New research -- kids of privileged families fare worse when moms work outside home

Parent Cafe
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<p>A new study finds that children of privileged families fare worse when the mother works outside the home. But what does the research really tell us?</p>

<p>Newsweek</p>

<p>University of North Carolina, Greenboro, economist [Christopher Ruhm] published a study showing that kids from high-socioeconomic-status families take a long-term hit when their moms work outside the home—at ages 10 and 11, they perform more poorly on cognitive tests and are also more likely to be overweight than those whose high-status mothers leave the workforce. </p>

<p>Children from low-status families, on the other hand, don’t seem to suffer as much when their moms work. In fact, many of them do better on the same tests, and they’re more fit, than similarly disadvantaged kids with stay-at-home moms.</p>

<p>The findings are surprising, and it’s easy to read them as a warning to affluent, educated mothers: if you want the best for your child, don’t work. (Conversely, if you’re not well-off: get your kid to day care.)</p>

<p>But those are dangerous conclusions to draw from the study, and even Ruhm—whose own wife worked while raising their children—says so. “This comes down to a fundamental principle of economics: something has to give. We can’t have it all,” he says. “But I would never tell anybody what to do or not do about that. I certainly wouldn’t tell my wife.”…</p>

<p>The kids from families in the “lower” group generally fared fine if their moms worked for the majority of their childhoods—at ages 10 and 11, they either scored about the same on cognitive tests, or better, than disadvantaged kids whose mothers stayed home. </p>

<p>For kids from high-status families, though, the pattern flipped. The more these affluent moms worked—especially if they went back to their jobs while their children were still very young—the less well their kids did on cognitive tests later in childhood. (The high-status children with working moms still did better overall than all the low-status children—so class, not employment, was ultimately the stronger factor in their well-being.)</p>

<p>Why do mothers’ choices have such different effects on kids, depending on their socioeconomic situations? Most likely, says Ruhm, the low-status kids get more intellectual stimulation in day care or with other caretakers, such as grandparents, than they do at home. Meanwhile, the high-status kids may find day care less enriching than being with their highly educated mothers.
[Study:</a> Kids of Privileged Working Moms Fare Worse | Newsweek Family | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/158462]Study:”>Study: Kids of Privileged Working Moms Fare Worse)</p>

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<p>Well, one data point does not overturn research findings. But my kids were in afterschool care after regular school; I defy anyone to suggest they would have been better off with me. They have done pretty well so far (but that’s a topic for the “brag about your kids” thread).</p>

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<p>1) Seems to go back to the philosophy that there’s no reason good enough for a middle-class to wealthy mother to work and no reason good enough for a poor mother not to.</p>

<p>2) Maybe if the mother didn’t work, the family would no longer be in the “high socioeconomic status”?</p>

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<p>Okay. That’s age 10 or 11. What about at 18? Or 25? </p>

<p>Marite and I are in the anecdotal data point sector: our kids are fine, thank you very much.</p>

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<p>We all want to assume that a child’s own parents provide the best possible care for their children, but that is not always the case. My SIL was a college educated SAHM…she hated it and was terrible at it. Her son has special needs and he would have been much better off in a good day care or preschool.</p>

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<p>I would love to read the actual study.</p>

<p>Even the Newsweek article found an obvious flaw…that the the author didn’t control for what sort of care the kids were getting in the mothers’ absence.</p>

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<p>D told me a couple of years ago that she was glad I worked outside the home while she was growing up, that she loved going to her after-school program. I think she’d agree that she and her brother are just fine, too.</p>

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<p>Oy. What happens when economists venture into areas of research, such as psychology and sociology- that they have no clue about.</p>

<p>Cause and effect? Based on what? So many other factors may explain the correlation and they aren’t controlled for.</p>