focus on research
Researching Working Moms
The quality, not quantity, of time
working mothers spend with their infants
and Infant Development
is most important for their development
eturning to work soon after giving birth is
a difficult and deeply personal decision for
any mother. The prospect of giving up a
hard-earned career to stay at home, for in-
stance, can be as overwhelming as the worry a mother
might feel leaving a baby in childcare.
But a study of working moms and infants, published
in the March/April 2005 issue of Child Development,
may help alleviate some of those fears. Quality of time,
not quantity, is important for infant development, ac-
cording to the study’s director, Dr. Aletha Huston.
“It’s not whether you happen to be in the same room
with the child, it’s what you are doing,” she explains.
“Mothers who stay at home, especially if they have other
children, are still busy doing other things.”
Most research in this area has focused on how much
time children spend in childcare, but Huston, a profes-
sor of human ecology, was interested in maternal time-
use, or exactly how mothers use their time at home.
“We wanted to measure how much time mothers actu-
ally spend interacting with their babies.”
Researchers studied 1,053 mothers and their infants
from across the country, as part of the Study of Early
Child Care of the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development. Seventy-one percent of the
mothers were employed or attended school an average
of 33 hours per week.
During the first three years of the infants’ lives—at
1, 6, 15, 24 and 36 months of age—researchers col-
lected data about the home environment, the mother-
child relationship, and mothers’ attitudes toward par-
enting, employment and separation from their infants.
They measured mothers’ time use when the babies
were 7-8 months old. At 15, 24 and 36 months, they
measured the babies’ intellectual development, use of
language, social behavior and emotional attachment
to their mothers.
“The results were surprising,” admits Huston. “I
thought we would see some relation between the
amount of time and child development, but we didn’t
at all.” Instead, working mothers made up for their time
away from home by spending more time with their
babies in their free time, on days off and by reducing
time in other activities.
The study showed that infants of mothers who work
or attend school develop as well as those whose moth-
ers don’t. Researchers concluded that other personal
characteristics and circumstances influence maternal
sensitivity and how much time mothers engage their
“It’s not whether you happen to
children.
“There are many different ways to be a good mother,”
Huston says. “Regardless of whether they’re employed be in the same room with the child,
or not, mothers who interact with their babies more
often are likely to be more sensitive and have more
it’s what you are doing.”
stimulating homes.” – Stephen Schenck ✥
Dr. Aletha Huston. Photo by: Matt Lankes.
10 s p r i n g 2 0 0 6
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24