Work Choices of Mothers in Families with Children with Disabilities

This study used a sample of single and married mothers with children under the age of 20 drawn from the 1992 and 1993 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine one facet of the economic implications a child with disabilities brings to a family. Specifically, the choice of women with children to work full time, part time, or not at all was estimated as a function of individual and family characteristics, including the number and ages of children with disabilities. The presence of young children, with or without disabilities, has a significant negative influence on the work choice of both single and married mothers. However, once children enter elementary school, single mothers with disabled or nondisabled children and married mothers with nondisabled children are significantly more likely to enter the labor market or increase their labor market hours than are married mothers of school‐age children with disabilities.     

Maternal Work Absence: A Longitudinal Study of Language Impairment and Behavior Problems in Preschool Children

Combining work and family responsibilities is challenging when children have special needs, and mothers commonly make employment‐related adjustments. In this study, the authors examined associations between maternal work absence and child language impairment and behavior problems in preschool children. Questionnaire data at child age 3 years from 33,778 mothers participating in the prospective population‐based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were linked to national register data on employment and long‐term physician‐certified sick leave at child age 3–5 years. Mothers who reported having a child with language impairment had a consistently higher risk of not being employed and were at increased risk of taking long‐term sick leave at child age 5 years. Co‐occurring problems were associated with excess risk. Language impairments in preschool children, in particular when they are co‐occurring with behavior problems, are likely to have a range of negative short‐ and long‐term consequences for the financial and overall health and well‐being of mothers and their families.     

Local Day Care Quality and Maternal Employment: Evidence From East and West Germany

By investigating how locally available early childhood education and care quality relates to maternal employment choices, this study extends the literature, which mostly has focused on the importance of day care availability or costs. The authors provide differentiated analyses by the youngest child's age and for West and East Germany to examine moderating influences, such as work‐care cultures, in a market with strongly state‐subsidized provision and near‐universal participation of preschool children. The empirical analysis linked the Socio‐Economic Panel and the Families in Germany Study for 2010 and 2011 (N = 3,301 mothers) with regional structural quality data and applied multivariate regression models. In East Germany, mothers with a child under age 3 years who lived in districts with smaller day care groups were more likely to be employed and to extend their work hours. For mothers in West Germany and those with older children, day care quality was not significantly related to employment.     

Work Characteristics and Parent‐Child Relationship Quality: The Mediating Role of Temporal Involvement

This study investigated whether the amount and nature of parent‐child time mediated the association between parental work characteristics and parent‐child relationship quality. We based hypotheses on the conflict and enrichment approaches, and we tested a path model using self‐collected data on 1,008 Dutch fathers and 929 Dutch mothers with school‐aged children. Longer working hours and less work engagement were associated with less parent‐child time and longer working hours, more restrictive organizational norms, stress, flexibility, nonstandard hours (mothers only), and work engagement increased the disturbance of parent‐child activities. Less and more disturbed parent‐child activities were, in turn, associated with a lower parent‐child relationship quality. In addition, work engagement and working hours had direct, beneficial effects on parent‐child relationship quality.     

Keeping Mum: Characteristics and Family Dynamics of Mothers Who Are Liable to Pay Child Support in Australia

In recent decades, changes in post‐separation parenting arrangements in Australia have led to an increase in the small but significant group of mothers liable to pay child support to fathers. The present study uses data from the Child Support Reform Study, a national random sample of separated parents in Australia registered with the Child Support Agency (CSA) in 2008. In total, 185 mothers with a child support liability were identified. Drawing on reports from separated mothers and fathers liable to pay child support in 2008, the study found that 43% of liable mothers had shared or more time. Few liable mothers reported spending no time with their child in the previous 12 months. Unlike liable fathers, mothers with a child support liability tended to be more ‘fearful’ of their former partner; have a resident child in their household; work fewer hours in paid employment; and have older children. Liable mothers were also more likely than other separated mothers to describe the relationship with their former partner as ‘fearful.’ Gendered expectations of parenting mean that liable mothers and liable fathers may adopt different behavioural responses to their roles. The implications of these findings for family therapists are briefly discussed.     

The Unnecessary Nudge: Education and Poverty Policy in a Cairo Slum

Drawing on data collected from 2008 to 2013 in a low‐income Cairo neighborhood, this article examines the impact of a poverty alleviation program, a conditional cash transfer (CCT ) that attempted to incentivize poor mothers, through a direct cash transfer, to send their children to school. The program met its goal. The mothers did send their children to school. I argue that only observing this outcome of school access, however, black‐boxes the causal pathway of how mothers sent their children to school in the Egyptian context, and how the program mattered. Public schools in Egypt are free on paper but expensive in practice due to an informal system of “private lesson” and “study group” fees imposed by teachers. Mothers had always managed this expense, using scarce gendered household resources, before, during, and after the program. Through ethnographic, interview, and survey data, this article shows that while the cash—transferred to the mothers and labeled for education—enabled the mothers to send their children to school, the program conditions were unnecessary. The mothers did not need to be nudged to send their children to school. This Egyptian case study has implications for the use of behavioral incentives and for the importance of qualitative methods to the study of policy impacts.     

Moving Towards Work

SUMMARY

The present study sought to investigate the effects of employment on low-income single black mothers and their preschool children. The sample included 90 mothers from New York City communities who were welfare recipients in 1996, and followed two years later. At follow-up, 53 of the 90 mothers were employed. The findings indicated that lower levels of depressive affect or financial strain were not predictive of entry into the work force. However, once employed, mothers reported less depressive symptoms than those not working. Attaining more education predicted better outcomes for mothers and their children, and provided more of an opportunity to be successful in the job market. For example, having more education was associated with gaining employment, exiting welfare, having stable employment, earning higher wages, and better reading abilities in children. Maternal employment was beneficial to children, as mothers who entered the work force had children who performed better in math achievement at follow-up, after controlling for maternal socioeconomic characteristics and school readiness at baseline. Implications of the findings will be discussed.     

Child protection pathways for newborn infants: A multi-disciplinary retrospective chart review of an Irish maternity hospital’s records

In Ireland, little is known about mothers and infants where child welfare and protection concerns arise during the perinatal period. This study explores, for the first time, perinatal child protection. A retrospective audit was carried out of a large maternity hospital's medical social work, neonatal and psychiatric files for a five-year period from 2016 to 2020. The study identified 99 children, born to 86 mothers, who were either subject to a child protection conference; placed for adoption; discharged to someone other than the mother; or discharged home under supervision. The study found that two-thirds of the children were discharged to their mother's care. When compared to national data, the health indicators for this cohort of mothers and children painted a grim picture. The maternal profiles identified high prevalence of mental health and addiction difficulties and domestic violence. The study found evidence of supports provided to the mothers to enable them to care for their infants while they remained in the hospital and during an initial discharge from hospital. However, a significant number of the mothers were not caring for their children when viewed across a longer time frame. Dedicated multi-disciplinary clinics and improved data systems were identified as of importance.     

Integrated Motherhood: Beyond Hegemonic Ideologies of Motherhood

Existing research assumes that hegemonic mothering ideologies influence U.S. mothers' work and family decisions. These ideologies assume that childrearing is a mother's duty, that mothering occurs within a self‐sufficient nuclear family, and that paid employment conflicts with motherhood. Even when mothers do not conform to these ideologies, scholars find that they continue to influence mothers, as exhibited by mothers' efforts to reframe, redefine, or actively reject the ideal. This study expands on research that challenges the dominant influence of these ideologies on all mothers. Through analyzing the accounts of 24 middle‐ and upper‐middle‐class African American mothers employed in professional careers, three different cultural expectations about motherhood emerged. Participants assumed that they should work outside of the home, be financially self‐reliant, and use kin and community members as child caregivers. Together, these cultural expectations form the basis of an alternative ideology of mothering that the author terms integrated mothering.     

Significant Family Dynamics Related to Postdivorce Adjustment in Parents and Children

ABSTRACT

This study concentrates on the postdivorce adjustment of parents and children in families with shared parenting time arrangements. Thirty divorcing parents with children aged 12 to 59 months old were interviewed using a semistructured telephone interview regarding their early experiences in the divorce process. Findings showed that work–family balance issues were related to postdivorce parental adjustment for mothers. Interparental hostility was related to child alienation and paternal overnight stays. Length of time since physical separation was related to number of overnight stays. These results shed light on the early experiences of families with young children going through the divorce process.     

More Work for Mother: How Spouses, Cohabiting Partners and Relatives Affect the Hours Mothers Work

This paper investigates the determinants of work hours for mothers ofsmall children living in households with one other adult. We hypothesize that the presence and characteristics of the other adult affect a mother's work-related decision-making, and that the nature of the effect varies by the relationship to the otheradult—whether a spouse, an unmarried partner, or a relative. The results indicate that relationship type shapes how mothers' weekly hours of work respond to financial need, childcare pressures, and their own human capital. Married mothers appear to be more able to call on the earnings of their partners to reduce their work hours than mothers in other household situations. There was little evidence that female relatives freed mothers to work.     

Listen to Me! Children's experiences of domestic violence

This paper reports on a study undertaken in the Republic of Ireland during 2005 and is based on the experiences of children and young people who have lived with domestic violence. The objectives of the study were to explore the impact of domestic violence on children, identify their needs and recommend appropriate interventions to be brokered through a centrally based women's support service. Data were gathered from 70 participants, including 37 service providers/volunteers, 11 mothers and 22 children and young people who had lived in violent environments. The data indicated that children respond in unique ways to living with domestic violence, and that services to meet their needs must be tailored to suit their individual situations. The impact of domestic violence on their lives manifested itself with regard to their sense of fear and anxiety in relation to themselves, their siblings and their mothers; their self‐esteem and sense of being ‘different’, their relationships (including ambivalent relationships with their fathers); their experiences of education and their sense of a lost childhood. The final report for the study was based on the total data collection, but this paper will concentrate primarily on the material elicited from the children and young people. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unpacking the Power of the Mommy Wars

In recent years, Mommy Wars discourse, or an expressed judgment between mothers who work for pay and those who stay at home with their children, has emerged as a significant part of American culture. Yet knowledge about both its substantive underpinnings and the breadth of its influence across racial groups is limited. On these points, some research has suggested that racial differences regarding adherence to particular mothering ideologies will drive Mommy Wars discourse among white, middle‐class mothers but not among African American, middle‐class mothers. This study investigates 125 middle‐class yet racially diverse mothers about the content and prevalence of Mommy Wars discourse among their peers. Contrary to expectations, Mommy Wars discourse, although based on strong beliefs regarding appropriate maternal practices, was limited in its scope. In addition, Mommy Wars discourse was a minority perspective among the peers of white, middle‐class mothers, but a plurality perspective among the peers of African American, middle‐class mothers.     

‘Off school sick’: mothers' accounts of school sickness absence

Interview material, collected as part of a wider ethnographic study of sickness absence in an English primary school, is used to examine how mothers accounted for their decisions to keep children ‘off school sick’. Mothers' accounts suggested a process by which they tested their children's claims on sickness against suspicions of feigning illness. The paper describes, from the mothers' point of view, the process of negotiating sickness with children and how children are categorised as ‘pretending’, ‘upset’ or ‘really ill’. These decisions are set within a wider context comprising: a normative discourse of maternal child health care; contradictory demands placed on mothers by the image of children as simultaneously robust and vulnerable; the surveillance and contradictory demands of schooling; and the use by children of sickness as a means of exercising influence on their social situation. It is suggested that locating child health care in relation to childrens' point in their childhood career (for these children the transition to secondary school) and acknowledging the active role that children play in the construction of illness will facilitate a fuller picture of mothers' unpaid health work within the family.     

Characteristics of Sexually Abused Children and Their Nonoffending Mothers Followed by Child Welfare Services: The Role of a Maternal History of Child Sexual Abuse

Considering the importance of mother’s support in the adaptation of a sexually abused child, it is relevant to determine if the mothers and children involved in an intergenerational cycle of child sexual victimization differ from dyads in which only the child has been abused. The purpose of this study was to compare mother–child dyads with sexually abused children according to whether the mother had herself been victim of child sexual abuse. The sample included 87 dyads with sexually abused children aged 3–18 years old and their mothers (44 reporting maternal and child abuse), followed by social welfare services of the province of Quebec (Canada). The two groups of mothers were compared on their past family abuse experiences and past family relations, their mental health history, their current psychological distress, their parenting behaviors, and their current levels of family functioning. Children were compared on their adaptation. Multivariate analyses indicated that mothers reporting child sexual abuse were more likely to report more other maltreatments in their childhood and greater prevalence of lifetime history of alcohol abuse disorders, dysthymia, and panic disorder compared with mothers who had not experienced CSA. Compared to children whose mothers had not experienced CSA, those whose mothers had experienced CSA showed higher rates of problems behaviors and were more likely to report having been sexually abused by a trusted person. These results highlight the specific clinical needs for the assessment and treatment for sexually abused children whose mothers experienced child sexual abuse.     

Maternal child care preferences for infants,toddlers, and preschoolers: the disconnect between policy and preference in the USA

While much research exists looking at parental preferences for child care, much of that research uses child care choice as a proxy for preference. In an effort to examine the types of care mothers prefer if no constraints were placed on their decision, this quantitative study investigated how family demographic factors and family role ideology relate to the types of child care (parental and non-parental forms) mothers prefer ‘in an ideal world’ using a sample of 345 employed mothers of children under 6 years of age in a suburb of a large metropolitan area in the southern USA. Participants completed a questionnaire examining the types of care they viewed as ideal for infants (0–12 months old), toddlers (13–30 months old), and preschoolers (31–72 months old) if no constraints were placed on the decision. Results indicated that the preferences for type of care for mothers in this sample varied according to the child's age, with a large majority of mothers preferring parental care for their children. Ideological and demographic factors predicting preferences for first and second choice of child care were also explored through binary and multinomial logistic regression, revealing the influence of ethnicity, education, and family role ideology to preferences for infant care. These results add to the existing literature by confirming previous findings about the influence of child age to child care preferences, as well as highlighting the disconnect between these preferences and the way family policies are structured in the USA.     

Parental Work Demands and the Frequency of Child‐Related Routine and Interactive Activities

This study examined whether the frequency of child‐related activities was associated with parents' own work demands and those of their partners. In addition to parental paid working hours, we considered the parents' organizational culture and experienced job insecurity. Moreover, we differentiated between child‐related routine and interactive activities. Using self‐collected data on 639 Dutch couples with children, we found that paid working hours were consistently associated with a lower frequency of child‐related activities. Fathers generally responded more strongly to their own and their partner's work demands than mothers. For fathers, both their own and their partner's work demands were more strongly associated with routine than with interactive activities. Mothers did not differentiate between these activities, however.     

Reactions of Inner-City Boys and Their Mothers to Research Interviews About Sex

Abstract

Our understanding of child sexuality is very unsatisfactory, in part because research in this area has progressed slowly due to concerns of parents, institutional review boards, school authorities, granting and community agents. Some members of these groups worry that this line of inquiry will have adverse consequences, such as causing distress in child participants or stimulating them to engage in sexual activities. The current study constitutes an exploratory investigation of the reactions of 98 boys (7-13 years) and their 84 mothers after completing individual interviews as part of a larger HIV-related study on the development of sexual behaviors. Most boys reported feeling positively about their participation, were not upset by any aspects of their participation, and indicated willingness to participate again. Most mothers had similar positive reactions. However, considerable reticence was noted on behalf of some boys in their responses to sexual knowledge questions as compared to other portions of the interview. This reticence appeared attributable primarily to limited sexual vocabulary knowledge, and learned inhibitions regarding sex talk with adults. Further refinement of methodologies appropriate for interviewing children about sex is needed.     

Child Care Use and Parental Desire to Switch Care Type Among a Low-Income Population

This study investigates the use of and satisfaction with child care among low-income families, who are those likely to be affected by recent changes in public policy that emphasize increased work effort. Data from the Survey of Wisconsin Works Families portray differences in the use of center-based care depending on whether or not the family received a child care subsidy. A multivariate analysis of a measure of parental satisfaction, whether a parent would switch child care sources if all care were available at no charge, suggests that parents tend to be more satisfied with center-based care than with alternative forms of care. The analysis also suggests that mothers who received a child care subsidy were significantly more likely to have their children in center-based care.     

Paternal Child Care and Relationship Quality: A Longitudinal Analysis of Reciprocal Associations

This study explored reciprocal associations between paternal child‐care involvement and relationship quality by following British couples from the birth of a child until he or she reached school age. It extends the literature by distinguishing between paternal engagement in absolute terms and relative to the mother and by considering relationship quality reports of mothers and fathers and family breakdown. The analysis was based on the British Millennium Cohort Study, a representative survey of children born in 2000 and 2001 and their parents (N = 5,624 couples). The author applied ordinary least squares regression analysis with lagged dependent variables and event history modeling. Fathers' relative child‐care share was positively associated with mothers' relationship satisfaction, whereas fathers' absolute child‐care frequency was positively related to their own perceived relationship quality for most time periods. Fathers' relative and absolute child‐care contributions were positively associated with relationship stability over the preschool years. Greater perceived relationship quality of mothers, but not fathers, was associated with more frequent paternal engagement.