CAITLIN MCPHERRAN LOMBARDI AND REBEKAH LEVINE COLEY

Boston College

Low-Income Mothers Employment Experiences:

Prospective Links with Young Childrens
Development

This study assessed mothers employment

experiences and links with childrens long-term
cognitive achievement and socio-emotional
adjustment using a representative sample of lowincome mothers and children ( N = 538) from
the Three-City Study. Maternal employment
involvement, quality, and stability were assessed
over a 2-year period when children were aged 24
to 48 months. Cluster analysis of the employment
characteristics yielded 4 distinct employment
patterns differing by the quality and stability of
employment. OLS regression analyses linking
these employment patterns with childrens functioning at age 9 revealed that high-quality stable
employment was associated with enhanced cognitive skills and behavioral functioning among
children. Further analysis suggested the significance of mothers consistent insurance benefits
to the long-term well-being of their children.
The recent recession has highlighted the
economic struggles of Americans experiencing
unemployment, underemployment, and lowquality employment with low wages, limited
benefits, and a lack of job security and stability.
Already a vulnerable demographic, single

Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology, Lynch

School of Education, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth
Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (mcpherrc@bc.edu).
Key Words: behavior problems, cognitive skills, maternal
employment, poverty, welfare reform.

514

women with children have been particularly

hard hit. From 2000 to 2009, the percentage
of single mothers with a household income
below the poverty level rose from 33% to
39% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). Low-income
mothers have become increasingly impacted by
economic conditions over the past two decades
because of reduced access to welfare and
subsequent dramatic increases in the percentage
working (Haskins, 2006). These shifts occurred
amid evidence of poor job quality and stability
among low-income women entering the labor
force (Johnson & Corcoran, 2003), placing
low-income mothers in the hazardous position
of being dependent on low-quality employment
during unsteady economic times.
Policymakers have argued that increased
labor force participation among low-income
women will lead to economic stability and in
turn support childrens development (Brown,
1997; Pavetti & Acs, 2001). Yet research
has shown limited evidence of improvements
in family or child well-being as low-income
mothers employment rates increased (Johnson
& Corcoran, 2003; Slack et al., 2007). This
discrepancy may be because of a lack of job stability and quality among parents with low levels
of education and work experience as well as the
challenges of balancing work and caregiving.
Little research has provided a multifaceted
understanding of economically disadvantaged
mothers labor market experiences. The goals
of the current study were to assess multiple
aspects of low-income womens labor market

Family Relations 62 (July 2013): 514 528

DOI:10.1111/fare.12018

515

Mothers Employment Experiences

experiences over a 2-year period, to delineate
characteristics of mothers associated with
more stable and high-quality work patterns,
and to evaluate whether work characteristics
were associated prospectively with childrens
cognitive and behavioral functioning.
Theoretical Framework
Economic and psychological theory suggests
that mothers employment characteristics may
alter the economic and social resources promoted or inhibited by employment and therefore may be linked with childrens well-being.
An investment perspective argues that unemployment or unstable, low-quality employment
affects children by limiting families economic
assets and, therefore, the ability to acquire the
resources necessary for successful child development (Becker & Tomes, 1986). Mothers with
unstable or low-quality work patterns have less
economic capital (e.g., wages, benefits) compared with mothers with stable or more highly
paid work, but have similar constraints on the
time and energy they have to devote to parenting. Another theoretical viewpoint, the family stress perspective, sees unstable, low-wage
work as most influential on child development
through the psychological toll it exerts on parents (Elder, 1997). Low-quality and unstable
work is expected to be stressful for mothers.
This psychological stress in turn impacts mothers emotional warmth and parenting behavior
toward their children, negatively affecting child
well-being. Both of these perspectives suggest
that unemployment, unstable employment, or
jobs with low wages and benefits would be
detrimental to child functioning, whereas more
stable and high-quality employment may be
beneficial.
Although these theoretical models are proposed as global models, the proposed pathways
may be particularly relevant for families with
young children and single parents. Balancing
employment and family responsibilities is
especially demanding with young children,
who require constant supervision and care and
for whom nonparental care arrangements are
costly and often difficult to access (Cabrera,
Hutchens, & Peters, 2006). Extensive research
has shown that experiences in early childhood
can undermine the development of early
academic and behavioral skills and impact longterm development (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn,

1997; Heckman, 2006). Environmental inputs,

including economic and emotional capital,
are particularly important, serving as essential
resources for young childrens emerging
regulatory, learning, and social skills, which in
turn affect future socioemotional and academic
functioning as children move into middle
childhood and beyond (Hill & Morris, 2008).
Parenting stress, fluctuations in schedule, and
changes in caretakers because of limited, poor
quality, and unstable employment may have
important repercussions for young children at
this key developmental stage.
Empirical Evidence Linking Maternal
Employment and Child Well-being
The role of maternal employment in childrens development has been examined over
several decades in a broad expanse of research.
A number of large, longitudinal survey studies
have found negative links between early maternal employment and childrens cognitive and
socioemotional well-being later in childhood.
For example, assessing a sample of White children from the NICHD Study of Early Child
Care (SECC), Brooks-Gunn, Han, and Waldfogel (2002) found that maternal employment
begun before the childs ninth month was
linked to negative child cognitive outcomes at
36 months, particularly when the initial employment was 30 hours or more per week. This
pattern continued into the first grade, extending to childrens behavioral functioning as
well (Brooks-Gunn, Han, & Waldfogel, 2010).
Research with nationally representative samples
of mothers has unearthed similar patterns identifying childrens first year as a critical period
of development (Han, Waldfogel, & BrooksGunn, 2001; Hill, Waldfogel, Brooks-Gunn,
& Han, 2005). Research examining maternal
employment after a childs first year, however,
has found no implications for young children
in White, middle-income families (Han et al.,
2001; Lucas-Thompson, Goldberg, & Prause,
2010; Ruhm, 2000; Wills & Brauer, 2012).
Among low-income families, the results
differ, with some studies finding positive links
between maternal employment during the first
year or during early and middle childhood and
childrens later functioning (Coley & Lombardi,
2013; Dunifon, Kalil, & Danziger, 2003; LucasThompson et al., 2010; Secret & Peck-Heath,
2004), and other studies finding no relationship

516
(Chase-Lansdale et al., 2003; Kalil, Dunifon,
& Danziger, 2001; Osborne & Knab, 2007).
Because of these mixed results, we argue that it
is essential to explore the role of different aspects
of low-income mothers work experiences, such
as work intensity, stability, and quality.
Employment intensity. Existing research on
different aspects of mothers work experiences
focuses on the intensity of employment, quality
of employment, and stability of employment.
Intensity of employment may be defined as
hours worked per week or months worked per
year, indicating the consistency and amount of
work. There is limited research on the intensity
of employment among low-income mothers of
young children. Two recent longitudinal studies
of low-income families found no significant
associations between mothers work hours
and months and the behavioral or cognitive
functioning of children during early or middle
childhood (Chase-Lansdale et al., 2003; Kalil
et al., 2001). Few studies have assessed the
intensity of mothers employment over time and
potential repercussions for children and families.
Two possible explanations for the lack of
association between employment intensity and
child functioning are that low-income womens
employment may be of variable quality or that
work intensity may be related to child well-being
in a curvilinear fashion, with low work hours
providing limited monetary and psychological
benefits, and extremely high work hours sapping
womens time and energy for quality parenting.
Employment quality. Limited research has gone
beyond assessing mothers employment status
and extent to consider the quality of employment. The Womens Employment Study (WES),
which followed a sample of welfare recipients
as they transitioned into the labor market, found
that womens average employment rates and
wages increased in the late 1990s, yet many
women remained unemployed, underemployed,
or working in poor-quality jobs (defined by
wages, health benefits, and hours of the job;
Johnson & Corcoran, 2003). Some research has
suggested that the benefits of maternal employment are translated through the occupational
complexity of jobs, with high-complexity jobs
being most promotive of childrens development and simple and repetitive jobs having
negative implications for children in comparison to nonemployment (Parcel & Menaghan,

Family Relations
1994). The importance of job earnings for
childrens functioning has been examined in
experimental antipoverty employment. A number of programs successfully increased mothers
employment and income but found no significant
benefits for young childrens functioning (Morris & Michalopoulous, 2003), although older
children exhibited enhanced achievement and
social behaviors (Morris & Gennetian, 2003).
It is notable that little research has more carefully assessed employment quality factors such
as wages or benefits like health insurance.
Stability of employment. A final important
work characteristic is stability, which has been
examined by looking at either cycling between
welfare and work or cycling between jobs.
Cycling has been found to be common in
low-income samples; nearly half of the women
in the WES experienced job instability (Johnson
& Corcoran, 2003). Job cycling also has been
linked with negative emotional and behavioral
functioning among young children (Dunifon
et al., 2003; Yoshikawa & Seidman, 2001),
suggesting that unstable employment may pose
risks to children compared with continuous
employment or unemployment.
Research Goals and Hypotheses
Taken together, these studies suggest that maternal employment in low-income families could be
positively, neutrally, or negatively linked with
childrens outcomes depending on the characteristics of employment. Little research has extensively assessed multiple aspects of mothers
employment in a comprehensive manner. Given
that characteristics of employment are likely
to covary, considering employment intensity,
quality, and consistency together will provide a
richer portrayal of womens employment experiences. In addition, the literature has primarily
focused on school-aged children, with less attention on early childhood, a critical developmental
period. In the current research, we used a representative sample of low-income families from
three cities to assess multiple aspects of mothers employment experiences over childrens
preschool years and to assess links with childrens later functioning (at age 9) in emotional,
behavioral, and cognitive realms. On the basis of
theory and prior literature, we hypothesized that
unemployment, low-quality employment, and
employment patterns characterized by cycling

Mothers Employment Experiences

would be harmful compared with continuous,
high-quality employment.
METHOD
Sample
Data were drawn from the main survey component of the Three-City Study, a longitudinal,
multimethod study of the well-being of children
and families in the wake of federal welfare
reform. A household-based, stratified, random
sample of over 2,400 low-income families in
low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago,
and San Antonio participated in the study.
The sample is representative of children and
mothers in low-income families in low-income
neighborhoods in the three cities. In each family,
one child (aged 0 to 4 years or 10 to 14 years
old) was randomly selected for inclusion in the
study, and the childs primary female caregiver
was identified. Three waves of interviews were
conducted in 1999 (90% screening rate; 83%
interview response rate), 2000 2001 (88%
retention rate), and 2005 (80% retention rate of
Wave 1 respondents). During each interview,
caregivers (termed mothers, as over 90%
were biological mothers of the interviewed
children) were interviewed individually in
their homes, and direct cognitive assessments
were conducted with the children. Interviews
were conducted in English or Spanish. All
respondents were paid for their participation
in the study. For further sampling details, see
Winston, Angel, Burton, Cherlin, Moffitt, and
Wilson (1999). The analytic sample includes
children aged 24 to 54 months at Wave 1 (aged
9 years at Wave 3; N = 538). This subsample
was selected to focus on young children not yet
in school and thus more affected by maternal
work patterns and related care contexts. Infants
were excluded because of the disruptive nature
of childbirth on maternal work, especially in
industries without maternal leave benefits.
Measures
Maternal employment. At each wave, mothers
reported on all job spells in the prior 2 years,
only reporting on jobs that lasted 2 months or
more. For each job spell, mothers reported the
start and end dates of the primary job, hours
worked per week for this job, wage rate, and
whether this job provided health insurance.
These data were recoded into a month-bymonth account matched with the focal childs

517
age in months from 24 to 48 months, a time
span that maximized the data available for
children between 24 and 54 months of age
at Wave 1. The employment data were used
to create a series of analytic variables. Work
intensity was measured with a count of the
number of months worked over the 2-year period
and the number of hours per week employed
during periods of employment. Work quality
included a continuous measure of average hourly
wage rates during periods of employment and a
count of the number of months the mother had
received employer-provided health insurance.
Work stability was assessed by the number
of different jobs held as well as a count of
the number of transitions from employment
to unemployment or vice versa. In addition,
mothers reports on employment experiences
drawn from the Wave 3 interview were used
to create measures of current weekly pay in
dollars per hour, whether or not mothers were
receiving employer-provided health insurance,
and whether or not they had been employed the
majority of the past 11 months.
Childrens functioning. Measures of childrens
functioning were drawn from Waves 1 and
3. Mothers reported on childrens behavioral
and emotional functioning at each wave using
the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/2-3 at
Wave 1 and CBCL/6-18 at Wave 3; Achenbach,
1992; Achenbach, Dumenci, & Rescorla, 2003).
At Wave 1, subscales for internalizing and
externalizing problems were created ( =
.81, .90). At Wave 3, DSM-based subscales
assessing childrens symptoms of affective
problems, anxiety problems, somatic problems, attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD)
problems, oppositional defiant problems, and
conduct problems were created (s ranged
from .64 to .83). Childrens reading and
math skills were directly assessed using the
Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Revised (WJ-R) Letter-Word Identification
and Applied Problems subtests at each wave
(Woodcock & Johnson, 1989, 1990; Woodcock
& Munoz-Sandoval, 1996). Standard scores
were created using the methods and norms
suggested by the instrument authors.
Child, mother, and family characteristics.
Numerous characteristics of children, mothers,
and families were assessed at Wave 1 (unless
otherwise noted). Mothers reported on child

518

Family Relations

gender, months of age, and race or ethnicity,

delineated as African American, Hispanic, or
White/other. Mothers reported on their own age;
number of children living in their household;
marital status, delineated as married or not; and
whether their spouse was employed. Mothers
reported whether or not they had received
welfare in the prior 2 years and the proportion
of years they had been employed since age
16. Mothers reported on their educational
attainment, delineated as less than a high school
degree, a high school degree or GED, or more
than high school, and their literacy skills were
directly assessed at Wave 2 using the WJ-R
Letter-Word Identification subtest. Mothers
reported on household income from numerous
sources; total household income excluding
mothers earned income was computed and
divided by 1,000. Families city of residence
was delineated as a marker of labor market
conditions.
Analytic Strategy
Within the sample, there was a moderate amount
of missing data, ranging from 4% to 20% across
variables. Missing data were imputed with
expectation maximization, which uses a
maximum likelihood approach (Dempster,
Laird, & Rubin, 1977). Thereafter, all analyses
incorporated sampling weights that adjust for
selection criteria and differential response and
make the sample representative of children and
mothers in low-income families in low-income
neighborhoods in the three cities.
The first step of the analysis was cluster
analysis. Because mothers employment data
indicated notable variability, cluster analysis
was conducted to assess patterns in work experiences across individuals. Cluster analysis is a
person-based analytic technique that identifies
subgroups of individuals that show similar
patterns across a set of variables. Agglomerative
hierarchical clustering with average linkage
was used, employing the Calinski and Harabasz
(1974) pseudo F index and the Duda, Hart, and
Stork (2001) Je(2)/Je(1) indices to determine the
number of clusters (Milligan & Cooper, 1985).
Cluster analyses identified four distinct patterns
of employment, which were used in further
analyses. After identifying distinct patterns,
analyses were conducted to assess whether
mother, child, and family characteristics differed
significantly across the four employment groups.

Bivariate models tested each mother, child, and

family characteristic with the four employment
groups.
The next set of analyses employed lagged
Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models to isolate prospective longitudinal links
between the four identified maternal employment patterns when children were 2 to 4 years
old and childrens cognitive and socioemotional
functioning at age 9. To reduce the threat
of selection bias posed by differential selection into employment associated with measured
characteristics of children and mothers, the full
set of child, mother, and family characteristics
described above (assessed at Wave 1) as well
as mothers Wave 3 employment characteristics
were included in the models as covariates. In
addition, models included a Wave 1 measure
of child functioning to reduce omitted variable bias further and to control for unmeasured,
time-invariant differences in children who were
present at the first interview (i.e., for models predicting Wave 3 reading skills, the Wave 1 reading skills score was included as a covariate). The
regression coefficients for the employment clusters are thus interpreted as the effects on changes
in childrens functioning over time (Kessler &
Greenberg, 1981). Following the main set of
models, additional specifications were run to
test the robustness of results to the inclusion of
additional covariates, including variables assessing childrens primary child care at Wave 1 and
time-varying measures of child, mother, and
family covariates drawn from Waves 1 and 3.
A final set of lagged OLS regression models
were conducted using the separate characteristics of employment (i.e., hours, wages, jobs,
months worked, and insurance) rather than the
four employment patterns to assess whether
specific aspects of employment were driving
results. These models focused only on the
mothers who had some employment experience
when children were 24 to 48 months (n = 392),
incorporating the same child, mother, and
family covariates as the prior models, including
the Wave 1 measure of the child outcome and
mothers Wave 3 employment characteristics.
Sample Description
Table 1 (first column) presents weighted
descriptive statistics on the analytic sample. At
Wave 1, mothers were, on average, 29 years old
and had an average of three children; 33% were

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Mothers Employment Experiences

Table 1. Descriptives on All Study Variables

Total Sample
(N = 539)

Low-Quality,
Low-Participation
Nonemployed
Employment (n = 246)
(n = 154)

Employment characteristics 0 24 months

No. months worked
9.90

Hours worked/week
22.96c (17.88)

No. transitions
1.32 (1.51)

No. jobs
1.08 (0.93)

Hourly wage
5.35 (4.55)

No. months with health insurance

3.50

Child characteristics Wave 1

Age (months)
38.98c (8.81) 38.95 (8.96)
Boy
49.42%
62.68%
Girl
50.58%
37.32%
Hispanic
51.96%
55.22%
Black
44.66%
39.63%
White
3.38%
5.15%
Mother and family characteristics Wave 1
Age of mother
29.03 (8.98)
32.05 (11.92)ab
Literacy skills Wave 2
90.84 (15.37) 88.12 (12.72)
Less than high school
31.80%
41.25%a
High school or GED
22.50%
31.14%
More than high school
45.70%
27.61%ab
% years employed since age 16
60.04%
61.84%
Welfare in last 2 years
53.58%
48.93%
Mother is married
32.86%
36.2%a
Working spouse
23.47%
30.95%a
No. of children
2.96 (1.50)
3.39 (1.61)a
Household income/1,000 w/o mother income 0.58 (0.72)
0.66 (0.87)
Boston
33.21%
29.14%
Chicago
33.21%
35.47%
San Antonio
33.58%
35.39%
Child functioning Wave 1
Reading skills
100.89 (13.80) 102.55 (13.16)
Math skills
93.09 (16.42) 92.32 (15.54)
Internalizing problems
51.56 (10.16) 50.64 (10.60)
Externalizing problems
51.36 (10.07) 50.88 (10.08)
Employment characteristics at Wave 3
Employed most of past year Wave 3
54.13%
32.82%abc
Hours worked/week current job
17.51 (18.39)
7.92 (14.18)abc
Hourly wage current job
5.87 (7.61)
3.22 (6.78)ab
Health insurance from current job
15.76%
2.17%ab
Reading skills
98.75 (16.25) 97.42 (15.17)
Math skills
101.70 (17.31) 98.30 (13.49)a
Affective problems
55.19 (5.82)
54.76 (4.69)
Anxiety problems
55.62 (6.18)
55.92 (6.15)
Hyperactivity problems
55.02 (6.43)
54.72 (5.15)
Somatic problems
55.01 (6.57)
54.28 (5.31)
Oppositional problems
55.48 (6.19)
54.44 (4.97)
Conduct problems
56.52 (7.32)
57.13 (5.98)a

12.16a
31.38 (10.91)a
1.53 (1.00)a
1.33 (0.58)a
6.65 (2.24)a
0.50a
39.30 (8.99)
50.38%
49.62%
56.91%
42.03%
1%
27.14 (6.61)ac
91.86 (14.09)
33.29%b
16.13%
50.58%a
52.08%a
60.89%
37.18%b
23.33%b
2.91 (1.51)
0.58 (0.65)
34.11%
30.67%
35.22%
99.71 (13.16)
94.25 (16.46)
51.73 (10.09)
51.62 (10.11)
65.34%a
20.87 (17.93)a
6.76 (7.54)a
15.66%a
98.15 (16.03)
102.12 (18.78)
56.02 (6.65)a
55.56 (6.20)
55.38 (7.42)
54.73 (6.70)
56.69 (7.09)a
56.69 (8.27)b

Moderate-Quality, High-Quality,
Unstable
Stable
Employment
Employment
(n = 40)
(n = 89)
14.01b
33.38 (6.43)a
4.72 (1.07)ab
2.94 (0.50)ab
7.35 (2.70)b
1.63b

20.70ab
37.00 (7.15)
1.92 (1.54)a
1.59 (0.66)b
9.25 (2.48)ab
18.89ab

36.44 (8.03)
63.16%
36.84%
50.69%
45.48%
3.83%

37.95 (7.91)
63.32%
36.68%
37.21%
57.19%
5.60%

23.08 (3.80)bcd
91.87 (10.44)
29.24%
39.56%
31.2%c
79.63%a
65.81%
9.74%ab
1.56%ab
2.64 (1.13)
0.61 (0.68)
40.59%
30.23%
29.18%

29.47 (5.66)d
94.89 (20.67)
12.11%ab
21.24%
66.65%bc
71.14%
41.09%
24.79%
18.02%
2.37 (1.10)a
0.42 (0.52)
34.13%
33.62%
32.24%

100.19 (11.18)
91.37 (15.02)
58.94 (11.49)
58.55 (10.25)

102.39 (16.97)
92.70 (17.29)
51.18 (7.88)
50.07 (9.00)

60.55%b
59.42%c
31.11 (18.63)bd 19.12 (19.19)cd
6.28 (5.57)
7.47 (8.58)b
12.82%
35.44%b
99.94 (11.36)
104.49 (17.07)
99.83 (15.07)b 109.50 (17.19)ab
55.21 (6.55)
53.48 (4.37)a
56.33 (7.99)
55.04 (5.73)
55.07 (5.03)
54.21 (5.80)
59.33 (9.40)
55.55 (6.14)
56.34 (6.03)
53.49 (4.86)a
57.39 (7.11)c
53.40 (4.58)abc

Note: Significant differences (p < .05) between the cluster groups within each row are denoted with shared letters.

married, 23% had an employed spouse, and over

half were current or recent welfare recipients.
About 32% of mothers did not complete high
school, whereas 46% had education beyond

high school. At Wave 1, focal children averaged

just over 3 years old, and half were male. About
half of the sample was Hispanic (52%), 45%
African American, and 3% White/other.

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Family Relations

The first column of Table 1 also presents

descriptive data on mothers employment during
the 2-year period when their children were
aged 24 to 48 months. Mothers had a high
level of labor market participation, with nearly
75% employed at least 1 month. Yet the mean
months employed was 10, and only 16%
of mothers worked all 24 months. Employed
mothers worked an average of 33 hours per
week, indicating the commonness of full-time
work. Work instability was moderate, with an
average of 1.32 job transitions. Forty percent of
the mothers had zero transitions, meaning they
were either employed or unemployed the entire
study period. Another 19% had one transition,
19% had two transitions, 15% had three or
four transitions, and the remaining 7% had
five or more transitions, up to a maximum of
13 transitions. On average, mothers held just
over one job, ranging from zero to seven jobs.
Employed mothers wages averaged $7.65 per
hour, and nearly three quarters of the sample
did not receive employer-sponsored health
insurance. Only 6% of the sample received
health insurance every month during the study
period. In 1999, the federal minimum wage in
the United States was $5.15 per hour (a rate
that stayed at this level for a decade). Our
data indicated that 16% of employed mothers
earned less than the minimum wage, primarily
in informal jobs such as babysitting.
RESULTS
Patterns of Mothers Employment Experiences
The cluster analysis identified four clusters
within the sample, each showing distinct patterns
of employment experiences. The top panel
of Table 1 presents descriptives for the four
cluster groups. The first cluster (second column;
29% of the sample) included women who
were not employed during the 2-year period.
The second cluster (third column; 46% of the
sample), termed low-quality, low-participation
employment, included mothers who worked
primarily full time in one low-wage job
without health insurance. These mothers had
the least work involvement but experienced
some stability, working just over one job on
average, and reporting 1.5 transitions in or
out of work. Wages and benefits were low in
this group. The third cluster (fourth column;
7% of the sample), termed moderate-quality,

unstable employment, included mothers with

moderate levels of wages and work participation,
but little health insurance and significant work
churning. These mothers had an average of
three jobs and nearly five transitions during
the study period. The fourth cluster (fifth
column; 17% of the sample), termed highquality, stable employment, included mothers
with primarily full-time hours, higher wages, and
health insurance, most of whom had either one
or two jobs during the 2 years and experienced
less than two transitions. Ten mothers (<2% of
the sample) did not fit into these four patterns
and were cut from further analyses.
Bivariate Associations Between Maternal
Employment Patterns and Child, Mother, and
Family Characteristics
After delineating distinct patterns in womens
employment experiences, we assessed how
child, mother, and family characteristics were
associated with the patterns, with significant
bivariate associations indicated through superscripts in columns 2 through 5 of Table 1. Results
show that high-quality stable employment was
most common among mothers with higher levels
of education and fewer children. Young mothers, unmarried mothers, those without a working
spouse, and mothers with the greatest work history were most likely to have moderate quality
but unstable employment. The employment clusters were also associated with later employment,
with mothers in the unemployed group reporting
the lowest levels of employment stability and
quality at Wave 3. Although no differences in
child functioning at Wave 1 were apparent, it
is notable that children of mothers with stable,
high-quality early employment had higher math
scores and lower affective, oppositional, and
conduct problems than their peers at Wave 3.
Prospective Links Between Maternal
Employment Patterns and Childrens
Functioning
Next, we assessed prospective links between
mothers employment experiences during their
childrens early years and childrens later emotional, behavioral, and cognitive functioning,
controlling for child, mother, and family characteristics as well as earlier child functioning.
Results from the first set of models, presented
in Table 2, indicate an overall pattern in which

0.74 (1.13)a
1.21 (1.86)
1.49 (1.15)a
0.00 (0.05)
0.66 (0.81)
2.36 (0.80)
1.34 (3.31)
0.19 (0.05)
0.02 (0.07)
0.00 (0.03)
1.98 (1.32)
1.40 (0.97)
1.11 (0.97)
0.64 (1.11)
3.77 (2.28)
6.60 (2.36)
0.28 (0.31)
1.29 (0.52)
0.12 (0.14)
0.41 (1.04)
2.69 (0.93)
0.21 (0.25)
0.23 (1.33)
50.52 (4.85)
1.98
0.20

0.26 (0.11) 0.15 (0.16)

0.34 (2.16)
2.76 (3.13)
1.83 (2.32)
0.54 (2.88)
7.82 (4.43)+ 15.90 (5.66)
0.19 (0.09)
0.17 (0.07)

0.04 (0.19)
0.46 (0.23)
0.05 (0.09)
0.20 (0.07)
2.28 (3.30) 0.51 (3.81)
1.62 (3.20)
4.61 (2.50)+
4.35 (2.72)
2.45 (3.39)
1.66 (2.84)
2.76 (3.47)
0.02 (4.05) 0.98 (4.68)
6.78 (5.64)
6.57 (5.54)
0.32 (1.03) 1.41 (1.31)
0.42 (1.53)
1.74 (1.72)
0.25 (0.33)
0.33 (0.46)
9.38 (4.07) 1.41 (4.46)
1.35 (2.21)
3.07 (2.89)
0.48 (0.43) 0.47 (0.60)
1.89 (2.89)
3.09 (3.57)
71.30 (13.64) 79.30 (12.82)
4.72
3.34
0.27
0.20

Affective Problems

3.67 (3.34)
1.97 (4.35)
9.86 (3.59)

1.88 (2.67)a
1.31 (3.28)
4.58 (3.31)a

Math Skills

Hyperactivity
Problems

1.12 (1.13) 0.39 (1.05)

5.10 (2.41) 2.39 (1.71)
2.25 (1.22)+ 0.20 (1.16)

Somatic
Problems

Conduct
Problems

0.04 (0.09)
0.12 (0.11) 0.15 (0.08)+ 0.13 (0.08)
0.01 (0.02) 0.06 (0.03) 0.04 (0.03)
0.00 (0.02)
1.37 (1.33)
0.49 (1.38)
1.66 (1.47)
0.94 (1.21)
0.33 (1.14)
1.51 (1.34) 0.12 (1.07)
0.91 (1.01)
1.69 (1.00)+ 0.95 (1.15) 0.63 (1.18) 1.07 (0.97)
0.06 (1.17)
1.03 (1.21)
0.68 (1.04)
1.60 (1.12)
1.18 (1.74)
1.23 (1.53)
3.56 (2.10)+ 5.33 (1.79)
2.61 (1.78)
0.69 (1.74) 7.46 (2.21) 5.54 (1.96)
0.10 (0.34) 0.45 (0.39)
0.43 (0.36)
0.95 (0.37)
1.90 (0.54) 0.17 (0.56) 1.38 (0.56) 0.46 (0.53)
0.03 (0.12) 0.19 (0.14)
0.03 (0.12)
0.02 (0.13)
0.77 (1.25) 1.55 (1.62) 0.19 (1.23)
1.16 (1.20)
1.76 (1.03)+ 3.77 (1.16) 0.63 (1.03) 2.31 (0.95)
0.11 (0.18)
0.00 (0.17)
0.57 (0.26) 0.02 (0.18)
0.42 (0.99)
3.29 (1.51) 0.59 (1.17) 1.12 (1.14)
49.72 (4.98) 49.10 (1.14) 51.42 (4.27) 51.57 (3.50)
2.27
3.12
2.30
5.29
0.19
0.22
0.24
0.34

0.02 (0.09)
0.06 (0.03)
0.95 (1.67)
1.71 (1.28)
1.27 (1.15)
1.60 (1.10)
5.28 (1.89)
7.62 (1.96)
0.89 (0.39)
1.49 (0.70)
0.00 (0.14)
0.88 (1.26)
0.04 (1.21)
0.19 (0.21)
0.47 (1.31)
55.59 (4.01)
3.97
0.25

0.03 (0.06)
1.01 (0.98)
0.19 (1.09)
0.20 (3.15)
0.19 (0.05)

2.16 (0.94)*a 1.62 (1.30)a

0.28 (1.60) 2.03 (2.34)
0.20 (1.04)a 3.70 (1.26)**a

Oppositional
Problems

0.00 (0.05)
0.05 (0.05) 0.02 (0.05) 0.16 (0.05)
0.36 (0.82) 0.44 (0.91) 1.67 (0.91)+ 0.41 (0.79)
3.07 (0.85) 1.08 (0.99)
1.09 (0.95)
0.24 (0.86)
3.07 (2.10) 5.59 (2.16) 1.91 (2.16)
0.01 (2.33)
0.20 (0.05) 0.24 (0.05) 0.19 (0.05) 0.20 (0.04)

0.84 (1.15)
1.56 (2.12)
0.87 (1.28)

Anxiety
Problems

Note: Employed groups are compared to the omitted category of no employment. Within each column, groups sharing superscript letters are different from each other at the p < .05
level.
+
p < .10, p < .05, p < .01.

Employment quality clusters

Low-quality, low-participation employment
Moderate-quality, unstable employment
High-quality, high stable employment
Child characteristics
Age of child
Child is boy
Hispanic
White
Lag of DV
Mother characteristics
Age of mother
Literacy skills Wave 2
Less than high school
More than high school
Years employed since age 16
Welfare in last 2 years
Mother is married
Working spouse
No. of children
Household income/1,000 w/o mother income
Boston
Chicago
Stable employment Wave 3
Hours Wages Wave 3
Health insurance Wave 3
Constant
F of model
R2

Reading Skills

Table 2. OLS Regression Models: Employment Quality Clusters Predicting Child Outcomes at W3 ( N = 539)

Mothers Employment Experiences

521

522
high-quality, stable maternal employment experiences in early childhood were associated with
higher cognitive skills and lower emotional and
behavioral problems for children 5 years later, at
age 9. Specifically, for cognitive skills, children
of mothers with high-quality, stable employment showed higher readings skills than children
of mothers with low-quality, low-participation
employment experiences, with a moderate effect
size of .40 standard deviations (SD). These children also had higher math skills than children of
unemployed mothers (.57 SD). Turning to the
measures of emotional and behavioral functioning, children of mothers with high-quality, stable
employment experiences showed fewer affective
problems (.38 SD), oppositional problems (.38
SD), and conduct problems (.28 SD) than children of mothers with low-quality employment
experiences as well as lower conduct problems
than children of unemployed mothers (.51 SD).
In contrast, low-quality and limited work among
mothers was linked to higher oppositional
problems among children than was consistent
unemployment (.35 SD). In addition, moderatequality unstable employment was associated
with greater somatic problems among children
than was consistent unemployment (.78 SD).
We ran two additional model specifications
to check the robustness of results. First, we
included two covariates denoting child-care type
at Wave 1 (center-based care or home-based
care) to determine if early child care influenced
the relationship between employment experiences and later child outcomes. Second, we
controlled for time-varying covariates assessed
at Wave 3 (marital status, presence of working spouse, education, welfare receipt, number
of children, and income). Results from these
additional specifications (available on request)
were identical to the main models, supporting the robustness of associations between
early maternal employment and later child
functioning.
Delineating Specific Aspects of Maternal
Employment
The final set of analyses assessed prospective
associations between individual characteristics
of maternal employment during early childhood
and childrens functioning at age 9. Several
specifications of the employment characteristics
were tested to assess potential nonlinearities
in prospective links between employment

Family Relations
characteristics and child functioning, using both
continuous measures and meaningful categories
of each variable (e.g., part-time, full-time, or
overtime hours; none, some, or all months of
insurance; below or above average wages; 1 vs.
2 or more jobs; some vs. all months employed).
The final variables assessed work hours and
health insurance receipt nonlinearly, delineating
part-time (<20 hours/week), full-time (20 to
40 hours), and overtime work (> 40 hours), and
never, sometimes, and always insured. Hourly
wages, number of jobs, and months worked were
assessed linearly. There were low to moderate
correlations between the employment variables,
ranging from 0.02 (number of jobs and hourly
wage) to 0.37 (number of months employed and
consistent insurance).
Results of models assessing individual job
characteristics simultaneously, presented in
Table 3, highlight the role of consistent receipt
of health insurance and full-time work hours
in explaining links between high-quality, stable
maternal employment experiences in early
childhood and childrens later functioning,
particularly their cognitive skills. Children of
mothers with consistent employer-provided
health insurance showed higher reading and
math skills than children of working mothers
who had no insurance (with large effect sizes of
.98 SD and .81 SD) or inconsistent insurance.
Consistent health insurance also predicted fewer
affective problems (.41 SD) and a similarly
sized, albeit only marginally significant,
difference in lower somatic problems (.49 SD)
in comparison to no insurance. Work hours also
were important. Overtime work was associated
with lower reading (.36 SD) and math skills (.63
SD) in comparison to full-time work. Job pay,
stability, and consistency were not significantly
associated with childrens later functioning, with
two exceptions: higher pay was related to lower
math skills, with a $1 per hour difference in pay
predicting a .06 SD difference in math skills; and
job transitions were related to higher reading
skills, with each additional job predicting a .15
SD increase in reading skills. Other than the
health insurance results, characteristics of maternal employment did not predict differences in
childrens emotional and behavioral functioning.
DISCUSSION
Recent decades have seen policy prescriptions aimed at promoting employment for

Math Skills

0.48 (2.87)
1.47 (3.37)
10.82 (5.39)
5.80 (2.77)
0.17 (0.39)
1.12 (0.42)

0.11 (1.93)
2.39 (1.18)
5.73 (5.58)
8.25 (4.39)+
0.28 (3.33)a
2.06 (2.28)a
**a
16.00 (3.51)
14.04 (4.5)**a

89.22 (16.69)
68.36 (13.92)
6.90
3.47
0.34
0.27

Reading Skills
1.42 (1.03)
1.04 (1.42)
0.12 (0.13)
0.31 (0.67)
0.03 (1.69)
0.05 (1.08)
2.41 (1.17)
45.47 (4.22)
5.35
0.32

Affective
Problems
0.29 (1.10)
1.22 (1.53)
0.03 (0.15)
0.72 (0.64)
0.61 (1.88)
0.97 (1.02)
0.23 (1.58)
44.98 (5.04)
2.07
0.24

Anxiety
Problems
0.66 (1.17)
1.08 (1.93)
0.00 (0.18)
0.57 (0.8)
2.44 (2.42)
0.05 (1.16)
3.24 (1.68)+
43.83 (5.50)
4.18
0.31

Somatic Problems
0.70 (1.16)
1.13 (1.89)
0.07 (0.14)
0.94 (0.7)
0.19 (1.85)
1.7 (1.23)
0.09 (1.32)
54.70 (1.25)
2.53
0.33

Hyperactivity
Problems

0.22 (1.10)
0.94 (1.28)
0.12 (0.14)
0.65 (0.57)
0.64 (1.72)
1.03 (0.97)
1.58 (1.24)
53.53 (3.91)
5.60
0.43

Oppositional
Problems

0.61 (1.22)
1.97 (1.83)
0.22 (0.22)
0.25 (0.78)
1.84 (2.29)
2.11 (1.27)+
0.73 (1.77)
51.45 (4.91)
4.04
0.35

Conduct Problems

Note: The categorical employment groups (hours and insurance) are compared to the omitted categories of full-time hours; no insurance. Within each column for these groups,
shared superscript letters are different from each other at the p < .05 level. All models controlled for the Wave 1 value of mother age, mother education and literacy skills (Wave 2),
mother marital status, employed spouse, number of minors in the household, mother employment history, mother received welfare in last 2 years, household income divided by 1,000
not including mothers income, city, and maternal employment characteristics at Wave 3 (worked the majority of past year, current weekly wage, and health insurance). Models also
controlled for child gender, race or ethnicity, lag of the dependent variable, and age at Wave 3.
+
p < .10, p < .05, p < .01.

Part-time hours
Overtime hours
Pay
No. of jobs
No. months worked
Some insurance
Insurance all 24 months
Constant
F of model
R2

Employment Characteristics

Table 3. OLS Regression Models: Employment Characteristics Predicting Child Outcomes at Wave 3 Among Employed Sample ( n = 392)

Mothers Employment Experiences

523

524
low-income parents as a means to economic
self-sufficiency, even among single mothers with
limited education and job skills and notable family responsibilities. The recent economic downturn has increased attention on the potentially
damaging effects of unemployment, underemployment, and poor-quality or unstable jobs on
the health and well-being of American families.
Together, these policy and economic contexts
raise questions about the labor market experiences of low-income mothers with young
children and the implications of these experiences for children and families.
Utilizing a representative sample of young
children and mothers in low-income urban families from three cities, this study sought to
extend existing research by assessing a broad
array of maternal work characteristics and their
prospective associations with childrens functioning. Prior literature on low-income womens
work experiences has shown substantial work
effort yet little success in securing high-quality
jobs and upward mobility (Johnson & Corcoran, 2003), and results of this study replicated
these patterns. A full three quarters of mothers
had some work experience during the 2-year
period of this study, although only one in six
worked consistently, with most mothers moving in and out of jobs. More concerning were
the low wage rates and limited work benefits.
Average wages were $7.65 per hour, a rate that
would put a full-time worker just above the federal poverty line for a family of three in 2000.
Moreover, one fifth of working mothers reported
wages below the federal minimum wage. Low
job quality also was exemplified by mothers
lack of employer-sponsored health insurance.
Using cluster analysis to combine characteristics of employment, we found that a majority
of mothers were in jobs that were considered
to be of low quality. Relatively few women,
only 17% of the sample, had higher quality, stable employment experiences, and results
determined that these women were more educated and had fewer children. These findings
correspond with prior literature showing limited
education of low-income parents to be a significant barrier to employment and suggest that
earlier intervention efforts to promote educational attainment and early entry into the labor
market and to delay childbearing may help support the employment success of disadvantaged
women (Danziger et al., 2000). Other research
has noted the significant challenges low-income

Family Relations
working mothers face accessing affordable and
reliable child care and balancing the demands
of family and work (Cabrera et al., 2006). It is
important to note that mothers cognitive skills
were not related to employment success, suggesting that the barriers to employment are
malleable with effective policy levers rather
than due to cognitive deficiencies that cannot
be overcome with education, job training, and
child care.
Results from this research indicate that
disadvantaged women with young children
were largely responding to the messages of
policy shifts (i.e., the work requirements of
welfare reform and the economic incentives
of the Earned Income Tax Credit) and were
entering the labor market. The data, however,
show that their labor market experiences were
somewhat sporadic and that the economic
payback was limited. When assessing their
longer term employment trajectories, it was
evident that mothers did not increase their
wage rates and employment stability over time,
climbing the economic success ladder as had
been predicted during the policy debates of the
1990s (Haskins, 2006). Notably, the late 1990s
and early 2000s was a period of substantial
economic growth when jobs were plentiful.
In the more recent economic landscape, with
heightened unemployment and poverty rates
(DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2010) it is
likely that many disadvantaged families are
suffering setbacks and acute economic distress.
The long-term implications of mothers
employment experiences became evident in
our next set of analyses. In models adjusting
for child, maternal, and family characteristics,
later mother work experiences, and early childhood functioning, results showed that children
of mothers with high-quality, stable employment experiences during their preschool years
showed enhanced cognitive and socioemotional
functioning at age 9 in comparison to their peers
whose mothers were consistently unemployed or
had poor-quality work experiences. Specifically,
mothers with stable, high-quality employment
had children with higher reading skills later in
childhood in comparison to children of mothers
with low-quality employment experiences, and
higher math skills in comparison to their peers
whose mothers had remained out of the labor
market. The children of mothers with highquality employment also showed fewer emotional and behavioral problems later in childhood

525

Mothers Employment Experiences

in comparison to their peers whose mothers
had low-quality employment experiences. Effect
sizes were moderate, with higher quality stable
employment, on average, associated with about
one half a standard deviation improvement in
child functioning in comparison to limited, lowquality employment or to unemployment.
Although it is important to understand the
overarching benefits of higher quality and more
stable employment experiences in terms of
policy implications, it also is essential to delineate whether specific aspects of employment
are particularly influential. Models considering
the relative role of employment hours, months
worked, pay, insurance receipt, and job transitions suggested that work hours and insurance
receipt were most important in explaining
differences in childrens well-being. The most
consistent finding related to mothers receipt
of job-provided health insurance. Children of
mothers who consistently received health insurance from their jobs showed greater reading
and math skills as well as lower affective and
marginally lower somatic problems than their
peers, with moderate to large effect sizes. What
might explain this connection? One possibility
is that insurance receipt heightened access to
medical care, thus improving the health and wellbeing of children. However, additional models
(results not shown) testing the association
between job-provided insurance and families
access to medical care found limited results.
Mothers with consistent job-provided health
insurance worked in similar industries as did
other mothers with higher quality, stable jobs in
retail, housekeeping, health care, or food service.
Numerous other potentially important aspects of
employment quality were not assessed, however.
Employer-provided insurance may be a marker
for other unmeasured aspects of job quality that
often co-occur in workplaces with employerprovided health insurance such as job flexibility
or paid sick days and vacation, higher status
or job security, opportunities for training and
promotion, or other mechanisms through which
companies may support employee well-being.
These aspects of quality may translate most fluidly into parenting behavior and childrens home
environments by reducing stress associated with
balancing work and parenting and providing
occupational complexity, such as self-direction
and intellectual challenges, which may lead
parents to encourage these same characteristics
in their children (Parcel & Menaghan, 1994).

Although data limitations did not allow us to

consider these other aspects of job quality or to
assess whether mothers psychological functioning or home environments served as explanatory
processes, theoretical models such as the family
stress perspective support the likelihood of many
of these suppositions. The family stress perspective suggests that stable employment in higher
quality jobs would enhance the psychological
functioning of mothers and may in turn support
childrens healthy development (Conger et al.,
1992). Future research should assess potential
mediators of associations between work experiences and child functioning and also seek to
delineate further whether processes differ in relation to diverse aspects of child functioning such
as academic achievement versus emotional or
behavioral functioning.
In addition to the receipt of health insurance,
the other job characteristic most consistently
associated with childrens later functioning was
work hours. Results indicated that overtime work
hours (>40 hours per week) predicted decreased
cognitive skills among children in comparison to
full-time hours. Our measure of work hours only
assessed each respondents main job, and some
mothers may have been working multiple jobs
with higher overall hours. Thus, the negative
effects of overtime hours likely reflect a lowerbound estimate. These results replicate other
research with low-income families, highlighting
the challenges of combining high work hours and
childrearing, perhaps particularly for mothers
with limited social and economic resources
with which to access parenting supports (Coley
& Lombardi, 2012). In contrast to health
insurance and work hours, characteristics of
work consistency, stability, and pay showed
limited independent associations with childrens
functioning. Moreover, the links between the
employment pattern of higher quality, stable
employment and lower rates of oppositional
and conduct problems among children were
not explained by the assessment of individual
work characteristics. This suggests perhaps that
the combination of characteristics found in
higher quality jobspay, intensity, and stability,
and insurancemay most effectively support
childrens behavioral development.
Conclusion and Implications
In interpreting the significance and implications
of the results from this study, it is essential

526
to reiterate the limitations. The associations
between maternal work experiences and child
functioning discussed in this research were correlational and cannot be construed as causal. The
analyses assessed prospective relationships and
controlled for a range of measured characteristics of children, mothers, and families that were
associated with mothers employment patterns,
yet it is possible that other unmeasured factors were linked to both maternal employment
and child functioning patterns. For example, the
quality and stability of nonparental child care
may play an important role in explaining associations between maternal employment and child
functioning. As well, the targeted nature of the
sample, which was representative of children in
low-income families in low-income urban neighborhoods in three cities during the late 1990s,
must be acknowledged. Results cannot necessarily be generalized to other demographic groups,
contexts, or historical periods. Indeed, in the
more recent economic climate, the work success
of many single mothers and mothers with limited
education and job skills likely has suffered, with
greater bouts of unemployment and even more
limited pay and benefits (DeNavas-Walt et al.,
2010). Finally, information on job characteristics came from a single source and did not cover
all potentially important characteristics or experiences in secondary or truly short-term jobs.
Beyond the causal strength of the relationships and the targeted nature of the sample,
the results reiterate important patterns in child
and family well-being. Notably, results suggest
that children of mothers in unstable and lowquality job patterns show indicators of concern
across numerous arenas of functioning, pointing
to this group as an important target of intervention and prevention efforts to promote childrens
cognitive and emotional well-being. Results further suggest that policy efforts to enhance the
stability and quality of jobs, specifically the benefits that come from health insurance, may be
an important potential mechanism to improve
the well-being of low-income mothers and their
children. As policy analysts argued in the 1990s,
moving up the employment ladder may provide the surest route to both economic stability
and healthy family functioning with long-term
beneficial implications for childrens development. When parents lack adequate education and
skills, employee protections are weakened, and
the economy has an inadequate need for lower

Family Relations
skilled workers, the private market may not provide jobs with adequate supports for workers at
the bottom of the economic chain.
In the current policy and economic context,
these results point to the potential broader implications of policies such as minimum wages and
wage supplements, access to health insurance
and other benefits (e.g., paid sick and vacation leave), and mechanisms to improve the
education and work skills of disadvantaged parents and to support work stability. Although
our national policy priorities currently are targeted at unemployment, these findings suggest
that underemployment, unstable employment,
and low-paid jobs without benefits also deserve
attention. Policymakers must consider the influence policies targeting these issues could have
on low-income mothers economic stability and
the healthy development of their children.
NOTE
Funding for the Three-City Study was provided by the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(RO1 HD36093), Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Planning and Evaluation, Administration on Developmental
Disabilities, Administration for Children and Families,
Social Security Administration, and National Institute of
Mental Health; the Boston Foundation; the Annie E. Casey
Foundation; the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; the
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; the Hogg Foundation for Mental
Health; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Joyce
Foundation; the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; the
W. K. Kellogg Foundation; the Kronkosky Charitable
Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation; the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; the
David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the Searle Fund
for Policy Research; and the Woods Fund of Chicago. The
content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does
not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice
Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development or the National Institutes of Health or
of other grantors. The authors extend a special thank you
to the children and families who participated in Welfare,
Children, & Families: A Three-City Study.

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