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First-Year Maternal Employment and Adolescent Externalizing Behavior

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Abstract

Associations between first-year maternal employment and mother—and youth-reported externalizing behavior at age 15 were examined paying attention to potential mediating roles of home and child care environments by 36 months, effortful control at 54 months, and externalizing behavior at 54 months and middle childhood. We used data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 922 non-Hispanic White children) which is a prospective birth cohort study that followed children from birth to age 15. Full-time first-year maternal employment was associated with higher levels of externalizing behavior at age 15 through higher maternal depressive symptoms by 36 months, lower effortful control at 54 months, and higher externalizing behavior at 54 months and middle childhood. Part-time first-year maternal employment was not associated with higher externalizing behavior at age 15.

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Funding

This report was based on data from the larger National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD-ECCYD). The NICHD-SECCYD was directed by a Steering Committee and was funded by NICHD through the following grants: 5U10HD02740, 5U10HD025460, 5U10HD025447, 5U10HD025420, 5U10HD025456, 5U10HD033343, 5U10HD025445, 5U10HD025451, 5U10HD025430, 5U10HD025449, 5U10HD027040, 5U10HD025455). The content of the manuscript is the sole responsibility of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Anne Conway & Jane Waldfogel

  2. New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Wen-Jui Han & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

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  1. Anne Conway
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Correspondence to Anne Conway.

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All procedures performed in the studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the others.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Conway, A., Han, WJ., Brooks-Gunn, J. et al. First-Year Maternal Employment and Adolescent Externalizing Behavior. J Child Fam Stud 26, 2237–2251 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0730-8

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