Abstract
Scientific interest in maternal employment has focused predominantly on its impact on children. Past reviews have emphasized, however, that few consistent differences in children have been directly attributable to maternal employment (Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1982; Hoffman, 1980; Lamb, 1982; Rutter, 1981). Although some might conclude that a mother’s employment status has little relevance to the child’s development, others call these views premature (see, in particular, Belsky & Isabella, 1987; Rutter, 1981) and point to the relative lack of study of maternal employment effects on infants and toddlers. At the same time, it is noted that it is mothers of infants and toddlers who as a group have shown the most dramatic increase in employment rates, a fact that has stimulated many new research efforts (Hoffman, 1984).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Bell, S. M., & Stayton, D. F. (1974). Infant-mother attachment and social development: “Socialization” as a product of reciprocal responsiveness to signals. In M. P. M. Richards (Ed.), The integration of a child into a social world (pp. 99–136). London: Cambridge University Press.
Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Barglow, P., Vaughn, B. E., & Molitor, N. (1987). Effects of maternal absence due to employment on the quality of infant-mother attachment on a low risk sample. Child Development, 58, 945–954.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 53–63.
Belsky, J., & Isabella, R. (1987). The “effects” of infant day care on social and emotional development. In M. Wolraich & D. Routh (Eds.), Advances in developmental and behavioral pediatrics, Vol. 9 (pp. 41–94). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Walker, A. E. (1982). The ecology of day care. In M. Lamb (Ed.), Nontraditional families: Parenting and child development (pp. 71–116). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Belsky, J., Rovine, M., & Taylor, D. G. (1984). The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, III: The origins of individual differences in infant-mother attachment: Maternal and infant contributions. Child Development, 55, 718–728.
Brazelton, T. B. (1985). Issues for working parents. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 56, 14–25.
Bronfenbrenner, U., & Crouter, A. C. (1982). Work and family through time and space. In S. G. Kamerman & C. D. Hayes (Eds.), Families that work: Children in a changing world (pp. 39–84). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Burr, W. R. (1973). Theory construction and the sociology of the family. New York: Wiley.
Caldwell, B. M., & Bradley, R. H. (1987). Home observation for measurement of the environment. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.
Chase-Lansdale, P. L., & Owen, M. T. (1988). Maternal employment in a family context: Effects on infant-mother and infant-father attachments. Child Development, 58, 1505–1512.
Crouter, A. C. (1984). Spillover from family to work: The neglected side of the work-family interface. Human Relations, 37, 425–442.
Egeland, B., & Farber, E. (1984). Infant-mother attachment: Factors related to its development and changes over time. Child Development, 55, 753–771.
Etaugh, C. (1974). Effects of maternal employment on children: A review of recent research. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 20, 71–98.
Farel, A. N. (1980). Effects of preferred maternal roles, maternal employment, and socio-graphic status on school adjustment and competence. Child Development, 50, 1179–1186.
Gold, D., & Andres, D. (1978). Developmental comparisons between ten year old children with employed and nonemployed mothers. Child Development, 49, 75–84.
Gough, H. G., & Heilbrun, A. B. (1965). The adjective Checklist. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Grossman, K., Grossman, K. E., Spangler, G., Suess, G., & Unzner, L. (1985). Maternal sensitivity and newborn orientation responses as related to quality of attachment in Northern Germany. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1’2, Serial No. 209), 233–256.
Hock, E. (1976). Alternate approaches to child-rearing and their effects on the mother-infant relationship. Final report to the Office of Child Development, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Hock, E. (1980). Working and nonworking mothers and their infants: A comparative study of maternal caregiving characteristics and infant social behavior. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 26, 79–101.
Hoffman, L. W. (1963). Mother’s enjoyment of work and effects on the child. In F. I. Nye & L. W. Hoffman (Eds.), The employed mother in America (pp. 95–105). Chicago: Rand McNally.
Hoffman, L. W. (1974). Effects on child. In L. W. Hoffman & F. I. Nye (Eds.), Working mothers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Hoffman, L. W. (1979). Maternal employment: 1979. American Psychologist, 34, 859–865.
Hoffman, L. W. (1980). The effects of maternal employment on the academic attitudes and performance of school-aged children. School Psychology Review, 9, 319–335.
Hoffman, L. W. (1984). Maternal employment and the young child. In M. Perlmutter (Ed.), Minnesota Symposium in Child Psychology, Vol 17 (pp. 101–127). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four-factor Index of Social Status. Available from author: P. O. Box 1965 Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06520)
Johnson, C. L., & Johnson, F. A. (1980). Parenthood, marriage, and careers: Situational constraints and role strain. In F. Pepiton-Rockwell (Ed.), Dual-career couples (pp. 143–161). Beverly Hüls, CA: Sage.
Kappel, B. E., & Lambert, R. D. (1972). Self worth among the children of working mothers. Unpublished manuscript, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Lamb, M. E. (1982). Maternal employment and child development: A review. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Nontraditional families: Parenting and child development (pp. 45–69). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lamb, M. E., Chase-Lansdale, L., & Owen, M. T. (1979). The changing American family and its implications for infant social development: The sample case of maternal employment. In M. Lewis & L. A. Rosenblum (Eds.), The child and its family (pp. 267–291). New York: Plenum Press.
Lerner, J. V., & Galambos, N. L. (1985). Maternal role satisfaction, mother-child interaction, and child temperament: A process model. Developmental Psychology, 21, 1157–1164.
Lerner, J. V., & Galambos, N. L. (1986). Child development and family change: The influences of maternal employment on infants and toddlers. In L. P. Lipsitt & C. Rovee-Collier (Eds.), Advances in infancy research, Vol. 4 (pp. 39–86). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern. In T. B. Brazelton & M. W. Yogman (Eds.), Affective development in infancy (pp. 95–125). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Main, M., & Weston, D. R. (1981). The quality of the toddler’s relationship to mother and to father: Related to conflict behavior and the readiness to establish new relationships. Child Development, 52, 923–940.
Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1–2, Serial No. 209), 66–104.
Myers-Walls, J. A. (1984). Balancing multiple role responsibilities during the transition to parenthood. Family Relations, 33, 267–271.
Owen, M. T., Chase-Lansdale, L., & Lamb, M. E. (1981). Mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes, maternal employment, and the security of infant-parent attachment. Unpublished manuscript, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Parry, G., & Warr, P. (1980). The measurement of mothers’ work attitudes. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 53, 245–252.
Rollins, B. C., & Galligan, R. (1978). The developing child and marital satisfaction of parents. In R. M. Lerner & G. B. Spanier (Eds.), Child influences on marital and family interaction (pp. 71–105). New York: Academic Press.
Rutter, M. (1981). Social-emotional consequences of day care for preschool children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 51, 4–29.
Schwartz, P. (1983). Length of day-care attendance and attachment behavior in eighteen-month-old infants. Child Development, 54, 1073–1078.
Speilberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., & Lushens, R. (1970). State-trait anxiety inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Stolz, L. M. (1960). Effects of maternal employment research: Evidence from research. Child Development, 31, 749–783.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1986). Fertility of American women (Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 406). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Vaughn, B. E., Gove, F. L., & Egeland, B. (1980). The relationship between out-of-home care and the quality of infant-mother attachment in an economically disadvantaged population. Child Development, 51, 1203–1214.
Waldman, E. (1983, December). Labor force statistics from a family perspective. Monthly Labor Review, 106, 16–19.
Warr, P., & Parry, G. (1982). Paid employment and women’s psychological well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 498–516.
Williamson, S. Z. (1970). The effects of maternal employment on the scholastic performance of children. Journal of Home Economics, 62, 609–613.
Woods, M. B. (1972). The unsupervised child of the working mother. Developmental Psychology, 6, 14–25.
Yarrow, M. R., Scott, P., deLeeuw, L., & Heinig, C. (1962). Child-rearing in families of working and nonworking mothers. Sociometry, 25, 122–140.
Zambrana, R. E., Hurst, M., & Hite, R. L. (1979). The working mother in contemporary perspective: A review of the literature. Pediatrics, 64, 862–870.
Zaslow, M., Rabinovich, B., & Suwalsky, J. (1983). The impact on the child of maternal employment: An examination of mediating variables. Paper presented at the Lecture Series on Development Plasticity, “Social Context and Human Development,” Boulder, CO.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Owen, M.T., Cox, M.J. (1988). Maternal Employment and the Transition to Parenthood. In: Gottfried, A.E., Gottfried, A.W. (eds) Maternal Employment and Children’s Development. Springer Studies in Work and Industry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0830-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0830-8_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0832-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0830-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive