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Title: Children's Behavior Problems: Effects of Current Conditions and Maternal Resources
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Menaghan, Elizabeth G.
Mott, Frank L.
Jekielek, Susan Marie
Kowaleski-Jones, Lori
Children's Behavior Problems: Effects of Current Conditions and Maternal Resources
Presented: New York, NY, American Sociological Association, August 1996
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Children, Adjustment Problems; Children, Behavioral Development; Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; Fathers, Presence; Self-Esteem

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Explores how work & family circumstances shape young children's emotional well-being & behavior, & the extent to which parental resources buffer against adverse effects, using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth for a synthetic cohort of 2,343 children ages 6-7, who were born 1979 & 1986. Results suggest 3 aspects of current work & family circumstances are associated with lower levels of children's behavior problems: (1) the presence of the child's father in the family, (2) the mother being employed, & (3) among employed mothers, the mother working in an occupation that offers greater complexity. Maternal resources also matter: mothers with higher self-esteem, lower levels of youthful deviance, & who had avoided smoking during pregnancy had children with lower levels of behavior problems. These resources had directed effects on behavior problems when current work & family circumstances were controlled, & indirect effects through their impact s on curr ent work & family circumstances. Mothers' cognitive resources had no direct effects, but higher education helped to buffer the effects of presence/absence of the child's father. Higher cognitive resources were also associated with better current work & family circumstances. It is concluded that mothers' resources & their current work & family circumstances affect children's well-being; these effects persist despite stringent controls & are predominantly additive in form. From a policy perspective, these results suggest that improvements in current work & family circumstances can enhance children's well-being, even for children whose mothers have poorer emotional & cognitive resources. (Copyright 1996, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)
Bibliography Citation
Menaghan, Elizabeth G., Frank L. Mott, Susan Marie Jekielek and Lori Kowaleski-Jones. "Children's Behavior Problems: Effects of Current Conditions and Maternal Resources." Presented: New York, NY, American Sociological Association, August 1996.