When Does Time Matter? Maternal Employment, Children's Time With Parents, and Child Development
Journal
Demography
ISSN
0070-3370
ISSN-Digital
1533-7790
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2014-10-29
Author(s)
Abstract
This study tests the two assumptions underlying popularly held notions that
maternal employment negatively affects children because it reduces time spent with parents: (1) that maternal employment reduces children's time with parents, and (2) that time with parents affects child outcomes. We analyze children's time-diary data from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and use child fixed-effects and IV estimations to account for unobserved heterogeneity. We find that working mothers trade quantity of time for better "quality" of time. On average, maternal work has no effect on time in activities that positively influence children's development, but it reduces time in types of activities thatmay be detrimental to children's development. Stratification by mothers' education reveals that although all children, regardless of mother's education, benefit from spending educational and structured time with their mothers, mothers who are high school graduates have the greatest difficulty balancing work and childcare.We find some evidence that fathers compensate for maternal employment by increasing types of activities that can foster child development as well as types of activities thatmay be detrimental.Overall,we find that the effects ofmaternal employment are ambiguous because (1) employment does not necessarily reduce children's time with parents, and (2) not all types of parental time benefit child development.
maternal employment negatively affects children because it reduces time spent with parents: (1) that maternal employment reduces children's time with parents, and (2) that time with parents affects child outcomes. We analyze children's time-diary data from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and use child fixed-effects and IV estimations to account for unobserved heterogeneity. We find that working mothers trade quantity of time for better "quality" of time. On average, maternal work has no effect on time in activities that positively influence children's development, but it reduces time in types of activities thatmay be detrimental to children's development. Stratification by mothers' education reveals that although all children, regardless of mother's education, benefit from spending educational and structured time with their mothers, mothers who are high school graduates have the greatest difficulty balancing work and childcare.We find some evidence that fathers compensate for maternal employment by increasing types of activities that can foster child development as well as types of activities thatmay be detrimental.Overall,we find that the effects ofmaternal employment are ambiguous because (1) employment does not necessarily reduce children's time with parents, and (2) not all types of parental time benefit child development.
Language
English
Keywords
Maternal employment . Parental time . Child development
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SEPS - Economic Policy
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Springer
Publisher place
New York, NY
Volume
51
Number
5
Start page
1867
End page
1894
Pages
28
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
237691
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