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Early Maternal Employment and Non-cognitive Outcomes in Early Childhood and Adolescence: Evidence from British Birth Cohort Data

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Andrew E. Clark
  • Warn N. Lekfuangfu
  • Nattavudh Powdthavee
  • George Ward

Abstract

We analyse the relationship between early maternal employment and child emotional and behavioural outcomes in early childhood and adolescence. Using rich data from a cohort of children born in the UK in the early 1990s, we find little evidence of a strong statistical relationship between early maternal employment and any of the emotional outcomes. However, there is some evidence that children whose mother is in full-time employment at the 18th month have worse behavioural outcomes at ages 4, 7, and 12. We suggest that these largely insignificant results may in part be explained by mothers who return to full-time work earlier being able to compensate their children: we highlight the role of fathers' time investment and alternative childcare arrangements in this respect.

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File URL: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1380.pdf
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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number dp1380.

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Date of creation: Oct 2015
Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1380
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/series.asp?prog=CEP

Keywords: Child outcomes; maternal employment; well-being; conduct; ALSPAC;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
  • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
  • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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  23. repec:hal:journl:halshs-01109062 is not listed on IDEAS
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  1. Early maternal employment and non-cognitive outcomes in early childhood and adolescence: evidence from British birth cohort data
    by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2016-04-07 13:40:32

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