TY - JOUR
T1 - Predicting infant outcome in families of employed and nonemployed mothers
AU - Weinraub, Marsha
AU - Jaeger, Elizabeth
AU - Hoffman, Lois
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was originally presented at the meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, April 1987, in Baltimore, Maryland. The research was partially supported by grants from the Temple University Biomedical Research Support Fund. The authors are grateful to Susan Ansul, Rose DiBiase, Maureen O’Brien, Loretta Newell, Beverly Coulson, Shirley Landis, and Robert Gress for assistance in all aspects of this research. The comments of Nora Newcombe, the editors, and the reviewers were helpful in revising the manuscript. This study could not have been done without the cooperation and support of the families who participated in the project.
PY - 1988/12
Y1 - 1988/12
N2 - Differences in infant outcome, predictor variables, and their relationships were explored as a function of maternal employment. Thirty 18-month-olds and their mothers were studied. Child intelligence, attachment security, and dependency were measured, as well as frequency of stressful events in the mother's life, quality of the parents' marital relationship, frequency of the mother's social contacts, and extent of the mother's emotional and parenting supports. Also included were the mother's ability to cope; satisfaction with emotional, parenting, and child care supports; and role satisfaction. For children of employed mothers, attachment and dependency were negatively correlated; securely attached children showed less dependency behavior. For employed mothers, satisfaction with child care and frequent social contacts predicted secure child attachment. Satisfaction with child care, role satisfaction, and ability to cope were strongly interrelated. For nonemployed mothers, maternal coping predicted attachment security, while frequent social contacts predicted greater child dependency. Predictors of child outcome were highly interrelated for nonemployed mothers, with satisfaction with emotional supports playing a pivotal role. These differences suggest that different models to predict infant outcome in employed and nonemployed mother families may be appropriate.
AB - Differences in infant outcome, predictor variables, and their relationships were explored as a function of maternal employment. Thirty 18-month-olds and their mothers were studied. Child intelligence, attachment security, and dependency were measured, as well as frequency of stressful events in the mother's life, quality of the parents' marital relationship, frequency of the mother's social contacts, and extent of the mother's emotional and parenting supports. Also included were the mother's ability to cope; satisfaction with emotional, parenting, and child care supports; and role satisfaction. For children of employed mothers, attachment and dependency were negatively correlated; securely attached children showed less dependency behavior. For employed mothers, satisfaction with child care and frequent social contacts predicted secure child attachment. Satisfaction with child care, role satisfaction, and ability to cope were strongly interrelated. For nonemployed mothers, maternal coping predicted attachment security, while frequent social contacts predicted greater child dependency. Predictors of child outcome were highly interrelated for nonemployed mothers, with satisfaction with emotional supports playing a pivotal role. These differences suggest that different models to predict infant outcome in employed and nonemployed mother families may be appropriate.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=45449121613&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0885-2006(88)90035-X
DO - 10.1016/0885-2006(88)90035-X
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:45449121613
SN - 0885-2006
VL - 3
SP - 361
EP - 378
JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
IS - 4
ER -