Search Results

Title: Determining Children's Home Environments: The Impact of Maternal Characteristics and Current Occupational and Family Conditions
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Menaghan, Elizabeth G.
Parcel, Toby L.
Determining Children's Home Environments: The Impact of Maternal Characteristics and Current Occupational and Family Conditions
Journal of Marriage and Family 53,2 (May 1991): 417-431.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/352909
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Children; Children, Home Environment; Family Influences; General Assessment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Maternal Employment; Mothers; Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Self-Esteem

This paper examines determinants of the home environments that employed mothers provide for their young children and investigates the impact of current employment experiences, current family conditions, and maternal and child characteristics in shaping children's home environments. Using data from the NLSY 1986 Mother-Child Supplement, the authors study 795 employed mothers with a child aged three through six years old. As work socialization theories suggest, it was found that the occupational complexity of mother's work positively affects the home environments mothers provide for their children. In addition, larger family size produces less optimal child environments. The personal resources that mothers bring to their child-rearing--self esteem, locus of control, educational attainment, and age--also have significant effects on children's home environments. Given the importance of home environment for child cognitive and socioemotional outcomes, these findings suggest pathways by which maternal resources and current occupational and family environments have intergenerational repercussions.
Bibliography Citation
Menaghan, Elizabeth G. and Toby L. Parcel. "Determining Children's Home Environments: The Impact of Maternal Characteristics and Current Occupational and Family Conditions." Journal of Marriage and Family 53,2 (May 1991): 417-431.