Maternal employment and children's achievement in context: A meta-analysis of four decades of research.

Abstract

This meta-analysis of 68 studies (770 effect sizes) used random effects models to examine whether children's achievement differed depending on whether their mothers were employed. Four achievement outcomes were emphasized: formal tests of achievement and intellectual functioning, grades, and teacher ratings of cognitive competence. When all employment was compared with nonemployment for combined and separate achievement outcomes without moderators, effects were nonsignificant. Small beneficial effects of part-time compared with full-time employment were apparent for all achievement outcomes combined and for each individual achievement outcome. Significant sample-level moderators of the associations between maternal employment and achievement for all outcomes combined included family structure, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; associations were positive when samples were majority 1-parent families and mixed 1- and 2-parent families, racially/ethnically diverse or international in composition, and not middle-upper class. Analyses of child gender indicated more positive effects for girls. Children's age was a significant moderator for the outcome of intellectual functioning. The identification of sample-level moderators of the relationship between maternal employment and children's achievement highlights the importance of social context in understanding work-family linkages.

Maternal work early in the lives of children and its distal associations with achievement and behavior problems: A meta-analysis.

“…It is important to acknowledge that the extent of maternal employment is intimately tied to contextual and family variables, including SES and paternal work hours. Some mothers may work full-time, particularly in the first year of life, because they cannot afford to be employed part-time (see also Goldberg et al, 2008). However, labor force participation also runs high among well-educated married women (Juhn & Potter, 2006) for whom income may not be the primary motivation for employment.…”

“…Following the procedure in Goldberg et al (2008), multiple effects from the same study based on the same sample of children (e.g., two or more measures of achievement, associations measured at multiple times) were treated as dependent and combined into a single effect size so that we did not violate the assumption of independence when combining effect sizes across studies. When multiple effects from the same study based on different subgroups of children (e.g., boys/girls) were presented, the information from the independent subgroups of children was combined into a single effect size.…”

“…Research on maternal employment measured at the same time as the child outcome was reviewed recently in a meta-analysis by Goldberg, Prause, Lucas-Thompson, and Himsel (2008). They concluded from their analysis of 68 studies that the overall association between maternal employment and children's achievement, which was the sole child outcome in their analysis, was nonsignificant.…”

Who uses early childhood education and care services? Comparing socioeconomic selection across five western policy contexts

“…The SES-related gap in ECEC participation is cause for concern at least for Canada, the UK, the USA, and Norway, where studies have found children of lower-SES families to benefit the most from ECEC or maternal employment, in terms of their cognitive, behavioral, language, and academic development (Côté et al , 2013Geoffroy et al 2007Geoffroy et al , 2010Goldberg et al 2008;Lucas-Thompson et al 2010;Zachrisson and Dearing 2015). Our results would indicate that governments should concentrate on reducing the barriers for low-income or low-educated parents who wish to use ECEC, e.g., by making subsidies accessible to unemployed parents, more transparent, and directly payable to service providers (Stewart et al 2014).…”

Communal Strength Norms in the United States and Egypt

“…Gender roles in the U.S. tend to be more egalitarian than in Egypt. Most American women are employed outside of the home, including mothers of young children and even infants (Goldberg, Prause, Lucas-Thompson, & Himsel, 2008;Hochschild & Machung, 2012), and more fathers are taking on the role of the stay-at-home parent due to a recent economic recession and higher unemployment in the U.S. (Fischer & Anderson, 2012;Hochschild & Machung, 2012;Rochlen, McKelley, & Whittaker, 2010).…”