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Working Moms And
Child Development
The amount of time a woman takes before returning to a full-time
job after childbirth may affect her child's mental development.
That's the finding of a report, published in Child Development
magazine, that links early full-time maternal employment to slower
intellectual development in kids. The report was based on data
collected from the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development Study of Early Child Care, which involved 900 white
non-Hispanic children in 10 cities over three years. Researchers
found that children whose mothers worked 30 hours or more per week
by the time the children were 9 months old scored lower on
school-readiness tests at age three. These negative developmental
effects persisted until the children were 7 or 8 years old, the
researchers said. However, children whose mothers did not start
working until the kids were one year or older had no significant
negative effects. Boys appeared more sensitive to the effects of
their mother's employment than girls, according to a New York Times
News Service report. Other experts pointed out that factors
including the father's involvement, the quality of the child care,
the mother's sensitivity to her children and her job-related stress
all play a role in the children's development.
For more on children's health, go to:
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/20722/20722.html
For more on caregiving, go to:
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/9030/9030.html
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