McMunn Maternal Employment

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Maternal employment and child socio-emotionalbehaviour in the UK: longitudinal evidence from theUK Millennium Cohort Study

Anne McMunn, Yvonne Kelly, Noriko Cable, Mel Bartley

ABSTRACTBackgroundMothers of young children are increasinglycombining paid work with childrearing. Empiricalevidence on the effects of maternal employment onchildren is contradictory and little work has consideredthe impact of maternal employment within the context ofthe employment patterns of both parents.Methods Data on parental employment across threesweeps (when children were in infancy, age 3 and age 5 y)of the Millennium Cohort Study, a large nationallyrepresentative prospective birth cohort study, were usedto investigate the relation between parental employment

and child socio-emotional behaviour at age 5 yearsindependent of maternal education, maternal depressionor household income. The cumulative effect of maternalemployment across the early years was investigated.The impact of maternal employment in the first year oflife was separately examined as a potentially sensitiveperiod.ResultsThere was no evidence of detrimental effects ofmaternal employment in the early years on subsequentchild socio-emotional behaviour. There were significantgender differences in the effects of parental employmenton behavioural outcomes. The most beneficial workingarrangement for both girls and boys was that in whichboth mothers and fathers were present in the householdand in paid work independent of maternal educationalattainment and household income.Conclusion No detrimental effects of maternalemployment in the early years were seen. There wereimportant gender differences in relationships betweenparental working arrangements and child socio-emotionaloutcomes.

INTRODUCTIONMothers of young children are increasinglycombining paid work with childrearing. Concernsregarding the effects of maternal employment on

childrens development have been raised,1e3 butmost previous work, which has focused on cogni-tive or educational outcomes, shows mixedresults.4e12 Several studies have found that childrenof working mothers are more likely than those ofstay-at-home mothers to be overweight,13e15 andto have worse dietary habits and be more seden-tary.16 However, a recent review also found thatchildren of working mothers were more likely tohave taken up pre-school vaccinations,15 whileothers have found no signicant associationsbetween maternal employment and incidence ofinfectious disease or injury.17 Fewer studies have

looked at the effects of maternal employment onsocio-emotional behaviour. There is some evidence

of a sensitive period during a childsrst year of lifewith regards to maternal employment.11 However,more recent studies have either found no relation-ship between maternal employment and socio-emotional behaviour,7 10 or found that children ofemployed mothers were less likely to displayinternalising behaviour7 or be worried andunhappy.18 There is also some evidence that theserelationships vary by family structure, with full-time maternal employment leading to increasedbehavioural difculties at age 4 years among thechildren of lone mothers but not those of married

mothers.19

For children living with two parents,the impact of maternal employment on childrenmay partly depend upon their fathers workingarrangements, although evidence on whetherfathers work hours are increasing or decreasing iscontradictory. 2 0 2 1 Most of the studies that havelooked at child socio-emotional behaviour havefocused on the impact of maternal employment perse7 1 0 1 9 and have not examined behaviour withinthe context of the employment patterns of bothparents.

The aim of this study is to examine the effects ofmaternal employment and parental workingarrangements in the early years on child socio-emotional behaviour at the age of school entry inthe most recent birth cohort study in the UKdtheMillennium Cohort Study (MCS). Information onparental employment in infancy and at ages 3 and 5

years are used to investigate: (i) whether childrenwhose mothers were in paid work during their rst5 years were more likely than children whosemothers were at home full-time to display adversesocio-emotional behaviour at age 5 years indepen-dent of maternal education, mental health oreconomic position; (ii) whether effects of maternalemployment on child socio-emotional behaviourwere cumulative in nature or whether children

were more sensitive to the effects of maternalemployment during their rst year; and (iii) theeffects of different types of parental workarrangements on child socio-emotional behaviourat age 5 years.

METHODS

SampleMCS is a prospective study of children born in theUK at the start of the new millennium.22 Theoriginal cohort consisted of 18 819 children bornbetween September 2000 and January 2002, whichrepresented a response rate of 82% of eligible

households.

23

In addition to this

rst sweep, therehave been two subsequent sweeps of data

Department of Epidemiologyand Public Health, UniversityCollege London, London, UK

Correspondence toAnne McMunn, Department ofEpidemiology and Public Health,University College London,1e19 Torrington Place, LondonWC1E 6BT, UK;[email protected]

Accepted 9 December 2010

McMunn A, Kelly Y, Cable N, et al. J Epidemiol Community Health (2011). doi:10.1136/jech.2010.109553 1 of 6

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collection, at ages 3 and 5 years, with response rates of 78% and79% of the issued sample, respectively.24 For this analysis weselect singleton births in households in which a mother waspresent (96% of households). We have also restricted theseanalyses to white children as there was large ethnic variation inmaternal employment but inadequate power in the sample tostratify analysis by ethnicity. MCS data are publicly availableand ethical approval for data collection was obtained from

a Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee in the UK.

MeasuresChild socio-emotional behaviourChild socio-emotional behaviour was measured when childrenwere aged 3 years and again at age 5 years using the parent-llversion of the Strengths and Difculties Questionnaire (SDQ).The SDQ is a widely used instrument developed for assessingchild socio-emotional behaviour (http://www.sdqinfo.com/),which has been shown to correlate highly with both the ChildBehaviour Checklist and the Rutter questionnaire, and todiscriminate between cases of child psychological morbidity andcontrols at least as well as these instruments with a sensitivity

of 63.3% and speci

city of 94.6%.

25e27

The SDQ is composed of25 items, which cover ve domains of behaviour: hyperactivity,emotional symptoms, conduct problems, peer problems andprosocial behaviour (see appendix 1 for a list of items). Each itemhas three response categoriesdnot true, somewhat true orcertainly truedwhich are coded as 0, 1 or 2. A total difcultiesscore is derived by adding the scores of each of the scales, exceptthe prosocial behaviour domain, producing a total score rangingfrom 0e40. Clinically relevant cut-points for problem behav-iours were determined as the top 10% of all MCS children withSDQ data.28

Maternal employmentMaternal employment information was taken from infancy, age

3 and age 5 years. A longitudinal measure of maternal employ-ment was created by categorising the number of sweeps atwhich mothers were in paid work (full or part time). At sweep 1,5% of those employed were at home on maternity leave; theyare considered employed at sweep 1 for this analysis.

Household parental employmentInformation on the employment status of mothers and theirpartners across the three sweeps of data collection wascombined to create a longitudinal measure of householdemployment status. This resulted in ve categories of house-holds in which two parental gures were present at all threedata sweeps and two categories of households that were

lone mother households for at least one of the three datasweeps. Two-parent households were categorised as dual-earnerhouseholds, traditional households, briey unemployedhouseholds, chronic unemployed households and female-breadwinner households. Dual-earner households were those inwhich both the mother and her partner were in paid work at

each of the three data sweeps, or for two of the three datasweeps and followed the traditional male-breadwinner modelfor one data sweep. Traditional households were those in whichthe mother s partner was in paid work and the mother wasnot in paid work at all three sweeps, or at two sweeps whilethe mother was in paid work as well at one sweep. Brieyunemployed households were those in which neither themother nor her partner was in paid work for only one sweep.

Chronic unemployed households were those in which neitherthe mother nor her partner was in paid work for two or threesweeps. Half of the households in this group were unemployedhouseholds for all three sweeps. Female-breadwinner householdswere those in which the mother was in paid work and herpartner was not in paid work for one or more sweeps. Over halfof the households in this group were female-breadwinnerhouseholds for one of the sweeps and only 8% were female-breadwinner households for all three sweeps. Lone motherhouseholds were divided into those in which the mother was inpaid work for one or more sweeps and those in which themother was not in paid work for any of the three sweeps. Bothfull and part time work was included as employment for each ofthe categories and each of the categories is mutually exclusive.Table 1 provides a brief description of household employmentgroups for easier reference.

Maternal educationInformation on mothers educational qualications was cate-gorised by UK National Vocational Qualications ranging fromNVQ5 (equivalent to post-graduate qualications) to NVQ1(equivalent to DeG grade on General Certicate of SecondaryEducation in the UK or some high school education in the USA)and no qualication.

Household incomeAvailable household income variables differed between MCS

sweeps and these are described in more detail in appendix 2.

Maternal depressionA measure of maternal depressive symptoms, the six-itemKessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), was collected at sweeps2 and 3. Responses range from none of the time, scored as 0, toall of the timescored as 4, resulting in a total K6 score rangingfrom 0e24. In multivariate analysis the continuous Kessler scorewas used; in descriptive analysis a score of 13 or more wasconsidered to be at risk for depressive symptoms. At sweep 1,a nine-item maternal malaise score was collected. Binaryresponse options on the nine items were added together to resultin a malaise score ranging from zero to nine at sweep 1. A cut-off

score of four or more was used to dene psychological distress indescriptive analysis.

Partners work status and maternal agePartner s work status was included in analysis of maternalemployment and child behaviour and was categorised as partner

Table 1 Household employment groups

Dual-earner household Two-parent household all three sweeps. Both mother and partner in paid work all three sweeps or two sweeps.

Traditional household Two-parent household all three sweeps. Partner in paid work and mother not employed all three sweeps or two sweeps.

Briefly unemployed household Two-parent household all three sweeps. Neither mother nor partner is employed for one sweep only.

Chronic unemployed household Two-parent household all three sweeps. Neither mother nor partner is employed for two or three sweeps.

Female breadwinner household Two-parent household all three sweeps. Mother in paid work and partner not in paid work for one or more sweeps.

Employed lone mother household Lone mother household for one or more sweeps. Mother in paid work for one or more sweeps.

Non-employed lone mother household Lone mother household for one or more sweeps. Mother not in paid work at any sweep.

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in work, partner not in work or no partner. The age of themother at the birth of the MCS child was also included.

Analytical techniquesFirst the prevalence and correlates of maternal employment inthe early years for children in this cohort were described usingunadjusted cross-tabulations. Next, relationships betweenbehavioural difculties at age 5 years and maternal employment

were examined. Unadjusted cross-tabulations were conductedbetween socio-emotional behaviour at age 5 years and maternalemployment at infancy (to look at whether the rst year of lifewas a sensitive period for the effects of maternal employmentfor children in this cohort) and then cumulatively across theearly years separately for girls and boys. Next, multivariatelogistic regression models were used to examine the likelihood ofhaving behavioural difculties at age 5 years by maternalemployment rst unadjusted (model 1), then adjusted formaternal age and partner s work status as potential confounders(model 2), then additionally for maternal education and house-hold income as indicators of socioeconomic position (model 3)and, nally, for maternal depression as a potential mediator ofrelationships between maternal employment and child behav-

iour (model 4). Models were run separately for girls and boys. Aterm for the interaction of maternal employment and maternaleducation was examined as was an interaction term formaternal employment and gender in a model with boys and girlscombined. In the nal stage, multivariate logistic regressionmodels were similarly run for household parental employment(without the adjustment for partner s work status) separatelyfor boys and girls, and an interaction between gender andparental employment status was examined in a model with boysand girls combined. All adjustment variables in multivariatemodels were taken from sweep 3 when children were age 5

years. All analyses were run on cases with complete data(resulting in 83% of the original sample for maternal employ-ment models and 85% of the original sample for parentalemployment models) and were weighted to account for theclustered sampling design and non-response bias.

RESULTSMaternal employment in the early yearsTable 2 shows the proportion of mothers in paid work for eachage of data collection, rst overall and then by potential corre-lates of maternal employment: maternal education, householdincome, maternal depression and partner s work status. Ininfancy, over half of mothers were in paid work and thisproportion increased by a few percentage points at each subse-

quent age. Table 2 also shows that the proportion of mothers inpaid work increased with increasing educational qualicationsand household income. Mothers with working partners weremuch more likely to be in paid work themselves and motherswithout paid work were more likely to have depressive symp-toms than other mothers at all three ages.

Maternal employment and child socio-emotional behaviour atage 5 yearsTable 3 shows that boys and girls whose mothers were notemployed when they were babies were signicantly more likelythan boys and girls whose mothers were employed to havebehavioural difculties at age 5 years in unadjusted relationships

suggesting that infancy did not represent a sensitive period withregard to maternal employment for children in this cohort.Table 3 also shows that the proportion of difculties reportedincreased with the amount of time mothers had spent out ofpaid work.

Table 4 shows that, in unadjusted relationships, the likelihoodof reported difculties increased with the amount of timemothers had spent out of the labour market. This relationshipwas much stronger for girls than for boys, and there wasa signicant interactive effect on behaviour at age 5 yearsbetween cumulative maternal employment and gender (p0.02,not shown). Adjusting for maternal education and householdincome explained at least a fth of the relationship betweenmaternal employment and difculties at age 5 years, whichremained strong and signicant for girls but not for boys.

Adjusting for maternal depression further attenuated the

Table 2 Proportion of mothers in paid work at each age of data collection by potential correlates ofmaternal employment

Infancy Age 3 y Age 5 y

N % N % N %

Overall % in paid work 12951 55.0 12168 58.2 12935 60.9

Maternal educational qualifications 12547 p


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relationship between maternal employment and childrenssocio-emotional behaviour among girls slightly.

Parental employment and child socio-emotional behaviourat age 5 years

In unadjusted models (table 5), boys in unemployed, female-breadwinner or lone mother households were signicantly morelikely to have difculties at age 5 years than boys in dual-earnerhouseholds. Boys in traditional households did not differsignicantly from boys in dual-earner households. Whileadjusting for household income and maternal education reducedthe ORs for boys in each of these household types substantially,boys in lone mother and chronically unemployed householdsremained strongly and signicantly more likely to have dif-culties at age 5 years as boys in dual-earner households. Furtheradjustment for maternal depression reduced the relationshipbetween household employment and behavioural difcultiesfurther for boys in unemployed and lone mother households.

While boys in traditional households did not differ signi-

cantly from boys in dual-earner households, girls in traditionalhouseholds were more than twice as likely as girls in dual-earnerhouseholds to have difculties at age 5 years. Also, while boys infemale-breadwinner households were more likely than thosein dual-earner households to have difculties at age 5 years, girlsin female-breadwinner households did not differ signicantlyfrom girls in dual-earner households. As with boys, girls wholived in a lone mother or an unemployed household were morelikely than girls in dual-earner households to have difcultiesat age 5 years in unadjusted models. Adjusting for maternaleducation and household income substantially reduced the size

of effects for girls in each at-riskhousehold type, but the ORsremained large and signicant for girls in all but briey unem-ployed households. The inclusion of maternal depressionreduced the likelihood of difculties at age 5 years for girls intraditional households to non-signicance.

There was a signi

cant gender interaction in the relationshipbetween household employment pattern and behaviour at age 5years (p0.009).

DISCUSSIONThis study investigated whether children whose mothers werein paid work during their rst 5 years were more likely thanchildren whose mothers were at home full-time to displayadverse socio-emotional behaviour at age 5 years. No evidencewas found of detrimental effects of maternal employment in theearly years on child socio-emotional behaviour at age 5 years, atleast among two-parent families, in a large, nationally repre-sentative, cohort of British children born in the new millennium.Instead, results suggested a positive effect of maternal employ-

ment on the socio-emotional behaviour of girls in two-parentfamilies in particular. The relationship between behaviouraldifculties and maternal employment was signicantly strongerfor girls than for boys and was not explained by householdincome, maternal education or maternal depression. There werealso gender differences in the effects of parental workingarrangements on behavioural outcomes. Boys in female-bread-winner households were signicantly more likely to have dif-culties at age 5 years than boys in dual-earner households whilethe same was not true for girls. Conversely, girls in traditionalmale-breadwinner households were more likely than girls in

Table 3 Proportion with socio-emotional difficulties at age 5 years by maternal employment in infancyand cumulative maternal employment in the early years separately for boys and girls

Maternal employmentsweep 1 N

% Totaldifficulties

Maternal employmentsweeps 1, 2 & 3 N

% Totaldifficulties

Boys 6517 9.3* 5839 9.3*

Full-time paid work 853 5.9 Paid work all three sweeps 2393 6.4

Part-time paid work 2721 7.7 Paid work at two sweeps 960 7.3

No paid work 2943 11.7 Paid work at one sweep 1009 10.1

No paid work at any sweep 1477 14.9Girls 6249 5.8* 5608 5.8*

Full-time paid work 807 2.2 Paid work all three sweeps 2348 2.4

Part-time paid work 2668 3.6 Paid work at two sweeps 976 4.7

No paid work 2774 8.9 Paid work at one sweep 841 5.9

No paid at work any sweep 1443 11.9

*indicates statistical significance of the overall relationship between maternal employment and socioemotional difficulties at p


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dual-earner households to have difculties at age 5 years, whilethe same relationship did not exist for boys. To our knowledge,this is the rst study to have shown these gender differences inthe effects of parental employment on childrens socio-emotionalwellbeing. They may reect the importance of gender in familyrole model processes. However, it is important to note that themost benecial working arrangement for both girls and boys wasthat in which both mothers and fathers were present in thehousehold and in paid work independent of household income.

Earlier British cohort studies have also found either no effect,or a positive effect of maternal employment in the early years onthe socio-emotional behaviour of offspring.7 1 0 1 8 The increasedbehavioural difculties of children, and particularly girls, whosemothers are not in paid work warrants further investigation. Asworking mothers tend to have higher educational qualicationsand live in higher income households, we might expect thesemeasures to explain the increased difculties of children whosemothers are not in paid work. Indeed, relationships were tosome extent explained by maternal education and householdincome suggesting that these are important contextual factors.

Adjustment for maternal depression further attenuated theincreased behavioural difculties of children whose motherswere not in paid work perhaps indicating that maternal mental

health is an important mediating factor in this relationship.However, an element of the increased behavioural difculties atage 5 years among girls whose mothers were not in paid workremained unexplained in this study.

As has been shown in previous studies,29 children in lonemother households and two-parent households in which neitherparent was in paid work were much more likely to havebehavioural difculties at age 5 years than children in dual-earner households. These relationships were largely attenuatedby household income and maternal characteristics, but remainedsignicant for girls, with the exception of brief householdunemployment, which was attenuated by household incomeand maternal education for both boys and girls.

The most serious potential limitation of this study isreporting bias. The measure of child socio-emotional behaviour

used here was reported by the main respondent who was nearlyalways the childs mother. It is possible that maternal percep-tions of their childs behaviour were inuenced by how muchtime they spent at work away from their children. If reportingbias does inuence the results shown here, it would not neces-sarily negate the relationships seen as maternal perceptions arelikely to be an important component of parenting behaviour andrelationships within the family. This study is also limited towhite children in the MCS sample and the results, therefore, are

not applicable to the general population. Our initial analysissuggested that Pakistani and Bangladeshi mothers were muchless likely than mothers in other ethnic groups to be in paidwork, and results from the MCS sweep 3 User s Guide supportthis.30

Table 5 Effects of parental employment on total difficulties at age 5 years by gender among white children

N Model 1: unadjustedModel 2: adjusted formaternal age Model 3: +SEP*

Model 4: fullyadjustedy

Boys

Household parental employment frombirth to age 5 y

5019 OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI)

Dual earner HH 2166 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Traditional HH 989 1.20 (0.90 to 1.61) 1.18 (0.88 to 1.58) 1.01 (0.74 to 1.36) 0.91 (0.67 to 1.24)

Briefly unemployed HH 131 2.72 (1.58 to 4.67) 2.30 (1.33 to 3.99) 1.45 (0.82 to 2.57) 1.19 (0.65 to 2.18)Chronic unemployed HH 111 5.14 (3.20 to 8.26) 4.22 (2.59 to 6.86) 2.17 (1.29 to 3.66) 1.69 (0.98 to 2.92)

Female breadwinner HH 148 2.11 (1.21 to 3.67) 2.03 (1.16 to 3.54) 1.75 (0.99 to 3.10) 1.78 (0.99 to 3.21)

Employed lone mother HH 915 2.22 (1.70 to 2.91) 1.94 (1.47 to 2.56) 1.41 (1.04 to 1.92) 1.23 (0.90 to 1.69)

Non-employed lone mother HH 559 4.19 (3.18 to 5.52) 3.50 (2.61 to 4.69) 1.87 (1.31 to 2.68) 1.42 (0.97 to 2.07)

Girls

Household parental employment frombirth to age 5 y

4760 OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI)

Dual earner HH 2083 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Traditional HH 890 2.41 (1.59 to 3.64) 2.26 (1.49 to 3.42) 1.77 (1.16 to 2.71) 1.53 (0.99 to 2.37)

Briefly unemployed HH 139 3.96 (1.98 to 7.91) 2.89 (1.43 to 5.83) 1.52 (0.72 to 3.21) 1.40 (0.65 to 3.01)

Chronic unemployed HH 113 12.99 (7.64 to 22.08) 10.14 (5.90 to 17.44) 4.44 (2.47 to 7.99) 3.52 (1.90 to 6.52)

Female breadwinner HH 130 0.79 (0.19 to 3.24) 0.74 (0.18 to 3.04) 0.56 (0.14 to 2.33) 0.61 (0.15 to 2.54)

Employed lone mother HH 870 3.55 (2.40 to 5.25) 2.73 (1.82 to 4.09) 1.83 (1.19 to 2.82) 1.69 (1.09 to 2.63)

Non-employed lone mother HH 535 10.14 (7.01 to 14.68) 6.72 (4.50 to 10.04) 3.60 (2.25 to 5.75) 2.78 (1.71 to 4.50)

*Adjusted for maternal educational qualifications and household income in addition to maternal age.yAdjusted for maternal depression in addition to maternal educational qualifications, household income and maternal age.HH, household.

What is already known on this subject

Mothers of young children are increasingly combining paid workwith childrearing. Empirical evidence on the effects of maternal

employment on children is contradictory and little work hasconsidered the impact of maternal employment within the

context of the employment patterns of both parents.

What this study adds

There was no evidence of detrimental effects of maternalemployment in the early years on subsequent child socio-emotional behaviour. There were significant gender differences inthe effects of parental employment on behavioural outcomes. Themost beneficial working arrangement for both girls and boys wasthat in which both mothers and fathers were present in thehousehold and in paid work independent of maternal educational

attainment and household income.

McMunn A, Kelly Y, Cable N, et al. J Epidemiol Community Health (2011). doi:10.1136/jech.2010.109553 5 of 6

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In conclusion, this study has shown no detrimental effects ofmaternal employment in the early years and child socio-emotional behaviour at age 5 years, as well as important genderdifferences in relationships between parental working arrange-ments and child socio-emotional outcomes.

FundingThis research was supported by the Economic and Social ResearchCouncil-funded International Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health(RES-596-28-0001).

Competing interestsNone.

Ethics approval This study involves secondary analysis of publicly available data.Ethics approval for data collection was obtained from a Multi-centre Research EthicsCommittee in the UK.

Provenance and peer reviewNot commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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APPENDIX 1Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) items*Hyperactivity< Restless, overactive, cannot stay still for long< Constantly fidgeting or squirming

< Thinks things out before acting< Sees tasks through to the end, good attention span< Easily distracted, concentration wanders

Conduct problems< Often has temper tantrums or hot tempers< Generally obedient, does what adults request< Often fights with other children or bullies them< Can be spiteful to others< Often argumentative with adults

Emotional symptoms< Often complains of headaches, stomach aches or sickness< Many worries, often seems worried< Often unhappy, down-hearted or tearful

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