FACTORS AFFECTING CARE OF YOUNG

CHILDREN AMONG WORKING WOMEN IN DERA

GHAZI KHAN

Submitted By
Tehmina Sharif
2016-GU-27
Master of science

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
GHAZI UNIVERSITY
Dera Ghazi Khan
2020
 INTRODUCTION

Mother is the first teacher and she is a biological and social female parent of an off
spring. Mother plays a very important role in the life of a child grows in stage, role of the
mother change according to the need of child Adolescent is a transition stage (Tanti et al.,
2010).

A mother’s participation in the labor force can improve her children’s health by
bringing in the money that can permit a healthier lifestyle for the family ‘and may also
permit better health care through employer provide health insurance coverage. However
her children’s health could also be impacted negatively because of the added burden on
the mother’s time; resulting in less supervision or care of the children (Marrill, 2011).

Child care is an umbrella term referring to any form of non-parental care that
occurs on a regular basis (Huston et al., 2002). Researchers have categorized child care in
several different ways. Karpilow (1999) divided child care as care by a relative such as a
grandmother or aunt; in-home care by non-relatives such as a babysitter or nanny; and
care in group settings such as centers and family child care homes. Care provided by a
relative, care in the provider’s home when caring for children from one other family in
addition to the provider’s own, some public recreation programs, and care for school-aged
children and younger children in their own home is collectively referred to as license-
exempt child care or “informal child care” (Karpilow, 1999). Unlike other providers,
these providers do not need a license to provide child care.

Child care types were classified as centers, nonrelative, or relative care. A center
refers to a group setting designed for the care of young children. It includes programs
designed primarily for enrichment or early education (i.e., Head Start, preschools, or
after-school programs), as well as settings designed primarily to provide care while
parents are working. A child care center must be licensed and, therefore, is subject to
some regulations regarding physical safety, ratios of caregivers to children, and the like.
Center care is generally considered the most “formal” type of care, and it is usually the
most expensive one for parents unless it is subsidized by public funds. Non-relative care
can occur in the caregiver’s home (e.g., family child care homes) or in the child’s home.
Parents typically pay for such care. Some such child care homes are licensed, certified, or
registered; some receive training and technical assistance, but many do not. Relative care
is provided by grandparents, siblings, or other relatives in the child’s home or in their
own homes. Parents often pay for such care, but pay levels tend to be below market rates
and payment procedure often are flexible (Huston et al., 2002).

Supervision and monitoring of children of employed mothers suffer badly. The

idea was supported by 99% of women, 89% of students and 95% of teachers. Mothers
expressed that the responsibility of supervision and monitoring of children is associated
with mothers. They argued that when children are unmonitored and unsupervised they
most likely show the negative effects in conduct and behaviour. Students argued that in
the absence of proper check and balance the deficiency comes in the habits children. In
that case children mostly fail to develop the desired habits. Such children become naughty
and mischievous. Teachers argued that check and balance is a compulsory part of child
development. In the absence of supervision the character building of children will be
inadequate (Almani et al., 2012). They suggested that:

1. It has been observed that child’s infant period suffers badly due to mother’s
employment. In that case mothers should be more careful. They should realize the
fact that quality of time they spend with their children is much more important
than the quantity of time. They should treat the children as they treat their
customers. They should schedule time with them and do everything for them.
While returning from office their first priority should be to sit with children either
playing with them or listening to them interestingly what ever they say be it
interesting or boring. Mothers should give then individual attention. They should
turn off the phone while sitting I the company of children. They should enjoy the
company of each other.
2. It has also been observed that emotional development and attachment of infants
suffers badly due to employment of mothers. When the work is over working
mothers should spend remaining whole time with their children. They should
prioritize the company of their children. They should windup all their extra
activities. They should spend less time with others. Children like games very
much and mothers should spend the most of the time playing with children. This
will lessen the isolation of children and enhance the emotional development and
attachment.
 There are an increasing number of mothers in paid employment whose demands
at work places is increasingly harming the wellbeing of their children. A working
woman’s attitude is not different from that of a housewife. She has to manage her home,
in addition to her work. Mothers in contemporary societies are being confronted with a
choice whether to work or not to work. In other words, do the baby and family comes first
or is a career and financial security of greater importance. While people may be willing to
accept the idea of career women, they are not willing to excuse them from their duties as
career mothers. However, the global economic recession of 2008 where a number of large
industrial manufacturing companies collapsed, leading to the laying off of a number of
men and or male headed households, women were left with the burden to fend for their
families, necessitating a number of modern families to do a rethink.

Over the past several decades in Pakistan, an increasing number of women with
young children are joining the workforce, which is one of the biggest social changes in
the later half of the twentieth century. More children are being raised in households where
mothers work for pay as compared with the scenario a generation ago. This change has
prompted concerns about whether maternal employment poses any risks to children's
cognitive development. The purpose of their descriptive comparative study was to
compare the cognitive development of toddlers, aged 24–36 months, of working and non-
working mothers in Karachi, Pakistan. The Bayley Mental Scale was used as the primary
outcome measure. Data were analysed using non-parametric statistics. There was no
association between maternal employment status and toddlers’ cognitive development.
Differences were found in cognitive development by demographic characteristics, which
suggested that selected children were more vulnerable, irrespective of their mothers’
employment status. The researcher resulted that importance of both quality parental care
and quality non-parental care in determining the overall impact of maternal employment.
Whether a child is disadvantaged by maternal employment depends on the quality of care
that the child receives, as related to that which would be provided by the mother.
However, the overall analysis of the study suggests that there is no association between
maternal employment status and the toddler’s cognitive development (Meherali et al.,
2011).

It is obvious that mother employment has a certain adverse impact on the overall
development of children, especially at their early ages when mother care is crucial for
them. Different cognitive and psychodynamic theories are concerned with the effect of
early childcare on the overall development of the children. Joint parental care is needed
for childrens‟ flourishment. But some psychoanalysts have indicated early mother care as
a must for the physical and cognitive development of the children. Lack of infant-mother
attachment may induce children vulnerability to depression.

Most of the researches have put emphasis on the cognitive development of

children of working mothers in both developed and developing nations. A study has
investigated whether mother‟s employment affects children‟s cognitive development or
not. They have compared this issue between working and non-working mother. Maternal
employment have no such risks for their child‟s cognitive development, rather they have
found some demographic characteristics that affect the intellectual development of their
children regardless of mother employment. Therefore, this is empirically evident in case
of Pakistan (Meherali et al., 2011a)

Another study in Pakistan has given almost same evidence that there is hardly any
difference between the development of children of working and non-working mother.
Two groups have opined about the working mothers‟ success in ensuring children‟s
intellectual development. Optimistic view says that working mothers can ensure financial
solvency along with self-confidence, social awareness and other attributes. Opponents
have a view that working mothers always deprive their children from early maternal care
and thus affect their mental development (Almani et al., 2012a).

However, there could be a number of factors that work against the adverse effect
of mothers‟ labor market participation on children‟s cognitive development and
behavioral outcomes. This is the case of United Kingdom, where in most cases fathers are
seen to be involved in child raising. This type of joint parental care has a positive impact
on their development. Whereas, those mother who have to work full-time and assign their
children to those of unpaid childcare or relative, have to face risk of unusual development
of their children. But paid child care can averse this risk of negative effect on child
development and possibly lead to better cognitive outcome (Gregg et al., 2003a).

Family potential eligibility for child care subsidies is based on two basic criteria
under state rules: family income and parental work status (Child Care Bureau, 2003).
First, a family must have monthly income below the state determined income eligibility
threshold for a family of that size. Most states set income eligibility limits substantially
below the maximum level allowed by federal law, which is 85% of the state median
income (SMI). Second, both the mother and the father (if there is a spouse present) must
be either working or attending a job training or educational program. Three states
additionally require the parent to work at least a minimum number of hours per week
(e.g., 20 hours) to be eligible for CCDF-funded subsidies. If these two criteria are
satisfied, then the mother is eligible for a child care subsidy for her children
who meet the previously mentioned age or special needs criteria.

Capizzano and Adams (2004) used the National Survey of America’s Families
(NSAF) to examine differences in the primary child care arrangements of low- and
higher-income children with working mothers. Their findings showed that children from
high-income families are more likely to be in center care than children from middle- and
lower-income families; children from low-income families are more likely to be in non-
market forms of care and relative-provided care; and children from low-income families
are also more likely to be in federally subsidized forms of care (e.g., Head Start)
(Capizzano & Adams, 2004).

Only 21% of employed mothers in Ethiopia breastfeed exclusively until six

months. Evidence from other countries has shown that support from managers encourages
mothers to continue breastfeeding. Whereas lack of physical resources, time for
breastfeeding and supportive policies adversely impact the continuation of breastfeeding.
The aim of that study was to explore the perspective of managers regarding breastfeeding
in the Ethiopian context. Managers of district level, government institutions were
interviewed in the Tigray region of North Ethiopia. Semi-structured, face to face
interviews were used to explore managers’ perspectives and views about breastfeeding,
the level of support they provide to breastfeeding mothers, and the challenges they faced.
The data were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Researcher resulted that
fifteen managers were interviewed from 12 organizations. The data were categorized into
three themes. The first theme related to the attitudes and preference of managers and
revealed that overall participants had positive views towards breastfeeding. The second
theme highlighted managers’ concern about the impact of breastfeeding on staffing and
workplace productivity. The third theme focused on managers’ assertions that, despite
improvements, there were still inadequate policies and government strategies to support
employed breastfeeding women in North Ethiopia. Researcher concluded that it is
promising that managers in North Ethiopia expressed a positive attitude
towards supporting breastfeeding mothers. Managers raised concern about the impact of
breastfeeding on work performance, as well as the lack of physical facilities and
government resources that affects the level of support they can provide Gebrekidan et al.,
2020).

By considering families as a microsystem, we can incorporate the health of one

family member into our models of the health of other family members. Among young
children, the incidences of the common illnesses of early childhood, such as upper
respiratory infections, ear infections, and gastrointestinal infections, peak at around 12
months of age and then slowly decline (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network,
2001). These infections can affect parenting stress among working mothers.

A study conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that when mothers
work full time during their child’s pre-school years the child is less effective at A-level
work. Children of full time working mothers achieved at A-level 52 % of
the time. These children also found themselves unemployed 9% more of
the time as well as suffering from psychological stress 28% more of the time compared to
that of children with nonworking mothers (Cavel, 2001).

Positive results were also found with children who had to go to childcare. When
the child was placed in a quality childcare situation there were positive effects on the
child’s social and cognitive development (Figes, 2001) The study found that a trained
nursery worker was able to stimulate the child with a wide variety of educational toys and
games compared to that of a stay at home mother (Figes, 2001).

The connection of children with their mothers at a young age will allow a close
bond. This will make the communication between parent and child easier especially
during the middle school and high years. The attention and moral values the child
receives will help guide the child in a positive direction as they get older (Essortment,
2002).

Mother perception of workplace support is influenced by employer behaviour.

Employer may influence the workplace environment of breastfeeding support by abiding
or ignoring organization policies, discouraging breastfeeding employees, handling or
informally supporting or disowning problems encountered by female workers (Weber et
al.,2011).
 A cross-sectional study in India investigated the feeding behaviour of working
women. The study described the challenges of working women in adjusting breastfeeding
in concordance with work. The data showed that the work is largely responsible for the
deviation from the standard breastfeeding behaviour. The working group of women
shared common characteristics such as: 77% age below 30 years, 83% education level up
to graduation, 66% work in private and 63% live in nuclear family (Kumar et al., 2015).

In another study using nationally representative data, Radey and Brewster (2007) found
statistically significant relationships between poverty status and child care selection. They
found that as family income increases, mothers are better able to use relatively high-cost
forms of nonfamilial care, such as day-care centers and nannies; those who receive
employer assistance with child care are more likely to use non-familial child care choices,
such as center care (Radey & Brewster, 2007). In their ethnographic study in Wisconsin,
Lowe and Weisner (2004) found that low-income families use more home-based than
center-based programs. Further, of those who used home-based programs, families were
more likely to use relatives than non relatives.

The relationship between child care selection and maternal education also has
been studied extensively. Mothers with higher education levels are more likely to place
their children in center care than in family day care or relative care. This may be because
mothers with higher education levels weigh developmental characteristics of child care
settings more than relational characteristics, which is highly valued by less-educated
mothers. It was found that maternal education was no longer a significant predictor for
type of care selected when economic variables were entered in the prediction model. The
results for education parallel those found for income, and reported that income may
account for these effects. Furthermore, mothers’ educational level and age of the child
can interact and influence maternal child care choice. Better educated parents of children
younger than three years old tend to select family day care (non-relative care in someone
else’s home) over center-based care, because parental concerns with the educational
component of care increased only as the child aged (Johansen et al., 1996).

Sociological significance

It has been proved through experiments and researches that a major part of children’s’
cognitive, affective and psychomotor growth takes place at an early age below three
years. There are many researches which have proved that absence of parents’ attention at
an early age is very harmful. The child of working mothers scores comparatively lower
than the child of house hold mother. It is necessary for a mother to nurture and take care
of her children more at early age. She must create a good relationship with her child. The
mother who stays home is twenty four hours with her children. It has been observed that
children all over the world especially in Pakistan look out for due care, love and affection.
Definitely the answer ill be no. Then why mothers are looked working. The mothers who
prefer to remain at home are more fruitful to their children. They can help their children
round the clock. In our society the care and bringing up of children is considered
primarily the responsibility of the mother. Sometimes the decision to take up employment
depends upon this critical factor. Bringing up of children is a difficult job. Home keeping
and child rearing is almost a complete profession and working mother can only pursue it
successfully if she gets a close co-operation from her husband or in-laws. In case desired
cooperation is not available, she fails to provide an environment of affection, protection
and security to her child. Being tired of the outside work she gets irritated and out of
irritation punishes her child unnecessarily. Sometimes they suffer from a sense of guilt
because they feel that their mothers neglect them because of their outside work.

Objectives of the Study:

The following are the objectives of the study:

1. To study the demographics information of the respondents in the research area.

2. To examine the social and psychological problems faced by the children of
working women in Dera Ghazi Khan City.
3. To study the impact of mothers employment on the health of children in Dera
Ghazi Khan City.
4. To study the problems faced by working mothers in caring of their children in
Dera Ghazi Khan City.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

Waldfogel (2002) stated that maternal employment has harmful effects on

children only if certain risk factors are present and virtually all of these factors can
potentially be manipulated by appropriate policy interventions. Our finding that it is only
early full time work that may be problematic suggests that policies that encourage the
adoption of flexible and part time working practices, and also that enable mothers to
remain at home for longer after a birth, will minimise any negative effects of maternal
employment. The importance of the role of the father in early child rearing opens up other
potential ways of influencing children’s development – policies relating to paternity leave
and flexible working for fathers as well as mothers could, on the basis of our results, have
quite strong effects on child outcomes. Finally, we emphasise the importance of access to
cheap high quality childcare, particularly for very young children. Relatively few mothers
make use of formal, centre-based care before their children are two years of age but it is
attendance at just such providers that appears to mitigate the effects of maternal
employment to the greatest extent.

Crosby et al. (2005) investigated the effects of a set of child care and welfare
policies on single parents’ use of different types of child care for toddlers, preschool-age,
and young school-age children. The policies were integrated within pilot welfare and
employment programs that were implemented from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The
study found that only programs with policies designed to increase family’s access to paid
child care affected the types of care used by families. Programs that offered more
comprehensive, more efficient or more generous child care assistance to families
increased the use of center-based rather than home-based care for all age groups studied.
Such programs also increased the duration and stability of center care.

Li-Grining and Coley (2006) used a nationally representative data set to describe
the child care experiences of children from low-income neighborhoods in Boston,
Chicago, and San Antonio. Results indicated that most children were in Head Start
centers, other centers, or relative care. However, this descriptive study was not able to
determine if there is an association between neighborhood socioeconomic and
demographic characteristics and the types of child care that are chosen by residents.
 A study by Nomaguchi and Milkie (2006) examined whether or not people’s
perceptions of their parents was affected by their mother’s employment during their
childhood. Regardless of hours worked, children of mothers who worked reported less
discipline from their mothers than those whose mothers did not work outside the home.
Those with working mothers also reported less support and more verbal assaults than
those whose mothers did not work.

Bianchi (2006) maintained that working mothers are ambivalent about whether
full time work is the best thing for them or part time due to the task of motherhood. This
situation results in most women finding themselves in situations that might be less ideal
for the development of their children. The concern then is women have to rise up to the
situation and to assist their families, but at the behest of their children. He also maintained
that the role of a mother in child development cannot be overstressed. Mothers play vital
role in the nurturing of their children for a proper and appropriate child development and
up bringing; child development therefore is the positive change which occurs in the life of
a child.

Rigby et al., (2007) used nationally representative data to examine the state
policies’ effect on mothers’ choices of child care. However, the study only included
limited set of mothers’ individual characteristics as control variables. In addition, the
study used only logistic regression methods and only compared the choice between every
two types of the child care choices and therefore could not draw a whole picture of
mothers’ child care arrangements. In addition, this study was not able to identify other
aspects of state child care policy, including whether states help parents locating child
care, and whether states put limitations on the use of family day care.

Cawley and Liu (2007) use the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) for 2003-
2006 to investigate the effect of maternal employment on mother’s allocation of time to
activities related to child health. They focus on time mothers spent on grocery shopping,
cooking, purchasing prepared food, eating, and physical activities with children.
Additionally, child care related activities like supervision are included. They find that
employed women spend significantly less time cooking, eating with their children, and
playing with their children, but are more likely to purchase prepared food. Cawley and
Liu (2007) conclude that the results offer plausible mechanisms for the association of
maternal employment and children’s health.
 Bernal (2008) is the only study that evaluates the impact of both maternal
employment and non-parental child care attendance on subsequent child outcomes using a
structural approach. She finds that one year in external child care reduces the child’s
cognitive ability by 0.8 percent; however, the impact of maternal employment and non-
parental child care is more detrimental, since, together, they decrease a child’s test score
by 1.8 percent.

The decision to become a working mother or a stay-at-home mother is an

important one. Giele (2008) surveyed and then interviewed female college graduates in
the United States in an attempt to learn if certain characteristics made career women more
likely to remain in the home after they became mothers. Giele found that homemakers felt
that being a mother was their most important life role. In contrast, working mothers felt
that careers were their main role and that family was an additional part of their lives that
helped make life more meaningful. Although profiling mothers is helpful in researching
effects on children, examining both children’s and mothers’ perceptions of the mothers’
employment is also important.

McIntosh et al. (2008) argue that parents play a critical role in their children’s
food choices, and as a result parents that do not spend enough time and income on their
children’s diet face the potential of causing their children to become overweight. They
relate the insufficient time and attention parents spend on their children to be a product of
work related pressures and commitments. Furthermore, parents that work often times
bring home the work-related pressures, causing parents themselves to experience poor
diets and low nutritional health, which also spills over to the dietary choices and
nutritional health of their children. The authors found that the more time a mother spends
at work, the more children derive their energy intake from fat and saturated fat, which
gives a positive effect on body mass index and waist circumference of children. The
authors also relate the amount of time parents spend at work, or on work at home, and
parents’ income on the environment the child will grow up in. They find that it is not only
the quantity of time and money spent on a child, but also the environment that will affect
a child’s nutritional health and body mass index.

In addition to differences in discipline and support that children receive, maternal

employment may also affect school performance. A study by Gennetian et al. (2008) used
statistics gathered in a survey of urban mothers to assess how mothers’ working affected
adolescents’ school performance and participation in school related activities. They found
that children of stay-at-home mothers were more likely to have above average school
performance. Children of working mothers were not more likely to perform poorly in
school, but they were less likely to perform above average. Children of employed others
were also found to be more likely to skip school than children of non-working mothers.

Cooksey et al. (2009) stated that despite recent public concern regarding maternal
employment of mothers with young children, especially in the United Kingdom, the bulk
of the evidence therefore supports the view that it really doesn’t matter much one way or
another if mothers are in the labour force when their children are very young, especially if
maternal employment is part time. Of course, ‘no evidence of harm’ is not quite the same
as ‘evidence of no harm. We are unable to prove that children whose mothers did not go
out to work would not have suffered if they had –the unobserved counterfactual in an
observational study. However, our use of longitudinal data helps us rule out reverse
causation, and to search for indicators of possible confounders we have included a wide
range of additional child and maternal variables in our analyses to help overcome this
problem of spuriousness. The current economic climate on both sides of the Atlantic does
not make it easy for mothers to stay at home with their young children, but the stress
associated with an economic necessity for mothers to be in the labour market should not
be compounded by unsubstantiated concerns regarding negative effects of maternal
employment on later child development and emotional well-being. Policies such as
flexible work schedules, parental leave and flexible hours, are, he noted, already further
advanced in UK than in the US and these findings support consolidating such measures in
both countries. Nothing we have found here suggests an important or inevitable adverse
pathway for the two sets of children we studied. Further evidence may yet reveal some
negative impact on other or later outcomes, but so far, there is little evidence of harm to
these school-age children from maternal employment during a child’s infancy, especially
if the employment is part-time, and in a context where several months of maternity leave
is the norm, as it was already in the UK in the 1990s.

Moeser et al. (2009) conducted a study to examine the relationship between

maternal employment and time spent with children in physical activity or meal
preparation. They used the German Time Use Survey because of it’s uniqueness and
because it has information on how both mothers and their children allocate their time.
Since working mothers spend many hours away from their children it is particularly
important to examine both sides to determine whether it is the childcare arrangement
which is resulting in poorer eating patterns or physical activity or some other facet of
mother's work. They resulted that that maternal employment reduces the probability that a
child will eat at home under supervision, and increases the time that a child spends eating
food away from home. From the mothers side, own work decreases the time she spends
preparing and eating food and doing physical activity with her children.

Sudarshan and Bhattacharya (2009), based on a household survey in urban Delhi

in 2006 found that 60 percent of respondents had quit work after childbirth, and around
57 percent of working respondents felt that women should stop working when their
children are young. Among women who withdrew from the formal labor market, the most
common reason was that household work had become too burdensome. Both working and
nonworking women reported neglect of children and conflict over domestic chores as the
two factors that most constrained women’s employment.

Mroz et al. (2010) specify and estimate a behavioral model of household

migration and maternal employment decisions in order to assess the effect of these
choices on a child’s cognitive ability. They find that part-time employment of the
mother reduces the child’s score by 3 percent of a standard deviation while the mother’s
full-time status reduces the score by 5 percent of a standard deviation.

Palriwala and Neetha (2011) argue that social policies for women and child
welfare, including crèche schemes have been developed mainly to address issues of
children’s health and well-being rather than of women’s employment. There are various
non-state initiatives, of which those offered by the Self-Employed Women’s Association
(SEWA) and Mobile Crèche are among the best known, but several private providers and
employers are slowly realizing the importance of child care to retain female workers.
Most of these initiatives are small in scale and patchy, compared to the vast needs for
child care. SEWA and Mobile Crèche have long highlighted the needs of especially the
poorest informal women in large urban centers – women who work on construction sites,
street vendors, domestic workers, and others who work in taxing manual jobs, for low
wages. As yet however, there is not a similar lobby for the needs of educated women who
may want to work, but cannot.
 Huerta et al. (2011) concluded that the relationship between maternal employment
and behavioural outcomes varies across countries. British children whose mothers were
back to work by the time they were 6 months old (either full-time or part-time) were more
likely to experience conduct problems. However, in other countries this relationship was
not significant. As for attention problems, only Canadian children at age 5 showed higher
chances of experiencing this kind of problem if their mother was in part-time employment
by 6 months. For other countries, no consistent pattern emerged. Maternal employment
after infancy shows a weak but if anything positive association with children’s cognitive
scores, particularly if this is on a part-time basis. In addition, part-time employment after
infancy may have a positive effect on children’s behavioural outcomes. However, this is
not necessarily the case in all countries. The small negative associations of early maternal
employment with children’s outcomes are largely observed among children in intact
families or in families with parents with high levels of education. Children in these
families are more likely to have parents who engage in stimulating parenting activities.
Hence, they have more to lose when parents are in paid work than children from less
advantaged backgrounds. On average, parents with low levels of educational attainment
are less likely to engage in such parenting activities and the smaller negative relationship
between maternal return to work and children’s outcomes in such households is more
likely to be counter-balanced by the positive association of maternal employment with
maternal income and formal childcare participation.

Metilda and Maheswari (2012) conducted a research by use of descriptive

research to collect information and facts about the social and psychological problems
faced by the children of working women in Trichy. It was found that 54% of the
respondents felt happy about their mothers’ occupation and the remaining respondents
wanted their mothers as homemakers only. Most of the respondents opined that they need
better motivation than that of their present experience. 76% of the respondents need more
love and affection from their working mothers. 82% of the respondents had disagreement
with their mothers frequently and found very less time to sort out those disagreements.
72% of the respondents opined that they need even better home environment with lots of
love and affection. Hence it is concluded that the respondents should be given priority
and even more clarification about their mothers’ working condition, the need and
necessity of them for going for job. It is not achieved easily and it is the responsibility of
both the parents. It is very important that the children of working parents must be given
quality time with respect to their care, protection and attention which in turn gives them
the feeling of completeness and satisfaction.

Felfe, C. and Hsin (2012) resulted that exposure to work-related stressors is

related to a reduction in child outcomes. In particular, work-related hazards are related to
worse cognitive outcomes. Likewise, work-related stress negatively correlates to
children's socio-behavioral development. First, mothers’ exposure to work-related
stressors negatively correlates with maternal time investments. They found that exposure
to physical hazards is related to a reduction in educational time and exposure to stress is
related to a reduction in social time. Second, both educational and social time that
children spend with mothers positively predict children's development: educational time
positively correlates with children's cognitive development, and social time positively
correlates with children's behavioral outcomes. However, while we find that maternal
time does mediate the effect of work conditions on child development, we also find that
maternal time investments can only explain a small fraction of the observed negative
correlations between maternal work conditions and child outcomes. The findings of their
research showed that despite being influential for children's development, in particular in
terms of children's behavioral outcomes, father's time investments neither reinforce nor
compensate for the negative association between maternal work conditions and children's
development.

Ermish and Francesconi (2013) have evaluated the effects of maternal

employment on a child’s schooling, estimating the parameters of a conditional demand
function for the child’s education; they find that one year more of a mother’s full time
employment reduces the probability that the child reaches higher education by 11
percentage points.

Singh, A. and Kiran, UV. (2014) stated that that children of working and non-
working mothers are significantly different on composite score of their Personality. The
Personality of working mother’s children are more affected than children of non-working
mothers. The study has revealed that children of working and non-working mothers differ
significantly so far as their priorities are able to do any work. They are also found to be
healthy and more strength full. Non-working mothers pay more attention to their children.
Paying proper time to the children is a basic requirement for their routine work. These
children are more punctual and skillful in dealing with people than the children of
working mothers. The children of working and non-working mothers differ significantly
so far as their self motivation is concerned. Children of non-working mothers are found to
be more responsible, better able to make intelligent decisions using a healthy balance of
emotions and reason. There is significant difference between children of working and non
working mothers so far as their altruistic behavior is concerned. Children of nonworking
mothers are better able to encourage people to take initiative. They can handle conflicts
around them more intelligently than the children of working mothers. It has been found
that there is significant difference between children of working and non-working mothers
so far as their self development is concerned. The children of working and non-working
mothers differ significantly so far as their self awareness is concerned. The children of
non-working mothers have been found clear in their priorities, are more intelligent in
making decisions and are able to discuss emotions and communicate clearly and directly.
The children of working and nonworking mothers differ significantly so far as their
integrity is concerned. The children of nonworking mothers are more aware of their
weaknesses than the children of working mothers.

Ering et al. (2014) hypothesized that there is an association between demands of

mothers in employment and child behavioural pattern and they found that the demands of
mothers in employment have a strong negative relationship with a child behavioural
pattern. In other words, the absence of a mother because of the demands of employment
leaves the child vulnerable to negative behavioural patterns that may be exhibited by the
care giver. The contention here is that most working mothers employ is to take care or
help in taking care of their children at home, therefore, the continuous interactions
between the care giver and the child leaves the child with unrestricted and unmonitored
interactions. These play on the child sub-consciousness and tend to have over bearing
influence on the child. Their findings also showed that that the working mothers’ status
impede on the verbal skills of the child. Most children have a very strong affinity for their
mothers and they tend to communicate with her most of the time. Therefore, the absence
of a mother at home makes it difficult for the child to cope during communication and
interaction with care givers which they see as strangers. In situations of adjustment of the
child, sometimes hinders the child’s development of good and acceptable verbal skills in
society. Social skill is any skill that helps in facilitating interactions and communication
with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated and changed in verbal
and nonverbal ways. All of these are learned through socialization process. The absence
of the mother because of her employment places a greater burden on the social skills of a
child that is learned from childhood. Most working mothers abdicate or relinquish their
God-given parental roles to care givers or house helps. This has a significant effect on the
child social skills development and consequently a child behavioural development.
Akbar and Amin (2015) conducted a research to explore employed mothers’
perceptions about influence of their working status on growth and development of their
children through non-probability judgmental sampling mothers who were formally
employed and were having children between the age of 0–5 years were selected from a
single community. A total of twelve mothers who consented were enrolled in the study.
Responses revealed that being employed their time spent with children is compromised
which is impacting on children's emotional development, feeding practices, attachment
and bonding with their children. It is concluded that first year maternal employment may
form in-secure attachment; child may develop feeling of fear and insecurity, lack of
confidence and a decline in performance at school.

Ghanbari et al. (2017) stated that quality of life in adolescence period determines
individual's future. The effect of maternal employment on children's quality of life is
important and undeniable issue. Their study aimed to investigate and compare the quality
of life among children of employed and housewife women. In this study, the participants
included selected school children's employed and housewife mothers. The tools for data
collection consisted of a questionnaire which was distributed among 671 middle-high
school and high school students (304 have employed mothers and 367 have housewives
mothers. In their study, the level of significance was considered. Results showed that the
life quality of children of employed mothers and housewife mothers in the two groups is
statistically significant. Quality of life in employed mothers in the mental, physical, social
relations, emotional, religious, achieve life goals, leisure time and economic dimension
were higher than housewife mothers but there was not any significant different among
employed mothers' children and housewife mothers' children in dimensions of
relationships with parents. Girls' quality of Life was more than boys, in the teacher
mothers was higher than other occupations and in the exceptional talents school was more
than other schools. This study found that maternal employment has effect on children's
quality of life, so employed mothers' children have high quality of life.
 Chhetrti et al. (2018) stated that employment of the mother is considered to be one
of the most important barriers to exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). The purpose of their
study was to study the factors influencing exclusive breastfeeding practices among
working mothers in Udupi taluk. For this they conducted cross-sectional study among
breastfeeding mothers employed in any form of occupation having an infant less than six
months old. They found that prevalence of EBF among working mothers was 17.5%
although 75% of them had adequate knowledge on EBF and its benefits. Around 52% of
the mothers did not receive any maternity leave benefits. Only 11% of mothers were
allowed breaks in between working hours but none of the mothers were provided with
crèches at their workplace. The commonest reason to discontinue EBF was early
resumption of work after childbirth. Factors such as educational status of working mother
and her husband, occupation of husband, place of delivery, sex of the newborn, frequency
of breastfeeding per day, practice of expressing and storing breast milk before leaving for
work and breaks during working hours were found to be statistically significant with EBF
practice.

Plotka, R. and Rossnagel (2018) using a nationally representative sample with a

longitudinal design, researcher found that there is a direct effect between length of
maternity leave and the quality of mother–child interactions, and an indirect effect
between the length of maternity leave and attachment. These results add to the body of
literature that should inform policies to support the role of parenting in infant
development, and to address the needs of infants during their first months of life. The
implementation of comprehensive and universal maternity leave policy can complement
child care policies. Both quality child care and maternity leave policies constitute
solutions to similar needs. The results of their study/research support the need for parents
to have the opportunity to choose to take maternity before infants enter child care. While
quality child care can results in positive developmental outcomes for the infants,
maternity leave can ensure that mothers have time off from work. This way, maternity
leave can give mothers the opportunity to spend time with their infants, engage in positive
and stress-free interactions, and learn to read a child’s cues before they negotiate the
stress of balancing parenting and work. Ultimately, a combination of comprehensive
maternity leave and child care policies will give each family the opportunity to have some
choice in timing and combination of work, leave, and child care.
 Fitzsimons, E. and Pongiglione, B (2019) conducted a study using longitudinal
birth cohort of almost 20,000 children entitled as “The impact of maternal employment on
children's weight: Evidence from the UK”. They examined the effect of maternal
employment during childhood on weight of children. To estimate household fixed effects
models by addressing endogeneity of maternal employment. They concluded that there is
a positive effect on children’s body mass index due to maternal employment. They also
investigated potential pathways like children’s sedentary behavior and healthy eating
behaviors, and founded evidence of more sedentary behavior and poorer eating habits
amongst children whose mothers are in employment.

Horwood et al. (2019) concluded that their study provides a preliminary

description of that population of women who despite having stable work, are vulnerable,
low paid and food insecure. Some opportunities for supporting these mothers to improve
feeding practices have been identified from our results, and further research is required to
develop and evaluate such interventions. However, any intervention should focus not just
on the work setting but on the wider context of the mother’s life, including her home and
community, and the role the health system can play in supporting the intervention.
Investments in promoting breastfeeding will reap benefits in improved health and
development of the children in these communities as well as improving the health of
mothers.

Davia et al. (2019) conducted the study across Europe to analyse cross-country
differences in the maternal employment patterns and the demand for formal and informal
child care as interrelated decisions. They explore a sample of preschoolers and their
mothers drawn from the EU-SILC (2005–2013) in a set of eleven Europe countries
having different institutional settings. For this purpose they use a set of simultaneous tobit
models which allows for mutual interdependencies across decisions. The results vary
across welfare regimes and are related to the public provision of child care as well as
other dimensions of the institutional context and values. Researcher found that
complementarities between paid employment and child care while formal and informal
care are shown to be mutual substitutes, even in countries where the provision of external,
formal child care is very extended and child care does not depend much on families. This
means that the mere expansion of public child care is not enough to improve maternal
employment rates. Other institutional aspects of the labour market and societal values
also need to be taken into account in this endeavoure..

Norman (2020) stated that understanding the conditions that facilitate mothers’
employment and fathers’ involvement in childcare and housework is important for
achieving gender equity in paid and unpaid work. Researcher used Sen’s capabilities
framework to explore the effect of paternal involvement in childcare on mothers’
employment resumption nine months and three years’ post-childbirth. Logistic regression
is used on the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study. Results show that the probability of
mothers resuming employment increase at both time points if the father is more involved
in childcare nine months post-birth and in some cases, this is more important for her
employment resumption than her occupational class and the number of hours the father
spends in paid work. However, attitudes have an even stronger effect, and appear to drive
behaviour, as the probability of mothers resuming employment increase significantly
three years post-birth if either parent endorses more gender egalitarian roles in the first
year of parenthood.
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