Maternal Employment & Daycare Flashcards
What are children of two-parent dual-earner families like as compared to children of non-employed mothers?
Higher self-esteem, better family & peer relations, less sex-stereotypic attitudes
Does high-quality daycare negatively affect children?
No and may actually benefit children of low-income families in terms of intellectual development
Greater life satisfaction reported for both low- and middle-income mothers as long as mother’s employment status is ___________________
Consistent with her & her partner’s preferences
For whom are the positive effects of maternal employment more pronounced? How to these positive effects show themselves?
For daughters as compared to sons; shows itself through higher self-esteem and more career and achievement oriented, more assertive
What did early studies indicate as compared to more recent studies with respect to maternal employment in middle-class families?
Showed that sons of working mothers scored lower on measures of school achievement and intelligence; however, recent studies have not confirmed this except when mothers work more than 40 hours/week
Family type mediates impact of maternal employment as follows:
In traditional dual-earner families (with gender inequality in family roles), children may show more anxiety and depression and rate themselves lower in terms of peer acceptance and school achievement as compared to children from more egalitarian dual-earner families
Are there any long-term effects of maternal employment?
No, adolescents of mothers employed or not employed during their younger years showed no difference in terms of emotional, social, cognitive, or behavioral development
What does the research on daycare show?
No consistent negative effects associated with high-quality daycare and may actually be associated with some benefits
What are some examples of benefits of daycare?
IQ test scores of middle-class children attend daycare do not differ from home-reared counterparts; also enriched daycare programs may improve intellectual abilities in low-income children and high-quality daycare seems to have positive effects on social development
What are a few possible downsides to effects of daycare on children?
May be more self-sufficient, more cooperative with peers, and more adaptable to new social situations; however, may also be less compliant with adults and more aggressive with other children
What are some of the negative consequences of low-quality daycare?
Greater distractibility and lower task involvement; outcome effects of compensatory preschool programs like HeadStart indicates IQ score gains but these gains are often not mainatined; however, children who attend these kinds of programs are less likely to be placed in special education classes, have better attitudes about school, higher achievement test scores, and less likely to repeat a grade and/or drop out of high school
