The overall goal of this project is to examine the intersection of maternal employment, child care, parenting practices/behavior, and economic factors in families with children born in 1999-2000, in the wake of welfare reform and state requirements for low-income mothers of young children to enter the work force. We are interested in the linkages among onset, intensity, and stability of maternal employment; the type, intensity, quality, and stability of child care arrangements used by the family; the psychological climate of the family (including mental health of parents, relationship between the mother and father, conflict in the household, and stability of household members); and the parenting behavior of the mothers (discipline practices and warmth) and the behavior of the child care providers. We also will examine how maternal employment and childcare in low-income households are associated with child cognitive and emotional well-being at 2 1/2 and 4 years of age (as indicated by child assessments, parental report, and child care provider report). This project would add a childcare module to an ongoing panel study, the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. The sample is 3,400 children from 16 cities across the country (selected to yield a nationally representative sample of unwed births in cities with populations over 200,000). Child care observations and interviews with providers and parents will occur at the 2 1/2 and 4 year follow-up, as well as assessments of child cognitive and emotional development, parental practices, and home environment during home visits at 2 1/2 and 4 years.
Our specific aims are: (1) to collect data on parental employment, child care and child well-being via interviews and observations; (2) to describe parental employment and child care patterns in a nationally representative sample of low-income families living in cities with diverse policy contexts; (3) to assess the relative influences of employment, child care, and family context on child well-being and whether changes in these areas predict changes in children's cognitive and emotional well-being; and (4) to augment these models by examining possible moderating child (temperament, health status, gender) and family factors (parental relationships, parental mental health, parenting practices).
Showing the most recent 10 out of 95 publications
