Maternal employment, parental constraints, and children’s behavioral and social-emotional development: A cross-sectional analysis of working mothers and their children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71085/joclsi.04.02.46Keywords:
Maternal Employment, Parental Involvement, Children’s Behavior, Social Anxiety, Work-Family Conflict, Parental ConstraintsAbstract
The paper examines the links between the nature of maternal employment, parental restrictions, and the behavioral as well as social-emotional development in children. A cross-sectional study was used with 200 working mothers in South Punjab, Pakistan, who represented different professional fields and employment sectors. The findings indicated that increased work hours had a high positive association with perceived parental constraint especially in school involvement and homework support. The research has indicated that children whose mothers had more constraints exhibited less social skill and more anxiety. The studies support the significance of the work-hour cut and public sector-type family benefit in alleviating the adverse impact of the maternal employment on child development. Some of the policy interventions that are recommended in this study to minimize work-family conflict include: increased paid family days, flexible work, childcare provided by the employer. Also, the results underline the necessity of family-based support mechanisms to counter the low level of parental involvement. The insights are important in enhancing the lives of children in working families and in influencing the working policy. Future studies ought to address the issue of longitudinal designs to enhance the idea of the long term impact of maternal employment on children development.
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