Maternal Employment and Child Socialization Practices

This study presents the results of an intracultura I test of cross-cultural theory concerning the relationship between mothers' economic responsibilities, child rearing practices, and the development of socialized behavior. The relationship between these variables was examined through behavioral observations and self reports of 44 employed and 56 unemployed Western mothers of 7 and 10 year old girls and boys. Comparisons on the self-reported measures of attitudes toward child rearing showed employed mothers to be more discipline oriented and more generally satisfied with their employment status as assessed by their plans for the future and commitment to work than nonemployed mothers. Comparisons of measures of mothers' game playing behavior with their children showed that employed mothers gave, accepted, and sought information and gave and accepted evaluation in the course of playing the game significantly more frequently than did nonemployed mothers. Except for a significantly more pronounced alternating win-lose pattern in the nonemployed mother-child pairs, mothers' employment status was unrelated to game playing behavior in the children. However, helping behavior involving the experimenter revealed the children of employed mothers to be more helpful than children of the nonemployed mothers. Observed differences between the two groups are interpreted as supportive of an adaptive relationship between mothers' economic responsibilities and child socialization techniques, a finding in accordance with cross-cultural research on this topic

Child rearing · Cross-cultural · Developmental psychology · Socialization · Sociology · Test (biology) · Early Childhood Education and Development · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges