Just published in Child Development magazine, this is the most comprehensive child-care study ever done on the effects of mothers who work on the development of children.

The study, led by Teachers College Professor Jeanne Brooks- Gunn, is based on data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, which followed over 1,000 children in 10 cities for more than 3 years.

"What we found was that when mothers worked more than 30 hours by the time their children were 9 months old, those children, on average, did not do as well on school-readiness tests when they were 3 years old," said Brooks-Gunn. "In other work we've done, we've seen that those negative effects of early full-time maternal
employment persist among children who are 7 or 8."

There were no significant effects on children where the mother
started to work when the child was a year old, according to Dr.
Brooks-Gunn.

The study examined maternal sensitivity, home environment, hours in
child care and quality of child care.

The article, entitled "Study Links Working Mothers to Slower Learning" appeared in the July 17th edition of the New York Times.

When possible, the News Bureau provides a link to article summaries, a link is always provided to the online source. Not all online sources archive information and some charge a fee for older material.

Published Saturday, Jul. 27, 2002