oa Arbeidsparticipatie van moeders en moeder-kind tijd - De invloed op het probleemgedrag van schoolgaande kinderen

The influence of mothers’ labor force participation and mother-child time on the problem behavior of school-aged children.

This study examined whether mothers’ labor force participation was associated with children’s problem behavior and, more particularly, whether this association was mediated by mother-child time. We derived hypotheses from theories from sociology and psychology, such as social capital theory and attachment theory, hereby covering multiple viewpoints. Analyses were based on 1,276 children and their mothers from the American Child Development Supplement of the Study of Income Dynamics of 2002 and 2007. Results indicated that the direct influence of mothers’ labor force participation on children’s problem behavior was negligible. Moreover, although employed mothers reported fewer mother-child activities, overall they spent the same amount of time with their children.