Early Maternal Employment & Child Outcomes in Fragile Families: Effects Through Late Childhood

Abstract

This paper utilizes longitudinal data from the Fragile Families & Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to investigate the effects of first-year maternal employment on the cognitive and behavioral outcomes (at ages 3, 5, and 9) of children largely living with unmarried parents. I conduct this analysis with ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variable (IV) regression models, expanding on existing literature by examining outcomes over time into later childhood and using IV models to address the potential endogeneity of maternal employment in OLS models. Although the two models yield varying nuances in results particularly for behavioral outcomes, I generally find that early maternal employment has positive and lasting effects on cognitive outcomes mainly for children from relatively low income families, likely due to the higher marginal returns to additional income that employment generates; closely tied to socioeconomic class, racial interactions suggest that maternal employment has negative but more short-term implications for white children. For behavioral outcomes, I find that while maternal employment effects are not significantly dependent on income class, there are potentially negative but short-lived effects for Hispanic and white children. These results underline the consequential and varying effects of early maternal employment on developmental outcomes for children of fragile families.