Mothers of Infants: Attitudes toward Employment and Motherhood following Birth of the First Child

Hock, Ellen; Mt, Gnezda; Sl, McBride

doi:10.2307/352474

Cited by 66 publications

(53 citation statements)

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“…The scale consisted of items from Hock's published scales on exclusivity of maternal care and work/home orientation (Hock et al, 1984) and items from an instrument used by Tiedje (1987). Although the scale was originally conceived as measuring two concepts, home/employment orientation and exclusivity of maternal care, factor analysis supported the extraction of only one factor which accounted for 36% of the variance.…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women are more likely to be employed when they approve of women's employment (Molm, 1978;Greenstein, 1986). In interviews conducted during the early postpartum period, Hock et al (1984) found that women who planned to stay home after the birth of their first child were more home-oriented and believed more strongly in exclusive maternal care for infants. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wives' employment has been associated with husband's lower financial status (Eggebeen, 1988;Hiller & Philliber, 1980;Smith-Lovin & Tickamyer, 1978), a relationship which is strengthened by controlling for family life cycle stage (Gordon & Kammeyer, 1980). Maternal employment has been related to higher educational levels (Eggebeen;Hock, Gnezda, & McBride, 1984;Smith-Lovin & Tickamyer), higher prestige jobs (Hiller & Philliber) and history of being employed before marriage (Smith-Lovin & Tickamyer). In addition, the longer primiparous women were employed prenatally, the earlier they were employed postnatally, controlling for education (McLaughlin, 1982).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors Related to Maternal Employment Status Following The Premature Birth of an Infant

Youngblut¹,

LOVELAND-CHERRY²,

HORAN³

1990

Nursing Research

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A sample of 110 two-parent families whose preterm infants were less than 37 weeks gestation, appropriate for gestational age, and free of major congenital anomalies were recruited from two level-III intensive care nurseries. At 3 months postpartum, 40 mothers (36.4%) were employed, 15 (13.6%) stated they were on a leave of absence, and the remaining 55 mothers (50%) were not employed. Although not significantly different on demographic or infant morbidity variables, employed mothers were significantly more employment-oriented and reported less choice and satisfaction with employment status than nonemployed mothers. In addition, employed mothers were employed more hours prenatally and reported prenatal plans to be employed sooner after the infant's birth than nonemployed mothers. Employed mothers also perceived more support from others for their employment and greater financial necessity and availability of child care than nonemployed mothers. Higher scores on employment orientation were correlated with higher maternal education level, fewer children, more hours employed, higher total support for their employment, higher financial necessity, and less choice and satisfaction with employment status.Controversy persists regarding the effect of a mother's employment on the child's development. Studies show that an important intervening variable is the consistency between the mother's desired and actual employment status (Benn, 1986;Farel, 1980;Hock & Clinger, 1980;Hoffman, 1961). However, it is not known how situational variables affect the mother's attitudes toward employment or her employment behavior. Therefore, the effect that situational variables have on the consistency between desired and actual employment status is not clear.One such situational variable, premature birth of an infant, can affect employment consistency in two ways. First, women who, prior to delivery, planned to be employed after the child's birth may feel less free to do so because of their guilt about the child's health status or fear for the child's well-being. In addition, finding adequate alternate care is more difficult when the child has special needs. Second, the financial demands surrounding the preterm birth may necessitate the mother's postnatal employment regardless of what the mother's preference might be.The purpose of this study was to describe differences in demographic, attitudinal, and infant morbidity variables between women who were employed by the time the premature infant was 3 months old and those who were not. In addition, the relationships among demographic, attitudinal, and infant morbidity variables were explored. Although research has explicated the relationship between maternal employment status and demographic, attitudinal, and employment-related variables in families with healthy children, there is little research regarding how these factors operate in families with pre term infants. With increasing rates of premature birth and survival, it is important to understand the effect that prematurity has on mat...

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Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Factors Related to Maternal Employment Status Following The Premature Birth of an Infant

Youngblut¹,

LOVELAND-CHERRY²,

HORAN³

1990

Nursing Research

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“…A British study of 250 married couples in the mid-1980s (Brannen and Moss, 1991) and two US studies (Hock et al, 1984;Volling and Belsky, 2003) investigated maternal employment decisions, concluding that decisions are rarely confined to one reason. Later studies in the UK (Duncan, 2003(Duncan, , 2005Duncan and Edwards, 1999;Edwards et al, 2002;Quinn, 2004;Vincent and Ball, 2006;Vincent et al, 2008) suggest that social class influences the way in which women combine work and childrearing.…”

Section: An Historical Overview Of Women In the Workforcementioning

confidence: 99%

Do mothers want professional carers to love their babies?

Page

2011

Journal of Early Childhood Research

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This article reports an aspect of a life historical study which investigated the part that 'love' played in mothers' decision-making about returning to work and placing their babies in day care. The article begins with a brief discussion of the context, including 21st-century policies in England to encourage mothers to return to the workforce (DfES, 2004; HMT, 2009). This is followed by a critical overview of relevant literature exploring three key themes: an historical view of women in the workforce, Attachment Theory, and theorizing 'love' and 'care'. The life-historical methodology is discussed and justified and seven key themes are briefly identified and explained. The article then focuses specifically on the theme of 'love' using life-history interview data and key literature to discuss mothers' views on the importance of 'love', the saliency of 'love' in choosing childcare, and the notion of 'professional love'.

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“…Because there is no agreed-upon definition of high distress, we identified those scoring 5 or more (representing the 75th percentile for women) as experiencing high distress, and those scoring between 0 and 4 as having no or low distress. [42] Stress comprised two measures, personal stress and general chronic stress. Personal stress measures whether respondents experienced any of five different role stressors, consisting of trying to take on too much at once, feeling pressure to be like other people, feeling that others expect too much, feeling that work around the home is not appreciated, and feeling that others are too critical.…”

Section: Health Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple roles and women's mental health in Canada

MacLean¹,

Glynn²,

Ansara³

2003

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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Health Issue: Research on the relationship between women's social roles and mental health has been equivocal. Although a greater number of roles often protect mental health, certain combinations can lead to strain. Our study explored the moderating affects of different role combinations on women's mental health by examining associations with socioeconomic status and differences in women's distress (depressive symptoms, personal stress (role strain) and chronic stress (role strain plus environmental stressors).Key Findings: Women with children, whether single or partnered, had a higher risk of personal stress. Distress, stress and chronic stress levels of mothers, regardless of employment, or marital status, are staggeringly high. Single, unemployed mothers were significantly more likely than all other groups to experience financial stress and food insecurity. For partnered mothers, rates of personal stress and chronic stress were significantly lower among unemployed partnered mothers. Married and partnered mothers reported better mental health than their single counterparts. Lone, unemployed mothers were twice as likely to report a high level of distress compared with other groups. Lone mothers, regardless of employment status, were more likely to report high personal and chronic stress. Data Gaps and Recommendations:National health surveys need to collect more data on the characteristics of women's work environment and their care giving responsibilities. Questions on household composition should include inter-generational households, same sex couples and multifamily arrangements. Data disaggregation by ethno-racial background would be helpful. Data should be collected on perceived quality of domestic and partnership roles and division of labours.

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Mothers of Infants: Attitudes toward Employment and Motherhood following Birth of the First Child

Cited by 66 publications

References 10 publications

Factors Related to Maternal Employment Status Following The Premature Birth of an Infant

Factors Related to Maternal Employment Status Following The Premature Birth of an Infant

Do mothers want professional carers to love their babies?

Multiple roles and women's mental health in Canada

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