for the effect, Dr. Han suggests, may be the type of care children receive when their mothers work such hours. Earlier studies find that mothers working nonstandard hours were less likely to put their children in center-based child care than mothers who worked more traditional hours. Such child care has been linked with better child cognitive outcomes.
"The children of mothers working at nonstandard hours may miss out on this opportunity to get what could be a form of school preparation that many other children receive," notes Dr. Han.
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Maternal Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Cognitive Outcomes by Han, WJ (Columbia University). Copyright 2005 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/sfri-mws020105.php