MOTHERS GOING BACK TO WORK EARLY DOESN’T HARM CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Research from three industrialised countries finds that early returns to work after childbearing do not pose threat to the healthy development of children.

Mothers’ going back to work soon after childbirth poses no harm to children’s development, according to our recent studies in the US, UK, and Australia.

Studies of children born a generation earlier, in the 1970s, ’80s, and early ’90s, painted a more worrying picture. These studies found that when mothers returned to work in the first year or two after childbirth, children’s early learning and behavioral skills suffered.

Our findings were based on nationally representative panel studies of thousands of children born in the early 2000’s in the US, UK, and Australia. The studies followed children and families from birth until they entered primary school.

Mothers reported their employment experiences after childbirth; the children’s cognitive and behavioral skills were directly assessed and rated by teachers in kindergarten or first grade. We used advanced statistical techniques to adjust for factors—such as maternal education and prior work experience—that could bias associations between early maternal employment and children’s functioning. Doing so helped us isolate how mothers’ employment specifically might support or harm children’s development.

EARLY RETURN TO WORK IS NOW COMMON

Going back to work early – within two years of childbirth – was common among mothers in all three countries, though mothers from the UK and Australia were slower to return to work than American mothers—likely because the UK and Australia have more generous maternity leave policies. Nearly 70 per cent of US mothers returned to work before their child was two years old, compared with 60 per cent of mothers in the UK and a third of Australian mothers. By the time children had started formal schooling, the early years picture was reversed: a higher proportion of mothers were employed in the UK and Australia than in the US.

“Early maternal employment does not harm families.”

We found that, when they entered school, children of mothers who went back to work early had cognitive and behavioral skills similar to those of children whose mothers weren’t employed during the first two years after childbirth. This was true for children in all three countries.

We also examined whether the number of hours mothers worked, mothers’ job earnings, or the number of hours children spent in child care affected the association between maternal employment and children’s development. Overall, we saw few consistent patterns to suggest that these factors explained or altered associations between early maternal employment and children’s later skills.