Employment and Achievement: Mothers' Work Involvement in Relation to Children's Achievement Behaviors and Mothers' Parenting Behaviors

Abstract

Mothers' total weekly work hours and psychological work involvement were examined in relation to children's achievement behaviors and mothers' parenting. 105 middle‐class children (M= 6 years old) and their mothers (both employed and not employed) participated in this study. Data were collected from lab observations, teacher ratings, and parent surveys. Findings of interest include. (1) for the full sample, higher weekly work hours were associated with poorer teacher ratings of children's grades, school work habits, and aspects of personality conducive to achievement: (2) within the employed sample, as mothers' weekly hours of work increased, daughters' grades were higher but sons' grades, work habits, and ego control were poorer, and (3) mothers' psychological motivation to work related to mothers' support of children's achievement and girls' stronger achievement motivation. The study findings point to the utility of including multiple measures of work involvement and children's achievement‐related behaviors.

A Longitudinal Study of Maternal Labour Force Participation and Child Academic Achievement

“…There have been many attempts to examine these issues through the study of the academic achievement of children of working and nonworking mothers (for reviews see : Etaugh, 1993 ;Gottfried, Gottfried, & Bathurst, 1988 ;Heyns, 1982 ;Hoffman, 1980). The findings from this research have been somewhat uneven, with some studies reporting that children whose mothers work in paid employment are not disadvantaged by this experience (Gottfried, Bathurst, & Gottfried, 1994 ;Gottfried et al, 1988), other studies reporting detrimental effects for at least some subgroups of children and notably boys (Bogenschneider & Steinberg, 1994 ;Gold & Andres, 1978 ;Goldberg et al, 1996 ;Milne, Myers, Rosenthal, & Ginsberg, 1986 ;Myers, Milne, Baker, & Ginsberg, 1987), and others reporting beneficial effects for maternal labour force participation (Cherry & Eaton, 1977 ;Haveman, Wolfe, & Spaulding, 1991 ;Muller, 1995 ;Vandell & Ramanan, 1992). Despite these inconsistencies, what most clearly emerges from most studies is that, once selection factors associated with maternal labour force participation are taken into account, any effects of maternal labour force participation on academic achievement are relatively small or inconsequential (Gottfried et al, 1988 ;Heyns & Catsambis, 1986).…”

“…It has been suggested that the effects of maternal labour force participation on child achievement may vary with child and family characteristics, with boys being more vulnerable to detrimental effects, and children from low socioeconomic status families being more likely to experience beneficial effects (Bogenschneider & Steinberg, 1994 ;Goldberg et al, 1996 ;Heyns, 1982 ;Hoffman, 1980). In this study we have explored this issue by testing all associations for interactive relationships between maternal labour force participation, gender, and social factors.…”

“…These uncertainties are further compounded by other methodological issues relating to the selection of samples, the validity and reliability of assessments, and methods of analysis (Heyns & Catsambis, 1986 ;Parcel & Menaghan, 1994). The net result of this is that while the weight of the published evidence supports the view that maternal labour force participation is likely to have a neutral impact on child academic achievement, it is possible to reconstruct this evidence to produce alternative interpretations (see for example, Goldberg et al, 1996).…”

“…One aspect of this concern has focused on the extent to which maternal labour force participation has effects on childhood academic achievement, with research in this area centring around attempts to resolve a debate between two polaropposed views of the effects of maternal labour force participation. The first, and more traditional, view asserts that maternal labour force participation has adverse effects on child development and childhood achievement, and this view is reflected in public opinion surveys reporting that 50 % or more of US respondents believe that maternal labour force participation has detrimental effects on children (Goldberg, Greenberger, & Nagel, 1996). The alternative, nontraditional, view has maintained that maternal labour force participation may be Requests for reprints to : David M. Fergusson beneficial to children since maternal labour force participation may have beneficial effects for the mother that lead to an enhanced child-rearing environment (Hoffman, 1989).…”

“…Although the weight of the evidence suggests that maternal labour force participation has a neutral effect on child academic achievement (Gottfried et al, 1994(Gottfried et al, , 1995, it may nonetheless be argued that this conclusion may be misleading since detrimental effects of maternal labour force participation may be confined to specific groups and these associations are thus obscured in the analysis of aggregate data. In particular, Goldberg et al (1996) note there have been persistent suggestions in the literature that boys may be particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of maternal labour force participation. It has also been proposed that children from low socioeconomic status families may benefit from maternal labour force participation to a greater extent than children from upper-or middleclass families.…”