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Maternal employment and children’s socio-emotional outcomes: an Australian longitudinal study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

Among children, poor socio-emotional functioning leads to poor health and well-being during childhood and later in life, and so understanding its social determinants is important. This study’s objective is to examine how maternal employment influences children’s socio-emotional outcomes in an Australian sample of families with two biological parents, testing the mediating role of maternal mental health, parenting practices, and parental income.

Methods

We analyze six waves of panel data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 7524 children, 29,701 observations) using random-effect models.

Results

Children of employed mothers display better socio-emotional outcomes than children of non-employed mothers, though the effect magnitude is only moderate. Associations are stronger for internalizing than externalizing problems, and not mediated by parental mental health, parenting practices, or household income.

Conclusions

Our findings can inform sociopolitical debates on the social value of maternal labor force participation and its impacts on children. They suggest that incentivizing maternal employment should bear no detrimental consequences on their children’s socio-emotional functioning. The different associations found for children’s internalizing and externalizing problems stress the value of distinguishing these constructs.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Project No. CE140100027), and uses unit record data from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. The study is conducted in partnership between the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the ARC, DSS, AIFS, or the ABS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Life Course Centre, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, U2/197 Carrington Road, Coogee, NSW, 2034, Australia

    Amir Salimiha

  2. Life Course Centre, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, Long Pocket Precinct, 80 Meiers Rd, Building C, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, QLD, 4068, Australia

    Francisco Perales & Janeen Baxter

Authors
  1. Amir Salimiha
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  2. Francisco Perales
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  3. Janeen Baxter
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Correspondence to Amir Salimiha.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Salimiha, A., Perales, F. & Baxter, J. Maternal employment and children’s socio-emotional outcomes: an Australian longitudinal study. Int J Public Health 63, 1089–1098 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-018-1132-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-018-1132-4

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