Taking Pressure Off Families: Child‐Care Subsidies Lessen Mothers’ Work‐Hour Problems

We use the Philadelphia Survey of Child Care and Work to model the effect of child‐care subsidies and other ecological demands and resources on the work hour, shift, and overtime problems of 191 low‐income urban mothers. Comparing subsidy applicants who do and do not receive cash payments for child care, we find that mothers who receive subsidies are 21% less likely to experience at least one work hour–related problem on the job. Our results suggest that child‐care subsidies do more than allow women to enter the labor force. Subsidies help make it easier for mothers in low‐wage labor both to comply with employer demands for additional work hours and to earn the needed wages that accompany them.     

The cost of a child,mother's employment behavior and economic insecurity in Europe

The past two decades in Western European societies have been marked by a decline in fertility rates together with an increase in women's work-force participation. This has given rise to a massive transformation in traditional patterns of relationships, especially in gender roles and family size. This paper will examine the outcome of the birth of a child and link this outcome to specific family policies in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The outcome of the birth of a child will be measured in the data by comparing the pre-child-birth income and its sources to the post-child-birth income and its sources. How does the financial impact of having a child differ in different countries? What is the impact of the compensation provided by the state in terms of transfer benefits for families? What is the impact on women's labor force activity? What are the changes in the wage income of the family members? This research uses the Consortium of Household panels for European socio-economic Research (CHER) longitudinal panel from 1990 to 2001 in the 10 European countries. Data provide for a detailed cross-national comparison before and after the birth of a child for market work, wage income, and public transfer income, including family benefits. The results indicate that there are important differences among the European countries studied.     

Parental Work Schedules and Child Overweight or Obesity: Does Family Structure Matter?

The authors used longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 5,482) to investigate whether maternal and paternal work schedules affect child overweight or obesity. They took the novel step of examining whether this effect is consistent for children living in different family structures. Findings from child fixed effects models suggest that the probability of child overweight or obesity was higher for children living with mothers who worked standard shifts at a primary job and nonstandard shifts at a secondary job compared to children living with mothers who worked a standard shift at a primary job only. Fathers' work schedules were not associated with child overweight or obesity. Unexpectedly, maternal standard shift work at a primary job and nonstandard shift work at a secondary job was associated with overweight or obesity only among children living with married biological parents.     

Daily Spillover of Low‐Income Mothers' Perceived Workload to Mood and Mother–Child Interactions

This study investigated associations of low‐income working mothers' daily perceived workload and their reports of their own mood and their interactions with their young children. Sixty‐one mothers were asked to report on their workload, mood, and interactions with their preschool‐age children every day for 2 weeks (N = 520 work days). Low‐income mothers reported significant day‐to‐day variability in workload. The results revealed a curvilinear pattern of negative work‐to‐family spillover: Both lower‐than‐average and higher‐than‐average workload days were associated with increased negative and tired mood, decreased positive mood, and increased harsh mother–child interactions. Although both younger and older mothers experienced a curvilinear pattern of spillover to daily mood, younger mothers in the period of emerging adulthood also experienced spillover to mother–child interactions, perhaps because they are still learning how to balance work and family demands. Both high and low workload are salient stressors in the daily lives of low‐wage working mothers.     

Expanding the Family Economic Stress Model: Insights From a Mixed‐Methods Approach

The current study used a mixed‐methods approach to examine how low‐income mothers managed their household economies, their experiences of economic pressure, and the consequences for family and child functioning. Qualitative analyses (N = 32 families) revealed that experiences of economic pressure were associated with an inability to afford both basic needs and some modest but highly valued “extras.” To meet demands, mothers reported using a variety of strategies, including instrumental support from friends and family members and other financial strategies. Results from the quantitative analyses (N= 516 families; 800 children, ages 6 – 15) were generally consistent with patterns observed in the qualitative analyses and extended the findings to include effects on parenting practices and children’s behavioral functioning.     

Charity or Entitlement Conundrum: Welfare Policies and Safe Motherhood in Impoverished Buffalo,New York

ABSTRACT

In contrast to the most industrialized Western nations, the United States faces great social and economic disparities and a deep gap between the socioeconomic strata. The child poverty rate is almost three times higher than in any other industrialized Western country, and single mother families represent 60% of all poor families in the United States. Concentrating on the situation of single mothers in impoverished Buffalo, New York, the authors argue that similar to the underdeveloped world, the fate of single mothers in the United States is tied to the global economy. This project seeks to understand how systemic (social location) and idiosyncratic (individual) factors interactively affect the health and well-being of female-headed, single-parent families. The quantitative analyses are supported by an examination of a case study of a transitional housing program, called Gerard Place. We examine the impact of this comprehensive program offered to poor mothers, including housing, counseling, education, child care, and financial support. These support systems assist female-headed families to rebuild self-sufficiency, sustainable income, and economic independence. The call to approach welfare programs as a synthesis of systemic and idiosyncratic factors concludes the study.     

WORKING TO EXIT POVERTY WHILE CARING FOR CHILDREN'S HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM

Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1986, levels of urbanization, industrialization, and women's labour force participation have increased in Vietnam. This article focuses on the experiences of parents in Vietnam and how labour and social conditions affect their ability to work and exit poverty while caring for their children's health and development. We interviewed a sample of 147 parents in Ho Chi Minh City using in-depth, semi-structured questionnaires. Sixty-three percent of parents had faced loss of income or promotions or had difficulty retaining jobs because they had to care for children. Fifty-eight percent of parents lost income while caring for their sick children because they had to take unpaid leave from work to care for their children or because they had to decrease productivity if they were able to continue working. Fifty percent of parents with school-age children experienced barriers to helping with homework, to attending meetings, or to participating in other aspects of their children's education. The aftermath of the Vietnamese – American War affected parents through loss of extended family members, limiting access to a major traditional source of support. The war had affected other parents by preventing them from completing their education, which left them with job choices that offer little or no work benefits. Although Vietnam has made significant progress in providing early childhood care and education and legislating labour laws, working families’ experiences demonstrate the need to ensure that paid leave and work flexibility policies are available and implemented in all work sectors and to expand affordable, quality child care in order to help low-income working parents in Vietnam meet work demands and exit poverty while meeting their children's needs.     

Early childbearing and later economic well-being

In a study of 1268 women, aged 20-24 in 1968, who were surveyed in 1968 and reinterviewed in 1973 and 1975 as part of the National Longitudinal Surveys of the Labor Market Experience of Young Women, the economic situation of the women at age 27 was compared for those who had given birth to a child during their teen years with those who did not bear a child until after age 18. The effects on economic status of early childbearing were primarily negative and operated indirectly through intervening variables such as, decreased educational levels and higher fertility rates. For each year a birth was postponed, annual earnings at age 27 were increased by $197. Surprisingly, women who had a child at age 15 or 16 experienced fewer negative economic effects at age 27 than those who had a child at age 17 or 18; perhaps the younger girls continued to live with their parental family and remained in school while the slightly older girls left the parental family and dropped out of school. The negative economic effects at age 27 for black women who bore a child at an early age were less pronounced than for white women. Policy makers should be aware of these long-term negative economic effects of early childbirth and efforts should be made 1) to increase child care programs which enable young mothers to continue their schooling; 2) to provide family planning services to young mothers who are at greater risk of subsequently having large families; 3) to encourage young mothers to remain living with their parental family; and 4) to provide additional training and job counseling for young mothers. Tables depict 1) mean and standard deviations for 50 sociodemographic variables for women who were less than 19 at first birth and for women who were 19 or older at first birth; 2) estimated structural equations for the total sample, for whites only, for blacks only, for those 19 years or older at first birth, and for those less than 19 years of age at first birth; and 3) effect on economic well-being at age 27 of delaying birth by one year by age at first birth and by race.     

家庭社会资本对大学生农村就业意愿的影响

家庭是影响大学生农村就业的一个重要因素,因而家庭社会资本与大学生农村就业行为有密切的关系。家庭社会资本对大学生去农村的就业意愿、最低工资价位和职业选择的影响显著。母亲的受教育程度、家庭年收入越高,大学生去农村的就业意愿越高,大学生去农村的最低心理工资价位越高;父母的受教育程度越高,大学生去农村更愿意选择从政。     

Labor Market Penalties for Mothers in Italy

We use a large Italian employer-employee matched dataset to study how motherhood affects women’s working career in terms of labor force participation and wages. We confirm that the probability of exiting employment significantly increases for mothers of pre-school children; however, this is mitigated by higher job quality, human capital endowment and childcare accessibility. Most importantly, the availability of part-time jobs reduces their probability of moving out of the labor force. Women not leaving employment after becoming mothers experience lower wages than women with no pre-school child, and there are no signs of this gap closing 5 years after childbirth. Contrary to previous literature, the wage gap penalty emerges only among women working full-time, thanks to the high protection accorded to part-time jobs in Italy.     

Child care policy: A need for greater advocacy

While some scholars have recognized the importance of child care to families in the United States (Kamerman, 2001; Waldfogel, 1998), child care has not been viewed as a core social policy concern in the United States. In this article, we provide an overview of child care needs in the U.S. followed by an analysis of three major federal programs that shape U.S. child care policy. The first, the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), provides financial child care supplements to low-income parents to enable them to engage in paid labor. The second policy, The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), is technically a universally applicable policy enabling people to care for a family member in need, including all parents who choose to spend a few weeks of unpaid leave with a newborn child. The third is the U.S. tax policy, including child care exemptions, deductions and credits. We suggest that, though all of these policies exist to help families care for children, they fail the children and families that they are purportedly designed to help. We then discuss the crucial role that professionals who work with families and children can play in shaping U.S. child care policies.     

CHILD CARE USE BY LOW‐INCOME FAMILIES IN RURAL AREAS

Using data from interviews with 323 low‐income women living in rural counties in 11 states, child care arrangements for 672 children under 13 are described in relation to women's employment status, partner availability, and child age. As found in previous studies of rural areas, informal care is frequently used, regardless of full‐ or part‐time work or partner availability. Single mothers rely more on regulated care arrangements than mothers with partners and are more likely to pay for informal care than other mothers. Work in part‐time and service jobs suggests the need for flexible arrangements. Public data on child care availability and access in rural areas, the cost of care, and state subsidy programs suggest reasons for rural women's child care decisions. Policy implications of the study findings are shared.     

Resilience in parenting among young mothers: Family and ecological risks and opportunities

The present study used a person-centered approach to examine resilience in parenting among a sample of young mothers (under age 21 at childbirth). Resilient functioning as a parent was defined as the lack of perpetration of child maltreatment (substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect) in the context of risk. Risk factors were assessed at multiple levels, including family (e.g., negative childhood histories in family of origin) and ecological (e.g., neighborhood poverty, mother's financial stress) levels. Analyses revealed a group of mothers who demonstrated resilience in parenting despite a context of substantial risks from their childhood histories (e.g., negative family relationships) and current ecologies (e.g., economic and neighborhood conditions). Mothers in the resilient group were less likely to a) live with their families of origin, and b) to rely on their own mothers as sources of emotional or caregiving support. Data also indicated that young mothers' resilient functioning as parents was associated with higher rates of depressive symptoms among these mothers, perhaps suggesting a “cost” or limit to resilient parenting functioning in young mothers. Results are discussed in a resilience framework.     

Depression Risk among Mothers of Young Children: The Role of Employment Preferences, Labor Force Status and Job Quality

This study examines how desire for employment, employment status, and job quality associate with depressive symptoms among mothers of infants and toddlers. We use the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to estimate regression models with a variety of controls including prior depression. We find that employment in high-quality versus low-quality jobs is associated with reductions in depressive symptoms, both for mothers who do and do not desire employment. Furthermore, non-employed mothers have elevated depression levels only if they desire employment. Our results demonstrate that neither employment nor non-employment is best for all mothers of young children; rather mental health depends on mothers’ employment preferences and, when they do work for pay, job quality.     

Employee experiences with family and medical leave: A case study

This article examines employee experiences with family and medical leave policies at an urban public transportation union work site in the United States. The case study focuses on the leave experiences among a sample population of 91 primarily African-American women transit workers, including reasons for taking or not taking leaves, decisions regarding how much leave time to take, and work impacts experienced after returning from leaves. The case study found that all respondents with new babies or ill children took leaves, as did 78% of those with illnesses and 39% of those with ill family members. Among those eligible to take leaves, the most frequent reason for not doing so was the lack of wage replacement. Knowledge of leave policies was minimal and not associated with the likelihood of leave-taking. These findings are discussed in terms of their workplace and community implications, including the need to expand the length and types of family leave coverage, the need for government-mandated paid leave, approaches for increasing employee knowledge of leave rights, and the need for continued research into leave experiences of minority populations.     

Moving “Up and Out” Together: Exploring the Mother–Child Bond in Low‐Income,Single‐Mother‐Headed Families

Bearing children is often viewed as negatively impacting the social mobility of low‐income single mothers. This analysis draws on 66 in‐depth interviews with low‐income, single‐mother participants in an antipoverty program in Boston. The author argues that the mother–child relationship is at the center of efforts by these single mothers to move out of poverty. Interviewees repeatedly expressed the primacy of their children's needs being met in order for them to move forward. Mothers tried to include their children in efforts to move out of poverty, thus fulfilling the role of a “good mother” while exhibiting proper behavior for a poor person trying to achieve economic independence. The data here highlight the limitations of policy initiatives that fail to acknowledge the centrality of children's well‐being to the lives of single mothers and suggest that the mother–child bond may be an untapped resource for policies and programs serving this community.     

A social policy model for the reconciliation of employment and family life from a gender equality perspective

The issue of family–employment reconciliation has rapidly evolved from being ignored to a certain dejá vu perception in public debate, as a result of its media success during the last decade. This is even more the case in Spain, where it was only in the late 1990s, when a law was passed to regulate and extend parental and other leave for workers with close relatives in need of care, that reconciliation policies began to be generally discussed and considered. In a context of quick population aging as a consequence of low fertility, concern on labor force supply in the middle term is high on the agenda. Women are increasingly considered to be necessary both as workers and mothers (of future workers), thus raising awareness of the importance of social policies to make their double presence in both worlds possible. There is now general agreement from the right to the left on the urgency to develop family–employment policies. But what is not generally addressed is the impact of such policies on gender equality, a dimension which tends to be either ignored or taken for granted. Not all reconciliation measures have the same effects on the women and men relationship. Some of them push forward equality, whereas others go backwards. Efficiency in making job and family responsibilities compatible does not always go hand in hand with increasing equality. The paper presents a theoretical model for the reconciliation of work and family life from a gender equality perspective. The three main kinds of instruments available in social policy – services, leave, and cash – are examined in four different cases: care of under-threes, care of sick children, coordination of work and school schedules, and care of children during school holidays. Each case is looked at considering its effects on social and gender equality, as well as child welfare. The model includes as active agents of the system the State (promotes and regulates), families and individuals (those directly implicated), and the market as labor market, on the one hand, and supplier of private services, on the other.     

Young Women's Job Mobility: The Influence of Motherhood Status and Education

Previous research has found that women who become mothers in their 20s face larger wage penalties compared to women who delay childbearing until their 30s. Explanations for this have focused on the consequences of employment breaks early in one's career and reduced opportunities in the workplace following the birth of a child. In this article, the author uses panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N = 4,566) to examine another possible explanation: differences in patterns of and wage returns to job mobility. She found that young mothers, relative to childless women, make fewer wage‐enhancing voluntary job separations and often receive lower wage returns for these separations. Educational attainment exacerbates these patterns, largely to the disadvantage of women with less education.     

Welfare Status and Child Care as Obstacles to Full-Time Work for Low-Income Mothers

SUMMARY

In this study, we use new data from the Philadelphia Survey of Child Care and Work to expand on previous analyses: we include child care problems as a work obstacle, and we analyze both current welfare recipients and non-welfare “working poor” mothers. Results show that two main obstacles have a large impact on full-time work: poor mental health and child care problems. Net of other factors, mothers with severe child care problems are 22 percent less likely to work full time. Dividing the sample by welfare status, we find a child care problems effect for both groups. Among welfare recipients, the gap in full-time work between those with severe child care problems and those without is 30 percent. Among the working poor, child care problems reduce the chance of full-time work by about 18 percent. Our findings show that improving mothers' child care situation can significantly improve their ability to support their families.