Maternal work schedules/parenting and child development

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管有很好的文献研究了母亲就业对儿童早期发展的影响，但关于母亲工作安排如何影响儿童的研究却很少。这种遗漏是有问题的，因为15%到25%的幼儿母亲的工作需要在典型的8到5周工作时间之外的非标准时间表，而且预测表明这一趋势将会增加。此外，由于处于或接近贫困的母亲中有不成比例的比例从事这些工作，这一领域的研究对了解贫困对儿童发展的影响具有重要意义。这个小额赠款项目（R03）的目标是了解在传统的朝八晚五（周一至周五）工作之外的早期母亲就业如何影响儿童的早期认知、语言和社会情感发展。在人类发展的生物生态模型的指导下，利用NICHD早期儿童保育研究的前瞻性数据，我们将通过实现以下四个具体目标来实现我们的目标：(1)确定早期母亲从事非标准时间表的工作是否会导致儿童发育结果较差；(2)确定非标准工作时间与标准工作时间的母亲在母亲行为（如母亲反应性和认知刺激）和心理健康方面是否存在差异；(3)确定母亲行为和心理健康的差异是否可以通过母亲的工作时间来解释儿童发育的差异；(4)探讨不同社会背景（如种族和贫困）、家庭支持水平或婴儿气质对早期产妇从事非标准工作对母亲行为、心理健康和儿童发展的影响。每个特定目标的特定假设将使用多元回归技术进行测试。这个项目的结果将在美国提供第一个关于非标准时间表工作的母亲就业如何影响儿童结局的估计。该项目创新性地将成人生活的社会方面与婴儿发展联系起来，以记录更广泛的家庭需求最终如何影响儿童。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite a well-developed literature examining the effects of maternal employment on early child development, research examining how maternal work schedules affect children is scant. This omission is problematic because 15 to 25% of mothers of young children have jobs requiring a nonstandard schedule outside the typical 8-to-5 work week, and projections suggest this trend will increase. Moreover, because a disproportionate number of mothers at or near poverty work in these jobs, research in this area has important implications for understanding the effects of poverty on child development. The goal of this small grant project (R03) is to understand how early maternal employment in jobs that operate outside the traditional 8-to-5 (Monday through Friday) schedule influence children's early cognitive, language, and socioemotional development. Guided by a bioecological model of human development and using prospective data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we will achieve our goal by accomplishing four specific aims that will: (1) identify whether early maternal employment in jobs with nonstandard schedules contributes to poorer developmental outcomes in children; (2) determine whether differences exist in maternal behavior (e.g., maternal responsiveness and cognitive stimulation) and psychological well-being between mothers in jobs with nonstandard schedules and those with standard schedules; (3) identify whether differences in maternal behavior and psychological well-being explain differences in child development by maternal work schedule; and (4) delineate whether the effect of early maternal employment in jobs with nonstandard schedules on maternal behavior, psychological well-being, and child development differ by social context (i.e., race and poverty), level of family support or infant temperament. Specific hypotheses for each specific aim will be tested using multivariate regression techniques. Results from this project will provide the first estimates in the U.S. of how maternal employment in nonstandard schedule jobs affects child outcomes. This project innovatively links social aspects of adults' lives to infant development to document how broader family demands ultimately affect children. Documenting whether nonstandard maternal work schedules affect child outcomes and delineating the mechanisms by which it occurs are important first steps in conceiving, designing, and implementing policies that protect children, particularly those living in poverty.