Maternal work schedules: Consequences for parenting and child development

描述(由申请人提供)：尽管研究母亲就业对儿童早期发展的影响的文献很完善，但研究母亲的工作时间安排如何影响儿童的研究很少。这种遗漏是有问题的，因为15%到25%的年幼子女母亲的工作需要在典型的8到5个工作日之外的非标准工作时间，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从事这些工作的人数不成比例，这一领域的研究对理解贫困对儿童发展的影响具有重要意义。这个小额助学金项目(R03)的目标是了解在传统的8到5点(星期一到星期五)以外的工作中，母亲的早期就业如何影响孩子的早期认知、语言和社会情感发展。在人类发展的生物生态学模型的指导下，并使用来自NICHD早期儿童护理研究的预期数据，我们将通过实现四个具体目标来实现我们的目标，这四个目标将：(1)确定早期母亲从事非标准工作是否会导致较差的儿童发育结果；(2)确定非标准工作的母亲与标准工作的母亲在母亲行为(例如，母亲的反应和认知刺激)和心理健康方面是否存在差异；(3)确定母亲的行为和心理健康方面的差异是否可以解释母亲工作时间安排在儿童发展方面的差异；以及(4)描述了在非标准时间表的工作中，早期母亲就业对母亲行为、心理健康和儿童发展的影响是否因社会背景(即种族和贫困)、家庭支持水平或婴儿气质而不同。针对每个特定目标的特定假设将使用多元回归技术进行检验。该项目的结果将在美国提供关于非标准工作中的母亲就业如何影响孩子结果的第一次估计。该项目创新性地将成人生活的社会方面与婴儿的发展联系起来，以记录更广泛的家庭需求最终如何影响儿童。 记录非标准的产妇工作时间是否会影响孩子的结果，并描述发生这种情况的机制，是构思、设计和实施保护儿童、特别是生活贫困儿童的政策的重要第一步。

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.