Maternal Life Satisfaction and Child Outcomes: Are They Related?

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. This series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel Study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science. Terms of use: Documents inThe decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly. This paper investigates the association between maternal life satisfaction and the developmental functioning of two-to three-year-old children as well as the socio-emotional behavior of five-to six-year-old children.We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), which allows us to control for a rich set of child and parental characteristics and to use the mother's life satisfaction before the birth of her child as an instrument to eliminate potential reverse causality. The results indicate that the more satisfied the mother, the better her child's verbal skills and the lower his or her socio-emotional problems. The relation is more pronounced for boys than for girls. The results are robust even when mothers' personality or mothers' cognitive skills are controlled for. JEL classification: J13; I22

Does Maternal Depression Undermine Childhood Cognitive Development? Evidence from the Young Lives Survey in Peru

“…In particular, our main explanatory variable captured symptoms of mental health issues that affected mothers 30 days prior to the survey in 2002. We used those symptoms and estimated indexes of mental health, which constituted proxies of the unobserved, latent variable Thus, estimations of Equation (2) that incorporated the proxy for maternal depression can produce inconsistent estimators of and lead to attenuation bias of these coefficients if and the error term are negatively correlated [ 22 , 23 ].…”

As Relações de Otimismo e Bem-Estar Subjetivo entre Pais e Filhos

“…Não foram encontradas correlações entre otimismo e BES dos pais com os filhos. A satisfação de vida materna tem sido relacionada a aspectos positivos do desenvolvimento infantil, como a diminuição nos problemas de comportamento dos filhos e aumento do desempenho cognitivo das crianças (Berger & Spiess, 2011). Os resultados do estudo de Berger e Spiess (2011) indicaram que quanto mais satisfeita a mãe está com sua vida, melhor a habilidade verbal da criança e menores seus níveis de problemas socioemocionais.…”

“…Os resultados desse estudo destacaram a importância da satisfação de vida dos pais para o bem-estar dos filhos, porém o bem-estar dos pais não se mostrou influenciado pela satisfação de vida dos filhos. Outro estudo evidenciou correlação entre a satisfação de vida materna com a diminuição nos problemas de comportamento dos filhos e o aumento do desempenho cognitivo das crianças (Berger & Spiess, 2011).…”

What patterns of postpartum psychological distress are associated with maternal concerns about their children's emotional and behavioural problems at the age of three years?

“…In contrast to these risk factors, however, protective factors such as maternal contentment and a sense of well-being were associated with decreased risk of mental-health problems in young children and actually predict positive developmental trajectories (Berger & Spiess, 2011 ; Chronis et al, 2007 ; Tough et al, 2008 ). These outcomes are directly affected by the quality of parental investment, as determined by parental subjective well-being (Belsky, 1984 ).…”