ABSTRACT
Of women in the labor force, mothers with children at home have been the fastest growing group in recent decades. These changes have prompted policy debate about the impact of maternal employment on children. A central concern is whether the relationships parents have with their children are affected by the employment status of the parents. This is important because parents' relationships with their children are considered crucial for the development and socialization of children extending into adolescence and for a range of outcomes from academic achievement to juvenile delinquency. Parent-child relationships take many forms, and some kinds of interactions and activities might be affected by maternal employment differently than others. Thus, the question of how maternal employment influences parent-child relationships is closely linked to whether maternal employment affects the child, because the relationships between parent and child are likely to intervene.
