Child's cognitive development: measured by Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) score, Peabody Individual Achievement Test of Mathematics (PIAT-M) score, and Peabody Individual Achievement Test of Reading Recognition (PIAT-R)

Maternal employment and work effort: measured by any work (1/0), work hours, number of weeks worked, number of weeks worked fulltime (at least 35 hours/week), and/or a set of indicators for the period in which the mother first started working after giving birth

Hours worked in the first quarter of the first year of a child's life have a negative effect on PPVT scores, whereas the PIAT-M and PIAT-R scores are not significantly affected by maternal labor in the first quarter of a child's life. The study suggests that maternal labor supply partially affects child development through increased family income--increasing family income increases child development and hence the increased family income from maternal work may partially offset the negative effects of maternal labor supply. The effects of maternal labor supply on child development generally remain the same when controls for childcare mode are included.

Maternal employment in the child's first year of life had detrimental effects on both PPVT-R and BPI. Of mothers who worked during their child's first year of life, children whose mothers worked less than an average of 10 hours per week experienced the least negative effects of maternal employment on cognitive development. Further, working mothers who delayed entry into the LF until the fourth quarter of the child's first year of life had higher PPVT-R scores and lower BPI scores than the children whose mothers entered the LF earlier.

Child's socioemotional functioning: "adjustment" (behavior problems total + insecurity - compliance) and "shyness" (inhibition - sociability)

Maternal employment: no work, parttime, and fulltime work during each quarter of the first three years of her child's life

Children whose mothers were employed full-time beginning in their first or second year of life scored lower on "adjustment" than children whose mothers were not employed during the first three years. This effect was driven primarily by the "compliance" component of this measure, such that early and extensive maternal employment was associated with high levels of noncompliance.

No effect of maternal employment within the first year of life on children's MDI scores at 15 or 24 months, but Maternal employment by the ninth month had a negative effect on the Bracken score at 36 months. Children whose mothers started working by the ninth month and worked 30 hours/week or more had lower 36-month Bracken scores than children whose mothers had not worked by 9 months. Part-time work by the ninth month had no effect on 36-month Bracken scores. Effects remained significant even after controlling for child-care quality, quality of the home environment, and maternal sensitivity.

Maternal employment: continuously worked all 4 years of child's life, intermittently worked, worked in the first year, stopped work after the first 3 months, began work in the second year, continued work in the second year

Mother's employment has a negative effect on their 4-year-old child's PPVT score, but only among boys in higher income families. The effect was not found for girls or for children in low-income families, or families where mothers resumed their employment after the child's first year of life. Overall, there is no discernible influence of maternal employment on child's PPVT score at age 4.

child's PPVT-R (at ages 3-4), PIAT-Math (ages 5-6 and 7-8), PIAT-Reading (ages 5-6 and 7-8), Behavior Problems Index (ages 4+)

Maternal employment: employed during first year of child's life, employed during the 2nd or 3rd year, employed after age 3, currently working; quarter of the 1st year that maternal employment began, and FT/PT work in 1st year (FT=21+ hours/week)

Same results as above study (Waldfogel, Han, Brooks-Gunn 2002), though they did not examine Hispanic Children. No effects of maternal employment were found for African American children, so all results reported in the rest of this summary pertain to White children only. This study tests whether effects vary by income and finds employment in the 1st year has negative effects on all outcome measures for children of low-income families, compared with lower/fewer negative effects among middle-income and high-income families. The study also examines marital status and finds that among single-mother families, there are no significant differences between single-mother families where the mother worked and those were the mother did not work in the 1st year. Lastly, the study also looked at BPI and found no overall effects of maternal employment on child's BPI, but the timing of maternal employment before the 4th quarter of the 1st year has a positive effect on children's behavioral problem (the higher the score, the more problems).

child's PPVT-R (at ages 3-4), PIAT-Math (ages 5--8), PIAT-Reading (ages 5-8), BPI (ages 4-8)

Maternal employment: no work in first 3 years postbirth, work only after 1st year, par-time work in 1st year, and full-time work in 1st year

Negative effects of maternal employment on children's cognitive outcomes were found in our analysis primarily for children whose mothers were employed full time in the first year postbirth as compared with children whose mothers postponed work until after their child's first year of life and also as compared with mothers who worked part time in the first year. Negative effects in terms of increased externalizing behavioral problems were evident in each of these comparisons involving mothers who worked full time in the first year. Standard missing data methods might overstate the negative effects of full-time maternal employment in the first year of life on children's cognitive development, and some might miss the detrimental effects on externalizing behavior as well. Moreover, standard regression methods that use only complete case data might overstate the advantages associated with part-time work in the first year in terms of cognitive measures. Results suggest that the effects of early maternal employment vary across different types of children and families.

Fixed effects results show that only PIAT-M was negatively affected by maternal work hours and weeks worked in the 1st year of the child's life. PIAT-R was negatively affected by weeks worked in year 1, but not by work hours. Weeks or hours worked in year 2 were not associated with any outcomes. Weeks worked in year 3 positively affected PIAT-M scores, but hours worked in year 3 were not associated with any outcomes. To examine the effect of family income, Hours were interacted with very low income and findings indicated that none of the interactions were significant for PIAT scores. However, when hours worked in year 1 were interacted with low income, they had a negative effect on PPVT scores, suggesting that hours worked by low-income mothers in the child's first year are associated with lower PPVT scores. The coefficients on the interactions between a White race dummy and mother's hours worked in year 3 were positive for PIAT-M and PIAT-R (meaning work hours in year 3 were positively associated with PIAT-R and PIAT-M for White mothers only).

child's PPVT-R (at ages 3-4), PIAT-Math (ages 5- 6), PIAT-Reading (ages 5-6)

Maternal employment is measured in the year prior to the birth through the 4th years of the child's life as well as average weekly work hours divided by 20.

Maternal employment in the first year is associated with lower PPVT at ages 3-4, but higher ability for maternal employment in the 3rd and 4th years. Maternal employment in the first year is associated with lower PIAT-M and PIAT-R at ages 5-6, with negative effects persisting for maternal employment in the 3rd and 4th years. Coefficients on maternal employment decline (become more negatively associated with child outcomes) with the addition of more complete controls for heterogeneity. This occurs b/c the author claims to more carefully control for the heterogeneity between working and nonworking mothers than previous analyses. (Note: the author does not carefully indicate statistical significance in this study)

child's PPVT-R (at ages 3-4), PIAT-Math (ages 5-6 and 7-8), PIAT-Reading (ages 5-6 and 7-8)

Maternal employment: employed during first year of child's life, employed during the 2nd or 3rd year, employed after age 3, and currently working; employment hours were also assessed during the first year of child's life

For white children, maternal employment during the first year of life is associated with poor scores on all outcome measures. Current employment is also associated with lower scores on the PIAT-Math (ages 5-6). Yet, maternal employment after the child's first year of life is positive for PPVT-R, PIAT-R and PIAT-M (at ages 7-8). For African American children, there are no effects of 1st year maternal employment and positive for PIAT-R (ages 7-8) for maternal employment during the second or third year of life. For Hispanic children, there are no effects of maternal employment during the 1st year of maternal employment, but negative effects for maternal employment during the 2nd or 3rd year on PIAT-M (ages 5-6) and PIAT-M (ages 7-8) scores.

Maternal work conditions: long work hours (40+ hours/week), erratic work schedules ("a lot" of variation in number hours worked week to week), nonday shifts ("mostly" evening or midday and evening hours), lengthy commutes (25+ minutes, top quartile of commute time)

Sig positive association between having a lengthy commute at 2 or more waves (relative to never having a lengthy commute) and children's internalizing behavior problems (effect size of 25% of a std dev in internalizing behavior). No Sig predictors of maternal work conditions on children's externalizing behavior problems. Children's positive behavior decreases when mothers have a long commute at one wave and when mothers have long commutes at 2 or more waves (effect sizes of 30% and 35% of std dev in positive behavior).

Marital stability: assessed by years of intact marriage, marital disruption

Women's employment hours (weekly), gender ideology (five likert-style items based on survey responses)

Weekly work hours negatively related to marital stability only for women with nontraditional gender ideology, not women with traditional views.

Fathers' depressive symptomology (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale)

7-point "resource challenge" scale including current unemployment, inability to pay full amount of child support order, limited access to reliable transportation, no permanent place to live, problems with alcohol or drugs, health problems or disability, and ever convicted of a crime

Fathers' resource challenges were strongest predictor of depression scores (compared with measures for rural/urban residence, miles from child, social support, and coparent conflict). As the number of challenges increased, father's depression scores increased.

Family tension and stress assessed by:1) level of conflict with their spouse or partner (married/cohabitating only) and their children (parents only) and 2) series of questions about children's problems in school, behavioral/emotional problems, and trouble sleeping

Unemployment is positively associated with spousal conflict (but no sig relationship with children's problems, child conflict, or corporal punishment of children. Path analysis indicates that employment status (employed vs. unemployed vs. anticipate being unemployed) has sig effects on financial hardship, and that, in every case, financial hardship exerts a significant impact on family tension and stress (all in expected directions). The authors observe that from 15 to 75% of the effect of unemployment or its anticipation on family tension and stress is mediated through financial hardship. A series of interaction terms indicated that though the three employment status groups differed in their exposure to financial hardship, there was no evidence that the impact of financial hardship on family conflict and stress differed for the three groups. Further, the impact of financial hardship in producing conflict involving the spouse is greater for men than for women--separate regs for men and women reveal that financial hardship is not a sig predictor of spouse conflict for women, but it is for men.

Change in parental work status (deprived families=job loss at Time 1 and 4, recovery families=job loss at Time 1 and reemployment at Time 4, nondeprived families=stable employment over time)

When families are coping with a job loss or demotion, adolescents report higher levels of conflict with their parents relative to other adolescents. However, the conflict associated with a loss of work status declines when the family recovers (there is a compensatory effect). Mothers' perceptions of conflict were not as sensitive to changing patterns of employment.

Adolescents' social competence (teacher's report of adolescent's ability to get along with peers) and disruptiveness in school (adolescent report)

Change in parental work status (deprived families=job loss at Time 1 and 4, recovery families=job loss at Time 1 and reemployment at Time 4, nondeprived families=stable employment over time)

Teachers reported that adolescents in deprived and declining families were less competent than their peers in stable or recovery families. In addition adolescents whose parents experienced a decline in work status were the most disruptive in junior high school. Most students had difficulty adjusting to junior high school, but the transition was particularly difficult for those students whose parents were changing work statuses.

Secondary stressors after job loss: 67 items (e.g. applying for or being refused welfare, unemployment or bank loans; restrictions in spending and increased debt; changes in routines; new demands for job search and training; and physical relocation)

Secondary stressors are associated with increases in depressive symptoms for the job seeker, but also have an effect on the mental health of the partner. Secondary stressors also appear to degrade the quality of the relationship, which contributes to increased distress.

Children's academic progress: parental report of grade repetition and expulsion/suspension

Parents' job loss: parents who were underemployed, had one job loss, had multiple job losses, or were persistently unemployed over a 2-year period

Mother's employment is never significantly associated with children's academic progress (even when mothers out earn fathers), but fathers' job losses are adversely associated with children's academic progress. Elementary school children whose fathers experience an involuntary job loss show double the odds of grade repetition compared to those whose fathers are continually working and this relationship is mediated by family economic resources. The odds of suspension/expulsion for children whose fathers experience multiple job gaps, whether voluntary or involuntary, are 5.3 and 2.8 times higher compared to children whose fathers continually work.

Adolescents' mastery (Pearlin Master Scale), self-esteem (Rosenberg self-esteem), grade repetition, school dropout (for at least 1 month)

Single mother's employment patterns: continually employed in a good job ("good" = at least 35hr/wk for $7/hour w/health insurance OR $8.5 w/out health insurance), continually employed in a bad job, continually unemployed, exactly one job loss followed by reemployment, exactly one job loss without regaining employment, and more than one job loss (reemployment not specified)

Relative to being continuously employed in a good job, adolescents whose mothers lose a job without regaining employment show declines in mastery and self-esteem, those whose mothers are continuously employed in a bad job show an increased likelihood of grade repetition, and those whose mothers are either persistently unemployed or lose more than one job show an increased likelihood of school dropout. These effects are not explained by concomitant changes in family income.

emotional functioning (depression, anxiety, and somatization subscales of the SCL-90) and physical health (self-evaluation)

unemployment and subsequent reemployment

All three distress measures (depression, anxiety, somatization) were significantly elevated among the currently unemployed compared to the stably employed at Time 1. Distress is slightly positively associated with probability of reemployment (suggesting people who are highly distressed by unemployment might search have more intense job searches). Finally, the authors assessed the effect of distress on subsequent reemployment and found reemployment is associated with improvements in depression. Further the reemployed experienced complete emotional recovery within a year of returning to work.

Individual and family functioning: husbands' and wives' affective states using 10-item Affect Balance Scale, psychological symptoms using Derogatis' Brief Symptom Inventory, and overall family climate using Moos and Insel Family Environment Scale

Recent job loss (respondent had to have held the job for at least one year prior to termination)

In comparison to their employed counterparts (control group identified through a combination of telephone surveys based on town census data and random screenings at grocery stores), unemployed blue- and white-collar workers reported higher levels of psychological symptoms following their job loss. They also reported a more negative mood. Workers who found employment before the second wave of interviews (4-5months) derived considerable emotional relief from their employment compared to those who were still unemployed. However, reemployment at midyear were associated with only a slight positive effect on psychological well-being. The degree of interest and challenge in the job was positively associated with depression (so that the more challenged the respondents were by the job the lost, the more depressed they were). Wives' responses to their husbands' unemployment differed in two ways: 1) their symptoms did not manifest until 4 months following unemployment and 2) the absolute level of the effects was smaller than their husbands.

Mothers depressive symptomatology and Adolescent socioemotional functioning (adolescent's perception of negative relations w/mother, perception of family's economic hardship, cognitive distress, depressive symptomatology, general anxiety, and self esteem)

Maternal employment status (1/0) and any employment interruption between 1988 and 1990, time of interview (1/0)

With the exception of general anxiety, none of the measures of socioemotional functioning was significantly correlated with maternal unemployment or work interruption directly. However, current maternal unemployment was associated with increased depressive symptomatology in mothers. Mothers who experienced layoffs and job loss or who stopped working were no more depressed than mothers who had not experienced these events. Maternal depressive symptomology was, in turn, positively associated with harsher punishment of adolescents.

depression (self reports and partner reports based on Hopkins Symptom Checklist), marital/relationship satisfaction (Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale)

Financial Strain (measured with 3-item index: difficulty in living on total HH income, anticipation of financial hardship in next 2 months, anticipation of reducing standard of living)

Financial strain increases symptoms of depression in the partner as well as the job seeker. These depressive symptoms dampen the partner's ability to provide support to the job seeker (express care and concern, provide help) and increase the partner's undermining behaviors (criticize, insult). This combination of decreased support and increased undermining has two separate effects on the job seeker: it increases depressive symptoms (above the already elevated level that is due to financial strain) and reduces satisfaction with the marital relationship.

Family reduction in total food expenditures ≥ 20%, Residential move, Receipt of food stamps, Wife's increase in work hours ≥ 150 (married/cohabiting only), Divorce or separation (married only)

Income loss (decrease of 50% or more in the ratio of total family income to needs over the period of study)***Note this study is NOT about explicitly losing a job, but they examine decreases in work hours***

Families that experienced either substantial income loss or whose head experienced reduced work hours at either t+1 or at both t and t+1 were much more likely than families experiencing no loss to reduce their food expenditures at t+1. Families that experienced a major income loss were significantly more likely to move in the subsequent year than those with no or a smaller income loss. Families which experienced a major income loss were significantly more likely to receive food stamps the following year than those with no, or a smaller, income loss. Families in which the head lost work hours in t+1 also were significantly more likely to receive food stamps in that year than those in which the head was stably employed. White families with a 50%+ loss of income was not associated with an increase in the work hours of the spouse, nor was the loss of head's work hours in the present or prior year associated with an increase in her work hours. Income loss was associated with a significantly increased probability of divorce or separation from a partner.

As a combined group, families of children with disabilities were more likely than remaining families to have only one wage earner (as opposed to two or more); difference appears to be due to families of children with orthopedic and visual impairments

Controlling for differences in demographic and family characteristics, authors find no significant association between having a CSHCN and the probability of work or the number of hours worked among low-income single-parent families; Separate analysis of different dimensions of special health care needs shows that parents of children with activity limitations are significantly less likely to work and work fewer hours; this result does not hold true for the group of children defined based on elevated or special service use, or for the groups of children with specific chronic conditions; Only a specific subset of children with special needs present difficulties for low-income parents' work;

Anyone in the family made any or all of six types of job changes: not taken a job to care for child; quit working other than normal maternity leave; changed jobs; changed work hours to a different time of day; turned down a better job or promotion; worked fewer hours

Presence of child with functional limitations: limitation in mobility, self-care, communication, and learning ability; or medical condition: physical, neurodevelopmental, learning/behavior, asthma

Each of the 4 types of medical conditions is associated with increased likelihood of experiencing job changes; limitations in children's mobility, limitations in self-care, and moderate and severe but not mild learning disabilities were all associated with the likelihood of job changes. Functional limitations in mobility and self-care were both associated with intensive care requirements, which resulted in parents making various job changes;

Current parental unemployment and work absence(s) in previous 6 months b/c of child illness

Presence of child with chronic illness: asthma, diabetes, sickle-cell anemia, epilepsy, hemophilia, cerebral palsy, or cystic fibrosis

Parents of children with high health care use rates were more likely to be unemployed (odds ratio =1.7); high rates of child health care use were not associated with parents missing work. Among the subgroup of parents of children with asthma, former welfare recipients (odds ratio=3.6) and denied applicants (OR=3.6) were significantly more likely to have missed work b/c of child illness. A high asthma severity score was strongly associated with work absences in parents (OR=4.6)

Maternal job loss: the involuntary end of a job, followed by a period of unemployment of at least 3 months

Existence of children's or mother's health conditions that limit activities

Controlling for personal, human capital, family, and local economic characteristics, having a health condition increased a woman's probability of job loss by 57% while having a child with a health limitation increased a woman's probability of lob loss by 33%

Maternal employment

Presence of disabled or chronically or mentally ill child

Controlling for individual and structural factors, children's disabilities explained a significant share of variation in employment outcomes; the presence of a child with only moderate limitations was not significantly related to mothers' employment; in families with a child with severe limitations, mothers' probability of employment was 15% lower, and mothers who were employed worked an average of 15 fewer hours/wk

Presence of child with activity-limiting chronic illness, or emotional, mental, or physical condition that could result in a functional limitation

61% of mothers with no disabled children, 62% of mothers with a single, mild or moderately disabled child, and 79-83% of those with more than one or any severely disabled children were not employed when contacted; mothers' self-reports indicated that care for special-needs children depressed employment; 33% of those with only one mild to moderately disabled child, 65% of those with a single severely disabled child, and 90% of those with multiple and severely disabled children reported barriers to employment

Maternal employment

Presence of child with developmental disability

Differences are b/t 61 mothers of children with developmental disabilities and 61 comparison mothers with no disabled children: In 1974, 46% of mothers with disabled children were employed, 12% were employed full-time, and 34% were employed part-time vs. 64% of mothers w/out disabled children were employed, 38% full-time, and 28% of employed part-time. Mothers of children with disabilities were less likely to have ever had a job spell that exceeded 5 yrs in duration and were less likely to have full-time jobs as their children grew older

Work choices (full-time, part-time, not at all) of single and married mothers

Presence of child with a disability (autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, mental retardation, other disabilities, or physical limitations) or existence of maternal disability

The variable with the largest effect on a mother's probability of choosing not to work at all is the disability status of the mother herself. A single mother with a young child with disabilities is 14% more likely to be out of the paid labor force and 17% less likely to work full-time than a single mother with no disabled child. The labor supply effect of having a young child with disabilities is not as great for married mothers as for single mothers; married mothers with young children with disabilities are more likely to work part time and less likely to work full time than are married mothers with no disabled children

Maternal employment and usual weekly work hours

3 child-disability definitions: (1) mobility limitations on physical activities (2) health problems impacting learning activities (3) incorporates 1 and 2 and receipt of therapy or diagnostic services

For each definition of disability, the estimated effect of disability is always more negative for female heads than wives; a definition-3 disability is predicted to reduce wives' labor force participation by 6 percentage points; the probability of female heads' employment is reduced by 11 percentage points in the case of a definition-2 disability. While female heads' growth in work hours over time and probabilities of entering employment are negatively affected by child disability, evidence was not found for an analogous effect on wives

Single mothers' labor supply(worked at all in past year, hours of work in past year) and earnings(log of earnings in past year, log of earnings per hour in past year)

Presence of child with disability limiting participation in play activities or child's ability to do regular school work

The negative effect on earnings per hour increases with the age of the disabled child. The presence of a disabled child reduces the probability of maternal employment, but evidence for an effect of child disability on hours, wages, and earnings for working mothers was much weaker

Single mothers' employment, wages, and earnings capacity

Existence of ADL of mother (activity of daily living mother has difficulty performing); mothers' self-report of poor-fair health; presence of child with mobility limitations or mental or emotional problems limiting learning or schoolwork

The direct effect of own health (ADLs and poor/fair health) is to reduce labor force participation (coefficient on ADLs is negative and significant at the 1 percent level); the influence of having a disabled child is also negative (the coefficient is significant at the 1 percent level). Since poor health and disabilities reduce wages, the results of the wage measure suggest that health plays an important role through its influence on potential earnings. Authors' simulation "made healthy" 25% of women with a health problem and found labor force participation would increase by 2.2 percentage points among all single mothers (0 among healthy women; 8.4 percentage points among women who had originally had a health problem)