IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ozl/journl/v10y2007i3p149-165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Time or money: impact of parental employment on time that 4 to 5 year olds spend in language building activities

Author

Listed:
  • Jude Brown

    (The University of New England)

  • Michael Bittman

    (The University of New England)

Abstract

Early childhood is a critical time for establishing the communication and literacy skills that shape children’s subsequent academic, social and employment opportunities. Debates around the family environments that support children’s optimal development, have focused on mothers’ workforce participation, neglecting the effects fathers’ working hours, and socioeconomic differences. This study examined time use diary data collected for a large sample of Australian four to five year-old children. It considered the relationships between parental employment and the amount of daily time that children spent in language-related activities by income group. For low and middle income families the combined effect of fathers working long hours and mothers working, resulted in children spending significantly less time in language-related activities. In contrast, for high income families, parental employment hours had no impact on children’s time use. These findings suggest that for children at greatest risk of poor developmental outcomes, developmental opportunities may be enhanced by strategies that reduce levels of long work hours by fathers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jude Brown & Michael Bittman, 2007. "Time or money: impact of parental employment on time that 4 to 5 year olds spend in language building activities," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 10(3), pages 149-165.
    • Handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:10:y:2007:i:3:p:149-165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE103brown.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Gregg & Elizabeth Washbrook & Carol Propper & Simon Burgess, 2005. "The Effects of a Mother's Return to Work Decision on Child Development in the UK," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(501), pages 48-80, February.
    2. Gary S. Becker & Nigel Tomes, 1994. "Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 257-298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Anne H. Gauthier & Timothy M. Smeeding & Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., 2004. "Do We Invest Less Time in Children? Trends in Parental Time in Selected Industrialized Countries Since the 1960's," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 64, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    4. Suzanne Bianchi, 2000. "Maternal employment and time with children: Dramatic change or surprising continuity?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(4), pages 401-414, November.
    5. John Sandberg & Sandra Hofferth, 2001. "Changes in children’s time with parents: United States, 1981–1997," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(3), pages 423-436, August.
    6. Lawrence M. Berger & Jennifer Hill & Jane Waldfogel, 2005. "Maternity leave, early maternal employment and child health and development in the US," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(501), pages 29-47, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chikako Yamauchi, 2010. "Parental Investment in Children: Differential Pathways of Parental Education and Mental Health," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(273), pages 210-226, June.
    2. Taryn W. Morrissey, 2023. "The Earned Income Tax Credit and Short-Term Changes in Parents’ Time Investments in Children," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 412-433, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Catherine Deri-Armstrong, 2009. "The Long-term Effects of Maternal Employment on Daughters’ Later Labour Force Participation and Earnings," Working Papers 0914E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    2. Mendolia, Silvia, 2014. "Maternal Working Hours and the Well-Being of Adolescent Children," IZA Discussion Papers 8391, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Martha H. Stinson & Peter Gottschalk, 2015. "Is there an Advantage to Working? The Relationship between Maternal Employment and Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers 15-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz, 2010. "Increasing the length of parents' birth-related leave: The effect on children's long-term educational outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 91-100, January.
    5. Andrew E. Clark & Warn N. Lekfuangfu & Nattavudh Powdthavee & George Ward, 2015. "Early Maternal Employment and Non-cognitive Outcomes in Early Childhood and Adolescence: Evidence from British Birth Cohort Data," CEP Discussion Papers dp1380, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Pinka Chatterji & Sara Markowitz & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, 2011. "Early Maternal Employment and Family Wellbeing," NBER Working Papers 17212, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Nicoletti, Cheti & Tonei, Valentina, 2020. "Do parental time investments react to changes in child’s skills and health?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. Rachel Dunifon & Anne Toft Hansen & Sean Nicholson & Lisbeth Palmhøj Nielsen, 2013. "The Effect of Maternal Employment on Children's Academic Performance," NBER Working Papers 19364, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Pinka Chatterji & Sara Markowitz & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, 2013. "Effects of early maternal employment on maternal health and well-being," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 285-301, January.
    10. Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz, 2009. "Allocation of Parental Time and the Long-Term E¤ect on Children's Education," Working Papers 09-22, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    11. Felfe, Christina & Hsin, Amy, 2012. "Maternal work conditions and child development," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1037-1057.
    12. Tahir Andrabi & Jishnu Das & Asim Ijaz Khwaja, 2012. "What Did You Do All Day?: Maternal Education and Child Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(4), pages 873-912.
    13. Khanam, Rasheda & Nghiem, Son & Connelly, Luke, 2016. "The effects of parental leave on child health and postnatal care: Evidence from Australia," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 17-29.
    14. Ylenia Brilli, 2022. "Mother’s Time Allocation, Childcare, and Child Cognitive Development," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(2), pages 233-272.
    15. Müller Christian, 2007. "Frühkindliche Bildung und Betreuung in Tageseinrichtungen als Staatsaufgabe / The Governmental Provision of Early Childhood Education and Care," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 58(1), pages 131-148, January.
    16. Monika Hjeds Löfmark, 2007. "Gender and time allocation differences in Taganrog, Russia," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 4(1), pages 69-92, September.
    17. Lalive, Rafael & Zweimüller, Josef, 2005. "Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return-to-Work? Evidence from a "True Natural Experiment"," IZA Discussion Papers 1613, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Guyonne Kalb & Thor Thoresen, 2010. "A comparison of family policy designs of Australia and Norway using microsimulation models," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 255-287, June.
    19. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2004. "Parental Employment and Child Cognitive Development," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(1).
    20. Rafael Lalive & Josef Zweim�ller, "undated". "Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return-to-Work? Evidence from a �True Natural Experiment�," IEW - Working Papers 242, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth; Time Allocation and Labour Supply; Economic Development; Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration; Analysis of Education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:10:y:2007:i:3:p:149-165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sandie Rawnsley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/becurau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.