Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 13, No. 6, 1984
Maternal Employment and Adolescents' Relations with Parents, Siblings, and Peers Raymond Montemayor ~ Received July 25, 1984; accepted November 1, 1984
The association between maternal employment status and the relations that adolescents have with their parents, siblings, and peers was investigated. Three daily reports o f conflicts with family members and time spent with parents, peers, and alone were obtained from 64 tenth-grade adolescents using a telephone interviewing technique. Males, but not females, had more arguments, which were o f longer duration and greater intensity, with their mothers and siblings when their mothers worked than when they did not. Female conflict behavior was unrelated to the work status of the mother. Adolescents of both sexes spent less time with their parents when their mothers worked, especially when they worked full-time, than when they were nonemployed. Adolescents with employed mothers generally spent less free time with their parents than those with nonemployed mothers. Time spent with parents in the performance o f household tasks was not affected by maternal employment status. The need to take a family system perspective in order to understand fully the relationship between maternal employment and adolescent development was emphasized.
INTRODUCTION In the last few years a large b o d y o f literature has accumulated on the relationship between maternal employment and child development (for re-
~Associate Professor, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112. Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1974. Major research interests are in parent and peer relations during adolescence. 543 0047-2891/84/1200-0543 $03.50/0 © 1984 Plenum Publishing CorPol'ation
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cent reviews see Bronfenbrenner and Crouter, 1982; Hoffman, 1983; Lamb, 1982). Interestingly, most researchers have focused their attention on prepubescent-aged children, not because this is the age group whose mothers are most likely to work, adolescence is (U.S. Bureau of Labor, 1982), but because of the widely held belief that younger children may be at risk for a variety of psychological and social problems as a result of repeated separations from their mother (Bowlby, 1973). Many people undoubtedly believe that once children reach adolescence, their "natural" orientation away from their families and toward their friends shields them from whatever negative, and positive, consequences might result from maternal absence due to employment. This view may not be warranted, however, since adolescents continue to interact with their mothers and are affected in a variety of ways by those interactions. In a recent review which focused specifically on adolescent development and its relationship to maternal employment, it was shown that adolescents with working mothers, in comparison to those with nonworking mothers, are different with regard to their parent and peer involvement, level of academic achievement, sexrole orientation, rate of delinquency, and degree of psychological adjustment (Montemayor and Clayton, 1983). The results of the few investigations which have been done on the association between maternal employment status and parent and peer relations during adolescence are somewhat inconsistent but generally indicate that some adolescents have moderately disagreeable relations with working mothers, especially those employed full-time. In some studies adolescents with working mothers, in comparison to those with nonemployed mothers, reported that they were more involved in running the home and that they had better relations with their parents, but in other studies adolescents reported more disagrements with their mothers and less participation in school clubs and activities (Cogle et aL, 1982; Douvan and Adelson, 1966; Gold and Andres, 1978; Propper, 1972). These results are at some odds with conventional wisdom about the importance of mothers to adolescents and the effects of maternal employment on adolescent development. One must be very cautious in accepting these findings, however, since all of these studies suffer from a variety of methodological problems. The most significant one is that the two key dependent variables of conflict and time were assessed by means of general questions about overall levels of conflict and parental involvement. These types of measures have been shown to distort the actual quality and frequency of interactions that adolescents have with parents and peers (Montemayor, 1983). A more promising approach is to use time diaries in which adolescents daily record the number of conflicts that they have with family members and the amount of time that they spend with others during each day. This approach has been shown to be a useful technique for examining the relationship between
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adolescents' conflict with parents and their involvement with parents and peers (Montemayor, 1982). An additional limitation of previous investigations is the almost exclusive focus on relations that adolescents have with their mothers, to the exclusion of relations with fathers and siblings. The need to examine the association between maternal employment and the father-adolescent relationship is demonstrated by two different lines of research. Recent investigations of infancy have shown that the quality of the relationship between one parent and a child may affect the relationship between the other parent and the child, what is referred to as the "second-order effect" (Belsky, 1981). To the extent that the mother-adolescent relationship is different for mothers who work in comparison to those who do not, one would also expect that adolescents in these two types of families would have different relations with their fathers. Yet the results of two time-use studies of husbands and wives with young children indicate that husbands with working wives do not spend significantly more time in child care in comparison to those with nonworking wives (Pleck, 1983; Walker and Woods, 1976), although they spend slightly more playtime with their children. The absence of a second-order effect on husbands with working wives points to the need to examine the father-child relationship more fully, especially among postpubescent-aged adolescents, who need little care, a fact which may make them more attractive companions for the average father. Further, virtually nothing is known about differences in relations that adolescents, and children, have with siblings and peers as a function of maternal employment status. This study has two purposes: first, to examine the relationship between maternal employment and the involvement of adolescents with their mothers; and second, to look at possible differences that adolescents with working or nonworking mothers have with their fathers, siblings, and peers. These purposes are carried out using daily reports of time use obtained from adolescents rather than parents, a technique that is unusual for studies of the relationship between maternal employment and child development.
METHOD Subjects Letters soliciting, participation in this study were sent to a random sample of 150 families with tenth-grade students who were enrolled in three suburban high schools. In order to qualify for participation, families had to be intact, with an adolescent who was not currently in psychotherapy. It is not known how many families who received a letter met these criteria,
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therefore the percentage o f acceptable families who agreed to participate cannot be calculated. Sixty-four families with adolescents (N -- 30 males and 34 females) took part in the study. The average age o f the adolescents was 15.2 years. The adolescents were white, had an average o f 3.8 siblings, and were from families that were predominately middle-class, according to Duncan's socioeconomic index (Reiss, 1961). The average father was 43.1 years old and had completed 14.0 years o f school, and the average mother was 40.3 years old with 12.9 years o f sci~ool. The parents had been married to each other for an average o f 19.3 years, and 18.8070 of the families were reconstituted. Finally, 56.307o o f the families were members o f the Mormon church. Among the mothers, 24 were nonemployed, 20 were employed parttime, and 20 were employed full-time. Women who worked less than 5 hr per week were considered nonemployed, those who worked between 5 and 29 hr per week were considered working part-time, and women who worked 30 or more hr per week were counted as employed full-time. Most o f the women worked as secretaries, in other clerical positions, and as sales workers, and a few were teachers and nurses. About 78070 o f the nonMormon women and 50°7o of the Mormon women were employed, percentages which are close to the national average for employment o f mothers with adolescents. Procedure
Each adolescent was interviewed over the telephone by one o f three female undergraduate interviewers. Interviews took place on three randomly selected evenings during any day o f the week at approximately l-week intervals. Adolescents did not know when they would be called. Each interview took about 40 min to complete. Adolescents were asked to recount the events o f the preceding day from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed, excluding the time spent in school. Adolescents indicated how long they spent in each activity and with whom, if anyone, they interacted. An interaction was defined as "Doing something with someone else, and feeling as if you and the other person were together and not just in the same place at the same time." It was emphasized that any change in activity or association should be reported, even if the change was for only a short period o f time. The adolescent narratives were copied verbatim on daily record sheets by the interviewers. In addition to reporting a chronology o f the previous day's events, adolescents were asked to indicate whether any interaction with a parent or sibling resulted in a conflict. Conflicts were defined as follows: "Either you teased your parent, brother, or sister or one o f them teased you; you and
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your parent or sibling had a difference o f opinion; one of you got mad at the other for some reason; you and your parent or sibling had a quarrel or an argument; or one of you hit the other." Adolescents were told that it was normal for families sometimes to have conflicts. Finally, during the first interview each adolescent provided basic demographic and descriptive information about his or her family.
Variables The following variables were coded from the three daily records obtained from each adolescent. Free time was defined as taking part in such leisure activities as watching TV, playing sports, reading for pleasure, making small talk, and daydreaming. Free time included any recreational activity in which the adolescent was free to participate or not. Task time was defined as any nonpaid work or social commitment in which the adolescent had little choice about participating. Included in task time were such activities as home chores, homework, eating, personal hygiene, and attending church services. The purpose of this division of time was to identify those people adolescents associated with when they do what they want and when they do what they must. Three measures of conflict were obtained from the adolescent narratives. Frequency o f conflict episodes was the number of reported conflicts with a family member. Intensity of conflict was assessed with a three-point scale which the adolescents used to respond to the question, " H o w upset were you during the conflict?" (1 = not upset at all; 2 = a little upset; and 3 = very upset). Duration o f conflict was based on the adolescents' estimates in minutes of how long each conflict lasted.
Reliability Ten adolescents and their mothers were interviewed before the study began and their responses were used to assess reliability. Each adolescent described how he or she spent the preceding day. Each mother then described what she and her adolescent did on that same day. It was thus possible to compare the reports of adolescents with those of their mothers for frequency of conflict and amount of time spent together. The percentage agreement for mothers and adolescents on whether or not a conflict occurred between them was 45%, and the mother-adolescent corelations for the amount of free time and task time spent together were r = 0.78 and r = 0.85, respectively. Interrater agreement for the two types o f time was obtained by comparing ratings from two coders for the 10 pretest adolescents. Interrater
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agreement on whether an activity was classified as either free time or task time was 89%. In the actual study, a single rater coded all the protocols. RESULTS Initially, the data on frequency o f conflict with family members and time spent with parents, peers, and alone were examined for possible interviewer effects and for differences between those families who were and those who were not members o f the Mormon church. No significant differences were found and the data were collapsed across interviewers and religious preference in all further analyses. Conflict Adolescents described 49 conflicts with their mothers, 19 with their fathers, and 54 with their brothers and sisters. Based on 192 reporting days (64 adolescents × 3 days), these figures reveal a rate of 0.64 conflicts with family members per day during the study. As reported elsewhere (Montemayor, 1982), the majority of these conflicts were quarrels about everyday matters such as the performance o f home chores, personal hygiene, and how leisure time was spent. There were no reported instances of family violence. All analyses o f family conflict compare adolescents with working and nonworking mothers since the number of male and female adolescents with mothers who work full- and part-time was small. In order to examine whether a relationship existed between maternal employment status and family conflict, adolescents who reported at least one conflict with a family member were compared to those who did not report a conflict. These data are reported in Table I. Separate chi-square tests were performed on the number of males and females, with employed or nonemployed mothers, who reported conflicts with their mothers, fathers, and siblings (if any were present). The results of these analyses revealed that more males had conflicts with their mothers [X2(1) = 4.05, p < 0.05] and siblings [Xz(1) = 4.34, p < 0.05] if their mothers worked than if they did not. No relationship was found between maternal employment status and the number o f males who had conflicts with their fathers or the number of females who reported conflicts with their mothers, fathers, or siblings. These conclusions are further strengthened by examining the data on average conflict duration and intensity presented in Table II. Each adolescent who reported at least one conflict with a particular family member received an average duration and intensity score which was based on the
Male adolescents Employed mother Nonemployed mother Female adolescents Employed mother Nonemployed mother
Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status 7 8 13 7
7 6
No conflict
13 3
Confict
Mother
4 2
5 4
Conflict
16 11
15 7
No conflict
Father
Family member
11 7
14 3
Conflict
9 6
6 7
No conflict
Siblings
Table 1. Relationship Between Maternal Employment Status and the Distribution of Adolescents Who Either Did or Did Not Report Conflict with a Family Member
m_
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Table !!. Mean Conflict Duration and intensity Scores for Adolescents Who Reported
Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status
Conflicts with Family Members Family member Mother Father M
Na
M
Siblings
(/'4)
M
(N)
6.60 6.79
(5) (4)
11.43 9.65
(14) (3)
12.86 (7) 5.58 14.20 (6) 4.78 Intensity of conflict"
(4) (2)
10.58 8.00
(I 1) (7)
Duration of conflict b Male adolescents Employed mothers Nonemployed mothers Female adolescents Employed mothers Nonemployed mothers
6.11 5.12
(13) (3)
Male adolescents Employed mothers 2.08 (13) 1.33 (5) 2.65 (14) Nonemployed mothers 1.46 (3) 1.67 (4) 1.98 (3) Female adolescents Employed mothers 1.92 (7) 1.32 (4) 2.01 (I 1) Nonemployed mothers 2.25 (6) 1.67 (2) 1.46 (7) aNumbers in parentheses are the numbers of adolescents who reported conflicts. bDuration means are the length of conflicts (minutes) as reported by adolescents. "Intensity means are based on a three-point scale used by adolescents: I = not upset at all; 2 = a little upset; 3 = very upset.
total n u m b e r o f conflicts he or she reported with that family member. These scores then were analyzed with a 2 (sex o f adolescent) x 2 (maternal e m p l o y m e n t status) × 3 (family member) repeated-measures A N O V A with unequal N's. For conflict duration a significant sex o f adolesent x maternal e m p l o y m e n t status x family m e m b e r interaction was f o u n d IF(2,110) = 5.15, p < 0.01 ]. F o r males, arguments with e m p l o y e d mothers were longer than those with n o n e m p l o y e d mothers. For both males and females arguments with siblings were longer when mothers worked than when they did not (all p's < 0.05 according to N e w m a n - K e u l s tests). The findings for intensity o f conflict also reported in Table II generally parallel those for d u r a t i o n o f conflict. A 2 (sex o f adolescent) x 2 (maternal e m p l o y m e n t status) x 3 (family member) repeated-measures A N O V A with unequal N's for ratings o f conflict intensity also revealed a significant three-way interaction IF(2,110) = 3.56, p < 0.05]. Males reported that they were m o r e upset when arguing with e m p l o y e d mothers than with n o n e m p l o y e d mothers. Also, the intensity o f conflicts with their brothers and sisters was greater for males with working mothers than for those with n o n w o r k i n g mothers (all p ' s < 0.05 according to N e w m a n - K e u l s tests).
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The reported differences in conflicts with mothers and siblings for males with working and nonworking mothers might be accounted for partly by differences in the number of home chores for males with those two types of mothers. For that reason, a 2 (sex of adolescent) x 2 (maternal employment status) ANOVA with unequal N's was performed on the number of home chores that were reported by adolescents. The analysis revealed a significant effect for maternal employment status [F(2,63) = 6.18, p < 0.05]. The average number of chores reported by both males and females with working versus nonworking mothers was 4.92 and 3.19, respectively. A similar analysis for number of siblings did not uncover any differences in family size for families with employed or nonemployed mothers. Therefore, differences in arguments with siblings were not the result of differences in family size for working and nonworking mothers. Time Use The 3-day mean number of minutes that adolescents with mothers who were nonemployed or employed part- or full-time spent with parents, with peers, and by themselves are given in Table III. These data were used in a 2 x 3 x 3 repeated-measures ANOVA with two between-subjects factors, sex of adolescent (male, female) and maternal employment status (employed fulltime, part-time, nonemployed) and one within-subjects factor, situation (parents, peers, alone). The purpose of the analysis of these data was to discover whether maternal employment status was related to the amount of time that adolescents spent with parents, with peers, and alone. Therefore, the important result was the significant sex of adolescent × maternal employment status x situation interaction [F(4,116) -- 3.54, p < 0.01]. According to Newman-Keuls tests, the following contrasts were significant. Parents: both males and females spent the greatest amount of time with their parents Table !!!. Mean Number of Minutes per Day Spent by Adolescents with Parents, with Peers, and Alone for Three Maternal Employment Statuses Situation Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status Males (N = 30) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed Females (N = 34) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed
Parents
Peers
Alone
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
45,, 71b 87b
39 58 41
138° 124. 88b
44 32 42
132,, l16b 108b
42 41 38
86,, 106b l14b
51 44 63
160a 96b 108b
43 50 46
140 144 132
62 46 44
"For each sex, means within columns with different subscripts are significantly different from each other according to Newman-Keuls tests (p < 0.05).
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when their mothers were nonemployed or worked part-time and significantly less time with their parents when their mothers worked full-time. Peers: males spent the most amount of time with peers when their mothers were employed either full- or part-time and the least amount of time with peers when their mothers were nonemployed; females spent more time with peers when their mothers worked full-time than when they worked part-time or not at all. Alone: males spent the most amount of time alone when their mothers worked full-time and less time alone when their mothers worked part-time or were nonemployed. No differences in time spent alone as a function of maternal employment status were found for females (all ps < 0.05). In order to elucidate further the relationship between maternal employment and adolescents' involvement with their parents, an additional analysis was undertaken which examined this relationship for two types of time, free and task, in three different parental situations. The situations were as follows: mother and adolescent together when father was not present, father and adolescent together when mother was not present, and both parents together with adolescent. Adolescents' reports of who they spent their time with were analyzed by means o f a 2 x 3 × 2 x 3 repeatedmeasures ANOVA. The between-subject factors were sex o f adolescent (male, female) and maternal employment status (employed full-time, employed part-time, nonemployed), and the within-subjects factors were type o f time (free, task) and parental situation (mother-adolescent, father-adolescent, mother-father-adolescent). The data are reported in Table IV. In order to facilitate interpretation, only those findings which involve maternal employment status are discussed. The maternal employment status x type of time interaction was highly significant [F(2,58) = 7.84, p < 0.001]. The average numbers of minutes adolescents spent with parents each day when their mothers worked full-time, worked part-time, or were nonemployed were as follows: free t i m e - 3 2 . 1 , 48.0, and 63.3 rain, respectively; task time--33.5, 40.1, and 37.2 rain, respectively; Newman-Keuls tests revealed that the amount of free time adolescents spent with their parents was highest when mothers did not work, followed by when mothers worked part-time, and lowest for those adolescents with mothers who worked full-time. Maternal employment status was unrelated to the amount of task time that adolescents spent with their parents (all p's < 0.05). Further, a significant sex of adolescent x maternal employment status x type of time x parental situation was found IF(4,116) = 3.55, p < 0.01]. Because the interpretation of a four-way interaction is complicated, only one perspective is focused o n - differences in adolescent time use as a function o f maternal employment satus. Newman-Keuls tests performed on the data reported in Table IV revealed the following general pattern. Adolescents, especially males, spent significantly more time with their
6.1,, 13.6n 21.1b 6.2,, 14. It, 13.0
12.5, 21.0b 27.1~
Free Father
4.9,, 8.3 13.4b
Mother
22.1° 21.4,~ 26.7b
12.4,, 17.5b 25.3b
Both parents
21.7,, 18,9 15.9b
4.1 6.8 4.8
Mother
6.8 6.7 10.7
5.9, 10.8b 7.9
Task Father
18.7 23.9 20.5
11.7 t4.2 14.6
Both parents
"For each sex, means within columns with different subscripts are significantly different from each other according to Newman-Keuls tests (p < 0.05).
Males (N = 30) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed Females (N = 34) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed
Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status
Type of time
Table IV. Mean Number of Minutes per Day Spcnt by Adolescents with Mothers, Fathers, and Both Parents Together for Three Maternal Employment Statuses"
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Montemayor
mothers, fathers, and both parents together when their mothers were nonemployed than whey they worked full-time; free time spent with parents was intermediate when mothers worked part-time. This generalization also was true for mothers and daughters but not fathers and daughters or daughters with both parents together (all p's < 0.05). Many fewer significant differences were found for task time, although maternal employment status was related to the amount of time fathers and sons and mothers and daughters spent together. Sons spent more task time with fathers when their mothers worked part-time and less task time with fathers when their mothers worked full-time. Daughters spent more task time with mothers who worked full-time and less with nonemployed mothers, while task time with mothers employed part-time was intermediate (all p's < 0.05).
DISCUSSION The results of this study show that maternal employment status is related to adolescents' relations with mothers, fathers, siblings, and peers. Males, but not females, have more arguments, which are of longer duration and greater intensity, with their mothers and siblings when their mothers work than when they do not. No relationship was found between maternal employment status and the frequency, duration, or intensity of conflicts that females have with family members. Adolescents of both sexes spend less time with their parents and more time with peers when mothers work, especially when they work full-time, than when they are nonemployed. Also, males who spend the most time alone have mothers who are employed full-time. Finally, adolescents with employed mothers generally spend less free time with their parents than those with nonemployed mothers. Time spent with parents devoted to performing household tasks is not affected by maternal employment status. Before discussing the substantive findings, a few comments are in order about the tow agreement between mothers and adolescents on the presence or absence of conflict. Recall that in the present study reliability was assessed in a pretest with 10 adolescents and their mothers who were asked to describe all of their conflicts during the previous day. These subjects reported a total of 20 arguments, 9 of which they agreed on, for an agreement rate of 45°70. Adolescents described 7 other conflicts with mothers which the mothers did not report, while mothers reported 4 conflicts with adolescents which the adolescents did not describe. Normally this percentage agreement would be considered unacceptable, but in this case these data go beyond the issue of reliability to the question of what constitutes a conflict. A conflict is not an objective event but is a perception that
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555
a disagreement has taken place. Two people engaged in the same interaction may not agree about whether or not it was confictual. The data in this study suggest that adolescents perceive more conflict with mothers than mothers perceive with adolescents. Adolescent sex differences .in conflicts with employed mothers may be explained partly by the developing sex roles of males and females, which have been shown to be especially rigid during adolescence (Hill and Lynch, 1983). Adolescents of both sexes with working mothers have more home chores to perform than do those with nonemployed mothers. These additional domestic responsibilities may be resented more by sons than by daughters because they are traditionally associated with the female sex role. Further, the lesser investment in the performance of these tasks may result in a lower standard of achievement for males than for females. If this line of reasoning is correct, the expectations that mothers have for their sons will be met less often than the expectations that they have for their daughers. The result will be more conflict with sons about lack of performance and poor performance. This type of explanation for differences in the pattern of family conflict focuses not on the effects of maternal employment per se but on the intervening variable of family organization. Working mothers rely on their adolescents for more help around the house than do nonworking mothers, and it is this difference in family roles and organization that may be the cause of conflict. The finding that adolescents with working mothers spend less time with their parents and more time with peers is not surprising and is in partial agreement with other studies which show that working women spend somewhat less time with their children than do nonworking mothers (Pleck and Rustad, 1983; Robinson, 1977; Walker and Woods, 1976). These studies of younger children do not examine what children of working mothers do with the additional time that they have apart from their mothers, but presumably it is spent in in-home play. For independent and mobile adolescents with working mothers, however, the situation is differe n t - t h e y become increasingly involved in peer groups, Two findings on the amount of involvement that adolescents have with their parents are of particular interest for understanding differences in family relations in families with employed or nonemployed mothers. First, sons, and to some extent daughters, with working mothers spend less free time with their parents than do those with nonworking mothers, and this decrease in parental involvement occurs with both mothers and fathers. The amount of time spent with parents on task activities is not as affected by maternal employment, however. These findings suggest that parent-adolescent relations in famlies with working women are somewhat more focused on accomplishing home chores at the expense of family recreation and play.
556
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Further, the decrease in free time spent with the mother is naturally accounted for by the fact that her job gives her less time to spend with her family. More intriguing is the finding that the absence of the working mother is not compensated for by a greater involvement with his adolescent by the father or even by a maintenance of his level of involvement but, rather, by less free time spent with his adolescents. Perhaps the presence of the mother in her home makes it more likely that her adolescent will spend more time around the house and thereby interact more with his or her father. When the mother is absent the adolescent spends more time away from the home with peers, which decreases the frequency of interaction with the father as well. It is becoming increasingly clear that maternal employment outside the home is associated with oftentimes positive developmental outcomes for girls and sometimes negative outcomes for boys (Bronfenbrenner and Crouter, 1982; Hoffman, 1980). It is not now known why this situation exists. Bronfenbrenner and his colleagues have shown that working mothers have more positive views of their daughters than of their sons, while the opposite is true for nonworking mothers (Bronfenbrenner et al., 1984). Conceivably these different perceptions could lead to different results for males and females. The findings from the present study suggest another possibility. Alterations of the family system as a result of maternal employment lead to increases in responsibilities for adolescents and decreases in supervision from both mothers and fathers. These changes are associated with increases in mother-son conflict and greater peer involvement by boys. Both of these factors may put some males at risk for a variety of peerrelated problems. These speculations go beyond the scope of the results of this smallscale study. The study does not examine the long-range consequences of maternal employment but does demonstrate that, at the time of maternal employment, adolescents with working mothers have different relations with other family members than do adolescents with nonworking mothers. Furthermore, males especially appear to have somewhat more stressful relations with parents and siblings and are more peer oriented when their mothers work. These conclusions need to be examined in other populations in order to assess their generalizability and to understand their meaning.
REFERENCES Belsky, J. (1981). Early human experience: A family perspective. Dev. Psycho/. 17: 3-23. Bowlby, J. 0973). Separation, Basic Books, New York. Bronfenbrenner, U., and Crouter, A. C. 0982). Work and rarely through time and space. In Kamerman, S. B., and Hayes, C. D. (eds.), Families that Work: Children in a Changing World, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
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Bronfenbrenner, U., Alvarez, W. F., and Henderson, C. R. (1984). Working and watching: Maternal employment status and parents' perceptions of their three-year-old children. Child Dev. 55: 1362-1378. Cogle, F. L., Tasker, G. E., and Morton, D. G. (1982). Adolescent time use in household work. Adolescence 17:451-455. Douvan, E., and Adelson, J. (1966). The Adolescent Experience, Wiley, New York. Duncan, O. D. (1961). A socioeconomic index for all occupations. In Reiss, A. J., Jr. (ed.), Occupations and Social Status. Free Press, Glencoe, I11. Gold, D., and Andres, D. (1978). Developmental comparisons between adolescent children with employed and nonemployed mothers. MerrilI-Pahner Q. 24: 243-254. Hill, J. P., and Lynch, M. E. (1983). The intensification of gender-related role expectations during early adolescence. In Brooks-Gunn, J., and Petersen, A. C. (eds.), Girls at Puberty, Plenum, New York. Hoffman, L. W. (1980). The effects of maternal employment on the academic attitudes and performance of school-aged children. School PsychoL Rev. 9: 31%335. Hoffman, L. W. (1983). Work, family and the socialization of the child. In Parke, R. D. (ed.), Review o f Child Development Research, vol. 7, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Lamb, M. E. (1982). Maternal employment and child development. In Lamb, M. E., (ed.), Nonlraditional families: Parenting and Child Development, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J. Montemayor, R. 0982). The relationship between parent-adolescent conflict and the amount of time adolescents spend alone and with parents and peers. Child Dev. 53: 1512-1519. Montemayor, R. (1983). Parents and adolescents in conflict: All families some of the time and some families most of the time. J. Early Adoles. 3: 83-103. Montemayor, R., and Clayton, M. D. (1983). Maternal employment and adolescent development. Theory Practice 22:112-118. Pleck, J. H. (1983). Husbands' paid work and family roles: Current research issues. In Lopata, H. Z., and Pleck, J. H. (eds.), Interweave o f Social Roles: Jobs and Families, Vol. 3, JAI Press, Greenwich, Conn. Propper, A. (1972). The relationship of maternal employment to adolescent roles. J. Marriage Family 34:417-421. Robinson, J. (1977). How Americans Use Time: A Social-Psychological Analysis, Praeger, New York. U.S. Bureau of Labor (1982). Special Labor Force Rep. 130: 13. Walker, K., and Woods, M. (1976). Tinte Use: A Measure o f Household Production o f Family Goods and Services, American Home Economics Association, Washington, D.C.
Maternal Employment and Adolescents' Relations with Parents, Siblings, and Peers Raymond Montemayor ~ Received July 25, 1984; accepted November 1, 1984
The association between maternal employment status and the relations that adolescents have with their parents, siblings, and peers was investigated. Three daily reports o f conflicts with family members and time spent with parents, peers, and alone were obtained from 64 tenth-grade adolescents using a telephone interviewing technique. Males, but not females, had more arguments, which were o f longer duration and greater intensity, with their mothers and siblings when their mothers worked than when they did not. Female conflict behavior was unrelated to the work status of the mother. Adolescents of both sexes spent less time with their parents when their mothers worked, especially when they worked full-time, than when they were nonemployed. Adolescents with employed mothers generally spent less free time with their parents than those with nonemployed mothers. Time spent with parents in the performance o f household tasks was not affected by maternal employment status. The need to take a family system perspective in order to understand fully the relationship between maternal employment and adolescent development was emphasized.
INTRODUCTION In the last few years a large b o d y o f literature has accumulated on the relationship between maternal employment and child development (for re-
~Associate Professor, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112. Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1974. Major research interests are in parent and peer relations during adolescence. 543 0047-2891/84/1200-0543 $03.50/0 © 1984 Plenum Publishing CorPol'ation
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Montemayor
cent reviews see Bronfenbrenner and Crouter, 1982; Hoffman, 1983; Lamb, 1982). Interestingly, most researchers have focused their attention on prepubescent-aged children, not because this is the age group whose mothers are most likely to work, adolescence is (U.S. Bureau of Labor, 1982), but because of the widely held belief that younger children may be at risk for a variety of psychological and social problems as a result of repeated separations from their mother (Bowlby, 1973). Many people undoubtedly believe that once children reach adolescence, their "natural" orientation away from their families and toward their friends shields them from whatever negative, and positive, consequences might result from maternal absence due to employment. This view may not be warranted, however, since adolescents continue to interact with their mothers and are affected in a variety of ways by those interactions. In a recent review which focused specifically on adolescent development and its relationship to maternal employment, it was shown that adolescents with working mothers, in comparison to those with nonworking mothers, are different with regard to their parent and peer involvement, level of academic achievement, sexrole orientation, rate of delinquency, and degree of psychological adjustment (Montemayor and Clayton, 1983). The results of the few investigations which have been done on the association between maternal employment status and parent and peer relations during adolescence are somewhat inconsistent but generally indicate that some adolescents have moderately disagreeable relations with working mothers, especially those employed full-time. In some studies adolescents with working mothers, in comparison to those with nonemployed mothers, reported that they were more involved in running the home and that they had better relations with their parents, but in other studies adolescents reported more disagrements with their mothers and less participation in school clubs and activities (Cogle et aL, 1982; Douvan and Adelson, 1966; Gold and Andres, 1978; Propper, 1972). These results are at some odds with conventional wisdom about the importance of mothers to adolescents and the effects of maternal employment on adolescent development. One must be very cautious in accepting these findings, however, since all of these studies suffer from a variety of methodological problems. The most significant one is that the two key dependent variables of conflict and time were assessed by means of general questions about overall levels of conflict and parental involvement. These types of measures have been shown to distort the actual quality and frequency of interactions that adolescents have with parents and peers (Montemayor, 1983). A more promising approach is to use time diaries in which adolescents daily record the number of conflicts that they have with family members and the amount of time that they spend with others during each day. This approach has been shown to be a useful technique for examining the relationship between
Maternal Employment
545
adolescents' conflict with parents and their involvement with parents and peers (Montemayor, 1982). An additional limitation of previous investigations is the almost exclusive focus on relations that adolescents have with their mothers, to the exclusion of relations with fathers and siblings. The need to examine the association between maternal employment and the father-adolescent relationship is demonstrated by two different lines of research. Recent investigations of infancy have shown that the quality of the relationship between one parent and a child may affect the relationship between the other parent and the child, what is referred to as the "second-order effect" (Belsky, 1981). To the extent that the mother-adolescent relationship is different for mothers who work in comparison to those who do not, one would also expect that adolescents in these two types of families would have different relations with their fathers. Yet the results of two time-use studies of husbands and wives with young children indicate that husbands with working wives do not spend significantly more time in child care in comparison to those with nonworking wives (Pleck, 1983; Walker and Woods, 1976), although they spend slightly more playtime with their children. The absence of a second-order effect on husbands with working wives points to the need to examine the father-child relationship more fully, especially among postpubescent-aged adolescents, who need little care, a fact which may make them more attractive companions for the average father. Further, virtually nothing is known about differences in relations that adolescents, and children, have with siblings and peers as a function of maternal employment status. This study has two purposes: first, to examine the relationship between maternal employment and the involvement of adolescents with their mothers; and second, to look at possible differences that adolescents with working or nonworking mothers have with their fathers, siblings, and peers. These purposes are carried out using daily reports of time use obtained from adolescents rather than parents, a technique that is unusual for studies of the relationship between maternal employment and child development.
METHOD Subjects Letters soliciting, participation in this study were sent to a random sample of 150 families with tenth-grade students who were enrolled in three suburban high schools. In order to qualify for participation, families had to be intact, with an adolescent who was not currently in psychotherapy. It is not known how many families who received a letter met these criteria,
546
Montemayor
therefore the percentage o f acceptable families who agreed to participate cannot be calculated. Sixty-four families with adolescents (N -- 30 males and 34 females) took part in the study. The average age o f the adolescents was 15.2 years. The adolescents were white, had an average o f 3.8 siblings, and were from families that were predominately middle-class, according to Duncan's socioeconomic index (Reiss, 1961). The average father was 43.1 years old and had completed 14.0 years o f school, and the average mother was 40.3 years old with 12.9 years o f sci~ool. The parents had been married to each other for an average o f 19.3 years, and 18.8070 of the families were reconstituted. Finally, 56.307o o f the families were members o f the Mormon church. Among the mothers, 24 were nonemployed, 20 were employed parttime, and 20 were employed full-time. Women who worked less than 5 hr per week were considered nonemployed, those who worked between 5 and 29 hr per week were considered working part-time, and women who worked 30 or more hr per week were counted as employed full-time. Most o f the women worked as secretaries, in other clerical positions, and as sales workers, and a few were teachers and nurses. About 78070 o f the nonMormon women and 50°7o of the Mormon women were employed, percentages which are close to the national average for employment o f mothers with adolescents. Procedure
Each adolescent was interviewed over the telephone by one o f three female undergraduate interviewers. Interviews took place on three randomly selected evenings during any day o f the week at approximately l-week intervals. Adolescents did not know when they would be called. Each interview took about 40 min to complete. Adolescents were asked to recount the events o f the preceding day from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed, excluding the time spent in school. Adolescents indicated how long they spent in each activity and with whom, if anyone, they interacted. An interaction was defined as "Doing something with someone else, and feeling as if you and the other person were together and not just in the same place at the same time." It was emphasized that any change in activity or association should be reported, even if the change was for only a short period o f time. The adolescent narratives were copied verbatim on daily record sheets by the interviewers. In addition to reporting a chronology o f the previous day's events, adolescents were asked to indicate whether any interaction with a parent or sibling resulted in a conflict. Conflicts were defined as follows: "Either you teased your parent, brother, or sister or one o f them teased you; you and
Maternal Employment
547
your parent or sibling had a difference o f opinion; one of you got mad at the other for some reason; you and your parent or sibling had a quarrel or an argument; or one of you hit the other." Adolescents were told that it was normal for families sometimes to have conflicts. Finally, during the first interview each adolescent provided basic demographic and descriptive information about his or her family.
Variables The following variables were coded from the three daily records obtained from each adolescent. Free time was defined as taking part in such leisure activities as watching TV, playing sports, reading for pleasure, making small talk, and daydreaming. Free time included any recreational activity in which the adolescent was free to participate or not. Task time was defined as any nonpaid work or social commitment in which the adolescent had little choice about participating. Included in task time were such activities as home chores, homework, eating, personal hygiene, and attending church services. The purpose of this division of time was to identify those people adolescents associated with when they do what they want and when they do what they must. Three measures of conflict were obtained from the adolescent narratives. Frequency o f conflict episodes was the number of reported conflicts with a family member. Intensity of conflict was assessed with a three-point scale which the adolescents used to respond to the question, " H o w upset were you during the conflict?" (1 = not upset at all; 2 = a little upset; and 3 = very upset). Duration o f conflict was based on the adolescents' estimates in minutes of how long each conflict lasted.
Reliability Ten adolescents and their mothers were interviewed before the study began and their responses were used to assess reliability. Each adolescent described how he or she spent the preceding day. Each mother then described what she and her adolescent did on that same day. It was thus possible to compare the reports of adolescents with those of their mothers for frequency of conflict and amount of time spent together. The percentage agreement for mothers and adolescents on whether or not a conflict occurred between them was 45%, and the mother-adolescent corelations for the amount of free time and task time spent together were r = 0.78 and r = 0.85, respectively. Interrater agreement for the two types o f time was obtained by comparing ratings from two coders for the 10 pretest adolescents. Interrater
548
Montemayor
agreement on whether an activity was classified as either free time or task time was 89%. In the actual study, a single rater coded all the protocols. RESULTS Initially, the data on frequency o f conflict with family members and time spent with parents, peers, and alone were examined for possible interviewer effects and for differences between those families who were and those who were not members o f the Mormon church. No significant differences were found and the data were collapsed across interviewers and religious preference in all further analyses. Conflict Adolescents described 49 conflicts with their mothers, 19 with their fathers, and 54 with their brothers and sisters. Based on 192 reporting days (64 adolescents × 3 days), these figures reveal a rate of 0.64 conflicts with family members per day during the study. As reported elsewhere (Montemayor, 1982), the majority of these conflicts were quarrels about everyday matters such as the performance o f home chores, personal hygiene, and how leisure time was spent. There were no reported instances of family violence. All analyses o f family conflict compare adolescents with working and nonworking mothers since the number of male and female adolescents with mothers who work full- and part-time was small. In order to examine whether a relationship existed between maternal employment status and family conflict, adolescents who reported at least one conflict with a family member were compared to those who did not report a conflict. These data are reported in Table I. Separate chi-square tests were performed on the number of males and females, with employed or nonemployed mothers, who reported conflicts with their mothers, fathers, and siblings (if any were present). The results of these analyses revealed that more males had conflicts with their mothers [X2(1) = 4.05, p < 0.05] and siblings [Xz(1) = 4.34, p < 0.05] if their mothers worked than if they did not. No relationship was found between maternal employment status and the number o f males who had conflicts with their fathers or the number of females who reported conflicts with their mothers, fathers, or siblings. These conclusions are further strengthened by examining the data on average conflict duration and intensity presented in Table II. Each adolescent who reported at least one conflict with a particular family member received an average duration and intensity score which was based on the
Male adolescents Employed mother Nonemployed mother Female adolescents Employed mother Nonemployed mother
Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status 7 8 13 7
7 6
No conflict
13 3
Confict
Mother
4 2
5 4
Conflict
16 11
15 7
No conflict
Father
Family member
11 7
14 3
Conflict
9 6
6 7
No conflict
Siblings
Table 1. Relationship Between Maternal Employment Status and the Distribution of Adolescents Who Either Did or Did Not Report Conflict with a Family Member
m_
550
Montemayor
Table !!. Mean Conflict Duration and intensity Scores for Adolescents Who Reported
Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status
Conflicts with Family Members Family member Mother Father M
Na
M
Siblings
(/'4)
M
(N)
6.60 6.79
(5) (4)
11.43 9.65
(14) (3)
12.86 (7) 5.58 14.20 (6) 4.78 Intensity of conflict"
(4) (2)
10.58 8.00
(I 1) (7)
Duration of conflict b Male adolescents Employed mothers Nonemployed mothers Female adolescents Employed mothers Nonemployed mothers
6.11 5.12
(13) (3)
Male adolescents Employed mothers 2.08 (13) 1.33 (5) 2.65 (14) Nonemployed mothers 1.46 (3) 1.67 (4) 1.98 (3) Female adolescents Employed mothers 1.92 (7) 1.32 (4) 2.01 (I 1) Nonemployed mothers 2.25 (6) 1.67 (2) 1.46 (7) aNumbers in parentheses are the numbers of adolescents who reported conflicts. bDuration means are the length of conflicts (minutes) as reported by adolescents. "Intensity means are based on a three-point scale used by adolescents: I = not upset at all; 2 = a little upset; 3 = very upset.
total n u m b e r o f conflicts he or she reported with that family member. These scores then were analyzed with a 2 (sex o f adolescent) x 2 (maternal e m p l o y m e n t status) × 3 (family member) repeated-measures A N O V A with unequal N's. For conflict duration a significant sex o f adolesent x maternal e m p l o y m e n t status x family m e m b e r interaction was f o u n d IF(2,110) = 5.15, p < 0.01 ]. F o r males, arguments with e m p l o y e d mothers were longer than those with n o n e m p l o y e d mothers. For both males and females arguments with siblings were longer when mothers worked than when they did not (all p's < 0.05 according to N e w m a n - K e u l s tests). The findings for intensity o f conflict also reported in Table II generally parallel those for d u r a t i o n o f conflict. A 2 (sex o f adolescent) x 2 (maternal e m p l o y m e n t status) x 3 (family member) repeated-measures A N O V A with unequal N's for ratings o f conflict intensity also revealed a significant three-way interaction IF(2,110) = 3.56, p < 0.05]. Males reported that they were m o r e upset when arguing with e m p l o y e d mothers than with n o n e m p l o y e d mothers. Also, the intensity o f conflicts with their brothers and sisters was greater for males with working mothers than for those with n o n w o r k i n g mothers (all p ' s < 0.05 according to N e w m a n - K e u l s tests).
MaternalEmployment
551
The reported differences in conflicts with mothers and siblings for males with working and nonworking mothers might be accounted for partly by differences in the number of home chores for males with those two types of mothers. For that reason, a 2 (sex of adolescent) x 2 (maternal employment status) ANOVA with unequal N's was performed on the number of home chores that were reported by adolescents. The analysis revealed a significant effect for maternal employment status [F(2,63) = 6.18, p < 0.05]. The average number of chores reported by both males and females with working versus nonworking mothers was 4.92 and 3.19, respectively. A similar analysis for number of siblings did not uncover any differences in family size for families with employed or nonemployed mothers. Therefore, differences in arguments with siblings were not the result of differences in family size for working and nonworking mothers. Time Use The 3-day mean number of minutes that adolescents with mothers who were nonemployed or employed part- or full-time spent with parents, with peers, and by themselves are given in Table III. These data were used in a 2 x 3 x 3 repeated-measures ANOVA with two between-subjects factors, sex of adolescent (male, female) and maternal employment status (employed fulltime, part-time, nonemployed) and one within-subjects factor, situation (parents, peers, alone). The purpose of the analysis of these data was to discover whether maternal employment status was related to the amount of time that adolescents spent with parents, with peers, and alone. Therefore, the important result was the significant sex of adolescent × maternal employment status x situation interaction [F(4,116) -- 3.54, p < 0.01]. According to Newman-Keuls tests, the following contrasts were significant. Parents: both males and females spent the greatest amount of time with their parents Table !!!. Mean Number of Minutes per Day Spent by Adolescents with Parents, with Peers, and Alone for Three Maternal Employment Statuses Situation Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status Males (N = 30) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed Females (N = 34) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed
Parents
Peers
Alone
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
45,, 71b 87b
39 58 41
138° 124. 88b
44 32 42
132,, l16b 108b
42 41 38
86,, 106b l14b
51 44 63
160a 96b 108b
43 50 46
140 144 132
62 46 44
"For each sex, means within columns with different subscripts are significantly different from each other according to Newman-Keuls tests (p < 0.05).
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Montemayor
when their mothers were nonemployed or worked part-time and significantly less time with their parents when their mothers worked full-time. Peers: males spent the most amount of time with peers when their mothers were employed either full- or part-time and the least amount of time with peers when their mothers were nonemployed; females spent more time with peers when their mothers worked full-time than when they worked part-time or not at all. Alone: males spent the most amount of time alone when their mothers worked full-time and less time alone when their mothers worked part-time or were nonemployed. No differences in time spent alone as a function of maternal employment status were found for females (all ps < 0.05). In order to elucidate further the relationship between maternal employment and adolescents' involvement with their parents, an additional analysis was undertaken which examined this relationship for two types of time, free and task, in three different parental situations. The situations were as follows: mother and adolescent together when father was not present, father and adolescent together when mother was not present, and both parents together with adolescent. Adolescents' reports of who they spent their time with were analyzed by means o f a 2 x 3 × 2 x 3 repeatedmeasures ANOVA. The between-subject factors were sex o f adolescent (male, female) and maternal employment status (employed full-time, employed part-time, nonemployed), and the within-subjects factors were type o f time (free, task) and parental situation (mother-adolescent, father-adolescent, mother-father-adolescent). The data are reported in Table IV. In order to facilitate interpretation, only those findings which involve maternal employment status are discussed. The maternal employment status x type of time interaction was highly significant [F(2,58) = 7.84, p < 0.001]. The average numbers of minutes adolescents spent with parents each day when their mothers worked full-time, worked part-time, or were nonemployed were as follows: free t i m e - 3 2 . 1 , 48.0, and 63.3 rain, respectively; task time--33.5, 40.1, and 37.2 rain, respectively; Newman-Keuls tests revealed that the amount of free time adolescents spent with their parents was highest when mothers did not work, followed by when mothers worked part-time, and lowest for those adolescents with mothers who worked full-time. Maternal employment status was unrelated to the amount of task time that adolescents spent with their parents (all p's < 0.05). Further, a significant sex of adolescent x maternal employment status x type of time x parental situation was found IF(4,116) = 3.55, p < 0.01]. Because the interpretation of a four-way interaction is complicated, only one perspective is focused o n - differences in adolescent time use as a function o f maternal employment satus. Newman-Keuls tests performed on the data reported in Table IV revealed the following general pattern. Adolescents, especially males, spent significantly more time with their
6.1,, 13.6n 21.1b 6.2,, 14. It, 13.0
12.5, 21.0b 27.1~
Free Father
4.9,, 8.3 13.4b
Mother
22.1° 21.4,~ 26.7b
12.4,, 17.5b 25.3b
Both parents
21.7,, 18,9 15.9b
4.1 6.8 4.8
Mother
6.8 6.7 10.7
5.9, 10.8b 7.9
Task Father
18.7 23.9 20.5
11.7 t4.2 14.6
Both parents
"For each sex, means within columns with different subscripts are significantly different from each other according to Newman-Keuls tests (p < 0.05).
Males (N = 30) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed Females (N = 34) Full-time Part-time Nonemployed
Sex of adolescent and maternal employment status
Type of time
Table IV. Mean Number of Minutes per Day Spcnt by Adolescents with Mothers, Fathers, and Both Parents Together for Three Maternal Employment Statuses"
554
Montemayor
mothers, fathers, and both parents together when their mothers were nonemployed than whey they worked full-time; free time spent with parents was intermediate when mothers worked part-time. This generalization also was true for mothers and daughters but not fathers and daughters or daughters with both parents together (all p's < 0.05). Many fewer significant differences were found for task time, although maternal employment status was related to the amount of time fathers and sons and mothers and daughters spent together. Sons spent more task time with fathers when their mothers worked part-time and less task time with fathers when their mothers worked full-time. Daughters spent more task time with mothers who worked full-time and less with nonemployed mothers, while task time with mothers employed part-time was intermediate (all p's < 0.05).
DISCUSSION The results of this study show that maternal employment status is related to adolescents' relations with mothers, fathers, siblings, and peers. Males, but not females, have more arguments, which are of longer duration and greater intensity, with their mothers and siblings when their mothers work than when they do not. No relationship was found between maternal employment status and the frequency, duration, or intensity of conflicts that females have with family members. Adolescents of both sexes spend less time with their parents and more time with peers when mothers work, especially when they work full-time, than when they are nonemployed. Also, males who spend the most time alone have mothers who are employed full-time. Finally, adolescents with employed mothers generally spend less free time with their parents than those with nonemployed mothers. Time spent with parents devoted to performing household tasks is not affected by maternal employment status. Before discussing the substantive findings, a few comments are in order about the tow agreement between mothers and adolescents on the presence or absence of conflict. Recall that in the present study reliability was assessed in a pretest with 10 adolescents and their mothers who were asked to describe all of their conflicts during the previous day. These subjects reported a total of 20 arguments, 9 of which they agreed on, for an agreement rate of 45°70. Adolescents described 7 other conflicts with mothers which the mothers did not report, while mothers reported 4 conflicts with adolescents which the adolescents did not describe. Normally this percentage agreement would be considered unacceptable, but in this case these data go beyond the issue of reliability to the question of what constitutes a conflict. A conflict is not an objective event but is a perception that
Maternal Employmen!
555
a disagreement has taken place. Two people engaged in the same interaction may not agree about whether or not it was confictual. The data in this study suggest that adolescents perceive more conflict with mothers than mothers perceive with adolescents. Adolescent sex differences .in conflicts with employed mothers may be explained partly by the developing sex roles of males and females, which have been shown to be especially rigid during adolescence (Hill and Lynch, 1983). Adolescents of both sexes with working mothers have more home chores to perform than do those with nonemployed mothers. These additional domestic responsibilities may be resented more by sons than by daughters because they are traditionally associated with the female sex role. Further, the lesser investment in the performance of these tasks may result in a lower standard of achievement for males than for females. If this line of reasoning is correct, the expectations that mothers have for their sons will be met less often than the expectations that they have for their daughers. The result will be more conflict with sons about lack of performance and poor performance. This type of explanation for differences in the pattern of family conflict focuses not on the effects of maternal employment per se but on the intervening variable of family organization. Working mothers rely on their adolescents for more help around the house than do nonworking mothers, and it is this difference in family roles and organization that may be the cause of conflict. The finding that adolescents with working mothers spend less time with their parents and more time with peers is not surprising and is in partial agreement with other studies which show that working women spend somewhat less time with their children than do nonworking mothers (Pleck and Rustad, 1983; Robinson, 1977; Walker and Woods, 1976). These studies of younger children do not examine what children of working mothers do with the additional time that they have apart from their mothers, but presumably it is spent in in-home play. For independent and mobile adolescents with working mothers, however, the situation is differe n t - t h e y become increasingly involved in peer groups, Two findings on the amount of involvement that adolescents have with their parents are of particular interest for understanding differences in family relations in families with employed or nonemployed mothers. First, sons, and to some extent daughters, with working mothers spend less free time with their parents than do those with nonworking mothers, and this decrease in parental involvement occurs with both mothers and fathers. The amount of time spent with parents on task activities is not as affected by maternal employment, however. These findings suggest that parent-adolescent relations in famlies with working women are somewhat more focused on accomplishing home chores at the expense of family recreation and play.
556
Montemayor
Further, the decrease in free time spent with the mother is naturally accounted for by the fact that her job gives her less time to spend with her family. More intriguing is the finding that the absence of the working mother is not compensated for by a greater involvement with his adolescent by the father or even by a maintenance of his level of involvement but, rather, by less free time spent with his adolescents. Perhaps the presence of the mother in her home makes it more likely that her adolescent will spend more time around the house and thereby interact more with his or her father. When the mother is absent the adolescent spends more time away from the home with peers, which decreases the frequency of interaction with the father as well. It is becoming increasingly clear that maternal employment outside the home is associated with oftentimes positive developmental outcomes for girls and sometimes negative outcomes for boys (Bronfenbrenner and Crouter, 1982; Hoffman, 1980). It is not now known why this situation exists. Bronfenbrenner and his colleagues have shown that working mothers have more positive views of their daughters than of their sons, while the opposite is true for nonworking mothers (Bronfenbrenner et al., 1984). Conceivably these different perceptions could lead to different results for males and females. The findings from the present study suggest another possibility. Alterations of the family system as a result of maternal employment lead to increases in responsibilities for adolescents and decreases in supervision from both mothers and fathers. These changes are associated with increases in mother-son conflict and greater peer involvement by boys. Both of these factors may put some males at risk for a variety of peerrelated problems. These speculations go beyond the scope of the results of this smallscale study. The study does not examine the long-range consequences of maternal employment but does demonstrate that, at the time of maternal employment, adolescents with working mothers have different relations with other family members than do adolescents with nonworking mothers. Furthermore, males especially appear to have somewhat more stressful relations with parents and siblings and are more peer oriented when their mothers work. These conclusions need to be examined in other populations in order to assess their generalizability and to understand their meaning.
REFERENCES Belsky, J. (1981). Early human experience: A family perspective. Dev. Psycho/. 17: 3-23. Bowlby, J. 0973). Separation, Basic Books, New York. Bronfenbrenner, U., and Crouter, A. C. 0982). Work and rarely through time and space. In Kamerman, S. B., and Hayes, C. D. (eds.), Families that Work: Children in a Changing World, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
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Bronfenbrenner, U., Alvarez, W. F., and Henderson, C. R. (1984). Working and watching: Maternal employment status and parents' perceptions of their three-year-old children. Child Dev. 55: 1362-1378. Cogle, F. L., Tasker, G. E., and Morton, D. G. (1982). Adolescent time use in household work. Adolescence 17:451-455. Douvan, E., and Adelson, J. (1966). The Adolescent Experience, Wiley, New York. Duncan, O. D. (1961). A socioeconomic index for all occupations. In Reiss, A. J., Jr. (ed.), Occupations and Social Status. Free Press, Glencoe, I11. Gold, D., and Andres, D. (1978). Developmental comparisons between adolescent children with employed and nonemployed mothers. MerrilI-Pahner Q. 24: 243-254. Hill, J. P., and Lynch, M. E. (1983). The intensification of gender-related role expectations during early adolescence. In Brooks-Gunn, J., and Petersen, A. C. (eds.), Girls at Puberty, Plenum, New York. Hoffman, L. W. (1980). The effects of maternal employment on the academic attitudes and performance of school-aged children. School PsychoL Rev. 9: 31%335. Hoffman, L. W. (1983). Work, family and the socialization of the child. In Parke, R. D. (ed.), Review o f Child Development Research, vol. 7, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Lamb, M. E. (1982). Maternal employment and child development. In Lamb, M. E., (ed.), Nonlraditional families: Parenting and Child Development, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J. Montemayor, R. 0982). The relationship between parent-adolescent conflict and the amount of time adolescents spend alone and with parents and peers. Child Dev. 53: 1512-1519. Montemayor, R. (1983). Parents and adolescents in conflict: All families some of the time and some families most of the time. J. Early Adoles. 3: 83-103. Montemayor, R., and Clayton, M. D. (1983). Maternal employment and adolescent development. Theory Practice 22:112-118. Pleck, J. H. (1983). Husbands' paid work and family roles: Current research issues. In Lopata, H. Z., and Pleck, J. H. (eds.), Interweave o f Social Roles: Jobs and Families, Vol. 3, JAI Press, Greenwich, Conn. Propper, A. (1972). The relationship of maternal employment to adolescent roles. J. Marriage Family 34:417-421. Robinson, J. (1977). How Americans Use Time: A Social-Psychological Analysis, Praeger, New York. U.S. Bureau of Labor (1982). Special Labor Force Rep. 130: 13. Walker, K., and Woods, M. (1976). Tinte Use: A Measure o f Household Production o f Family Goods and Services, American Home Economics Association, Washington, D.C.
