Motherhood and Child Outcomes: Timing of Motherhood and Employment and

Consequences for Children

Researchers:Kirstine HansenDenise Hawkes Heather Joshi

Linked PhD students:Dylan Kneale

Joan Wilson

Introduction

Child wellbeing, health, cognitive and behavioural outcomes are strongly associated with the experiences early on in life.

Inequalities in later outcomes such as education, employment, physical and mental health have been found to develop very early on in life as a result of differential early childhood exposure.

Two key factors in recent demographic and labour market change: the timing of childbearing the employment of mothers

This research will explore the relationship between the timing of motherhood, the employment and child care decisions of mothers and child outcomes.

Aims and objectives

Our research focuses on two key areas: The first, the child outcomes of the timing of

motherhood. The second, the child outcomes of maternal

employment and child care decisions. In each case the outcomes may be the

consequences of factors antecedent to the timing of births or entry to employment, so the research will investigate their determinants as well as their consequence.

Linked Studentships

Both linked PhD students shall consider the

spatial aspects of these two key areas: neighbourhood and labour market influences

on early motherhood. family mobility and school attainment.

Data sources

FOUR BRITISH COHORT STUDIES Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) National Child Development Study (NCDS) MRC National Survey of Health and

Development (NSHD)

International Comparisons Data Sources

US Fragile Families Survey Early Childhood Longitudinal Study NICHD Study of Early Child Care New Hope Survey The Children of the NLYS-Y

European German Socio-Economic Panel French Labour Force Survey

Age at Motherhood

Motivation

Average age of first birth has risen to 29 in 2002 in the UK.

Early motherhood is still relatively common in the UK compared to other European countries.

Divergent trends in the age at motherhood are associated with different socio-economic groups implies a social polarisation between families with young and old parents.

This social polarisation may have an effect on child outcomes.

Distribution of Age at Motherhood: MCS

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

%

Up to 18 19 to 21 22 to 24 25 to 27 28 to 30 31 plus

Age at Motherhood

First Births All Births

Research Questions

Timing of motherhood What are the factors that predict early motherhood?

Are neighbourhood, ethnic community and local employment opportunities potential factors?

How do these factors vary by cohort? Does early motherhood have an impact on parenting

style and children’s experience of family life, and how does this vary by birth order and by cohort?

Are the outcomes for children of early mothers different from outcomes for children with later mothers (in terms of emotional adjustment and educational success) once other factors are controlled for?

Planned Papers

MCS Examine the association between child

outcomes such as cognitive development, behavioural and health outcomes and age at motherhood.

Comparative paper comparing MCS, LFS, GESOP, FLFS comparing age at motherhood by ethnicity for the UK, Germany and France.

Dylan Kneale’s PhD: Early Motherhood and Neighbourhood Characteristics

Recent fertility transitions are in part characterised by a reduction in the fertility rate and postponement at the age of first motherhood.

• The level and pace of these changes have not affected all social groups and geographies equally within the UK, and the UK leads Western Europe in level of early motherhood.

This work examines neighbourhood factors as predictors of early motherhood, and will aim to measure the magnitude of these effects once individual level factors are accounted for

Dylan Kneale’s PhD: Early Motherhood and Neighbourhood Characteristics It will..

Measure the effect of neighbourhood level inequalities as predictors of fertility patterns, and their interaction with individual predictors, using data from both the National Child Development Study (1958) and the British Cohort Study (1970).

Begin to look at the outcomes of the children of early mothers, and how these may vary by neighbourhood characteristics and inequalities.

Investigate the effect of usage of ‘teenage motherhood’ as opposed to other possible definitions of early motherhood and how predictors and outcomes may vary according to the examination of early motherhood from various perspectives.

Joan Wilson’s PhD: Geographical Mobility, Pupil Mobility and Child Outcomes

Parental investments in children may incorporate the use of various strategies of reproduction. The age at which motherhood occurs represents one such dimension of social reproduction that has the potential to influence child development.

To date there is little knowledge on the parental use of spatial location as a strategy for affecting the life chances of their offspring.

Joan Wilson’s PhD: Geographical Mobility, Pupil Mobility and Child Outcomes

This work will: Analyse the spatial behaviour of families- mobility between

residences and/ or schools. Incorporate the use of the British Birth Cohort studies to

address the extent to which mobility can be viewed as a facet of parental investment in children.

Assess mobility as:• a strategy to enhance cognitive and social

development of children, or a mechanism for the transmission of economic

disadvantage in the family unit. The aim is to understand if mobility serves to reinforce social

persistence of economic conditions, or if there is a scope for positive influences of mobility on the outcomes of future generations.

Mother’s Return to Work and Child Care

Motivation

Early decades of the post war era mothers tended to stay at home and take full responsibility for the care of their pre-school children.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s increasing numbers of women returned to work within the first year if a child’s birth and entrusted the care of their children to other formal or informal child care providers.

This change in maternal employment patterns and/or the use of formal or informal child care providers may have an effect on child outcomes.

Research Questions

Maternal Employment What are the trends and characteristics of mothers who

remain in, or return to, paid work, during their child’s early years?

When do they return to work and what jobs do they return to?

What is the relationship between mothers’ employment and aspects of wider family life, such as fathers’ employment and involvement with child and child care arrangements including grandparent care?

Research Questions

Child Care What is the relationship between mothers’ employment

and aspects of wider family life, such as: fathers’ employment father’s involvement with the child child care arrangements grandparent involvement and support

Planned Papers

MCS Comparison of mother’s return to work patterns

between the UK and the US (using the ECLS-B for comparison).

Mothers return to work, childcare and child outcomes.

Grandparent’s involvement in child care and the impact on child outcome such as cognitive development and behaviour.

Final Stage

Bring it all together

We hope to explore the relationship between the timing of motherhood, the employment and child care decisions of mothers and child outcomes.

This is important because it will: Increase our understanding of the role of parental

influence while the child is young. Provide evidence on the potential effects for children of

the recent welfare to work programmes. Implications for policies concerning the timing of fertility,

maternity, parental leave and child care policies.