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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1982. Families That Work: Children in a Changing World. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18669.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

REFERENCE COPf FOR LIBRARY USE ONLY Families That Work: in a Changing World Sheila B. Kamerman and Cheryl D. Hayes, Editors ^ Panel on Work, Family, and Community .^ Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy ojCommission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education National Research Council \ AUG A 8 Washington, D.C. 1982 National Academy Press

w-o/or C.I NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the Councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a report review committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. The Council operates in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy under the au- thority of its congressional charter of 1863, which established the Academy as a private, nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation. The Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the conduct of their services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Families that work. Bibliography: p. Contents: Introduction—Dimensions of change, Work and family through time and space / Urie Bronfenbrenner and Ann C. Crouter [etc.] 1. Family—Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Mothers—Employment—Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Parents—Employment—Addresses, essays, lectures. 4. Children of working parents—Addresses, essays, lectures. 5. Child development—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Kamerman, Sheila B. II. Hayes, Cheryl D. III. National Research Council (U.S.). Panel on Work, Family, and Community. HQ734.F228 1982 306.8'7 82-81829 ISBN 0-309-03282-2 Available from NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418 Printed in the United States of America

PANEL ON WORK, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY SHEILA B. KAMERMAN (Chair), School of Social Work, Columbia University JOAN S. BISSELL, Employment Development Department, State of California URIE BRONFENBRENNER, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Cornell University CLAIR B. BROWN, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley JOHN P. DEMOS, Department of History, Brandeis University LEOBARDO ESTRADA, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles E. MAVIS HETHERINGTON, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia LAURENCE E. LYNN, JR., John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University ELLIOTT A. MEDRICH, Children's Time Study, University of California, Berkeley KRISTIN A. MOORE, Program of Research on Women and Family Policy, The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. LEE RAINWATER, Department of Sociology, Harvard University MARSHALL S. SMITH, Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Individualized Schooling, University of Wisconsin HAROLD W. WATTS, Department of Economics, Columbia University CHERYL D. HAYES, Study Director SALLY BLOOM-FESHBACH, Research Associate/Consultant in

COMMITTEE ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND PUBLIC POLICY ALFRED J. KAHN (Chair), School of Social Work, Columbia University ELEANOR E. MACCOBY (Vice Chair), Department of Psychology, Stanford University URIE BRONFENBRENNER, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Cornell University FRANK F. FURSTENBERG, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania JOEL F. HANDLER, School of Law, University of Wisconsin JOHN H. KENNELL, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University and Rainbow Babies' and Children's Hospital WILLIAM KESSEN, Department of Psychology, Yale University FRANK LEVY, The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. RICHARD J. LIGHT, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University LAURENCE E. LYNN, JR., John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University ROBERT H. MNOOKIN, Law School, Stanford University JOHN MODELL, Department of History, University of Minnesota WILLIAM A. MORRILL, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Princeton, N.J. RICHARD R. NELSON, Department of Economics, Yale University CONSTANCE B. NEWMAN, Newman and Hermanson Co., Washington, D.C. JOHN U. OGBU, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley LAUREN B. RESNICK, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh HAROLD A. RICHMAN, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago JACK L. WALKER, Institute for Policy Studies, University of Michigan ROBIN M. WILLIAMS, JR., Department of Sociology Cornell University WAYNE H. HOLTZMAN (ex officio), Chair, Panel on Selection and Placement of Students in Programs for the Mentally Retarded; Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, University of Texas SHELIA B. KAMERMAN (ex officio), Chair, Panel on Work, Family, and Community; School of Social Work, Columbia University IV

Contents Preface vii PART I A TIME OF TRANSITION 1 1 Introduction 3 2 The Dimensions of Change: Trends and Issues 12 PART II A REVIEW OF RESEARCH 37 3 Work and Family Through Time and Space 39 Urie Bronfenbrenner and Ann C. Crouter ~" 4 The Impact of Mother's Work on the Family as an 84 Economic System Marianne A. Ferber and Bonnie Birnbaum */5 Employer Responses to the Family Responsibilities of 144 Employees Shelia B. Kamerman and Paul W.JCingston 6 Small Employers, Work, and Community 209 Carolyn Shaw Bell ^1 The Influence of Parents' Work on Children's School 229 Achievement Barbara Hffyns

vi Contents v/8 Work, Family, and Children's Perceptions of the World 268 Sally Bloom-peyhbach, Jonathan Bloom-Feshbach, and Kirby A. Heller PART III THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE 309 9 The Known and the Unknown 311 10 A Research Agenda 324

Preface Children are the future citizens, the future labor force, and the future parents of our society. For many of us who are ourselves parents, chil- dren are our stake in history, part of our own future support system, our personal joy-and sometimes pain. How children develop, and the factors that affect their development, for better or for worse, are of major concern to us as individuals and to the society at large. When there are intimations of problems for children, we become concerned. When there is evidence of harm to children, we become aroused. When there are indications of social turmoil and change with unclear conse- quences for children, we become apprehensive. One change that has occurred with dramatic suddenness during the past two decades has been the extraordinary growth in the number of women entering the labor force and remaining there despite marriage, pregnancy, maternity, and the demands of child care. Single women (unmarried, divorced, separated) with children have always tended to have a high labor force participation rate. Now, however, not only has their number increased substantially, but also the number of married mothers at work has grown even more. Children, now and for the foreseeable future, are likely to grow up in families with a single parent or two .parents who are working. What are the consequences? Many people are convinced that one consequence is an observable and significant increase in the problems children are experiencing: learn- ing problems, behavioral problems, emotional problems. Some teachers, vii

viii Preface for example, are certain that children growing up in a working family are undisciplined, that they fail to develop good work habits and have difficulty at school. There are some who believe that even if children's problems are not yet visible or not yet clearly attributable to mothers' working outside the home, they will emerge over time. Some parents worry that children growing up without constant parental supervision and guidance may not learn proper parenting skills. Still others are sure that, on the contrary, the change in maternal roles can only have positive effects, helping children to become more responsible and more inde- pendent. Although the Panel on Work, Family, and Community was not established in order to make a definitive finding on whether maternal employment has positive, negative, or neutral effects on children, clearly this was a latent question. It is in this context of changes in family work patterns and relation- ships, and out of the concerns regarding the consequences for children, that the panel was established in 1980 by the Committee on Child De- velopment Research and Public Policy, with the support of the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Education. Our charge was to carry out a scholarly review of what is known about the outcomes of changes in parental employment as they affect children directly or as they affect them indirectly, through their interactions with other changes in families and in the other institutions (schools, community services, the workplace) that affect families and children in their daily lives. The task was to learn more about what is happening; to identify what prob- lems, or benefits, seem to be emerging for children as a consequence; and to determine how and why they occur. Of particular concern was how these developments affect the ways in which children are socialized and educated and what the outcomes are likely to be. Ultimately, our objective was to be able to suggest a course of action designed to reduce the problems (or enhance the benefits) or to indicate what additional knowledge would be needed in order to propose such actions. We have completed our initial task. Our conclusion is that the phe- nomenon itself is far too complex to identify any simple causal nexus between parental employment and effects on children. Work, by itself, is not a uniform condition experienced in the same way by all adults who are themselves parents. Parents are not the same; nor are their children; nor are the communities in which children live, the schools they attend, their neighbors and friends. In effect, if we have any mes- sage to communicate after the extensive efforts we have made, it would be to tell parents, teachers, and professionals: "Don't ask if working parents are good or bad for kids because the answer is 'It depends.' It depends on the parents, on the child, on the circumstances, and so forth."

Preface ix Some children live in families in which parents need to work for economic reasons; some children live in families in which parents want to work for nonpecuniary reasons; and some children live in families in which both monetary and nonmonetary values are involved in the de- cision to work or not to work. The outcomes for children vary and are not clearly ascribable to any single factor. Everything we know suggests that the changes occurring in parental work patterns will not disappear. In some way, a variety of responses will occur in the society, either haphazardly or deliberately. Parents will adapt; schools will adapt; neighborhoods will adapt and so will children, or at least, so will most children. Thus, we are left instead with a new question: Under what circumstances do the children of working parents develop well and under what circumstances do they have problems? Which are the characteristics of parents, work, children, school, and neighbor- hood that enhance the positive development of children—and which ex- acerbate or attenuate negative development! It is in addressing this question that we offer recommendations and suggest a research agenda. Our task has not been easy. There is no defined body of knowledge at the interface of child-family-work-com- munity. There is no agreed-on field of research. Each issue we raised required a different world view and raised new questions. Existing re- search is carried out by discipline or conventional topical definitions. Data are often not available or are of poor quality. Not all of our efforts were successful. For example, neither existing school research nor com- munity research addresses the questions we were raising. As a result, we urge new conceptualizations of these institutions. We conclude with a plea, therefore, not for more studies but for different studies, studies which focus more directly on children, what happens to them and why; and studies that acknowledge the complexity of the environment in which children are reared. We end up reaffirming that if the goal is to understand how children develop well, then they must be studied in their living environment, an environment that in- creasingly includes working parents. Indeed, growing up with working parents has become a normal, ordinary condition for children and there- fore is one more factor that must be integrated into the context of children's lives. Whether it will be, and how, remains to be seen. We would note here that our efforts focused on parental employment; it was not our purpose to assess the consequences for children of parental unemployment. Obviously, if there is concern with how children develop and with their well-being, the consequences of parental unemployment should receive major attention. Although this was not our purpose here, much of what we say has implications for such study as well. Our panel members represent a variety of disciplines; most are them-

x Preface selves parents and even working parents. Each panel member deserves a special acknowledgment; each worked hard. For many, this was an issue of personal as well as professional concern. Inevitably, there were differences, but they were differences that exist in the large society, too. As a consequence, we were forced to confront and to resolve some of the value conflicts that pervade this subject. We acknowledge, especially, the support of Marc Tucker, who at the outset of the study was the assistant director for educational policy and organization of the National Institute of Education. He and his staff consistently encouraged us in our work. It was Marc Tucker's view of how children are educated that made the project possible. Convinced that one of the failures of educational research has been a narrow focus on schools and a concomitant lack of study of the roles played by fam- ilies, peers, neighbors, and community, he supported us in the direction we chose to follow: an exploration of what is happening to children as a consequence of the major changes occurring in family structures and family functioning, and how these changes relate to other institutions— school, workplace, community. Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., who chaired the Committee on Child Devel- opment Research and Public Policy when the panel was first established and who has been an active member of the panel, and Alfred J. Kahn, who chaired that committee for the past year, have both provided sup- port and encouragement. Of particular importance has been the role played by Cheryl D. Hayes, study director for our panel as well as executive officer for the parent committee. As a staff member of the Academy and as a colleague, she was largely responsible for the committee's undertaking this study and has made a major contribution to the work of the panel and to this report. Her sensitivity and organizational skills are legion. Both the substance and the style of the report owe much to her. Her investment, too, has been both personal and professional. I hope our report answers some of her questions. Special thanks are due to Sally Bloom-Feshbach, research associate/ consultant to the panel, who coauthored one of the review chapters in Part II of this volume and who assumed major responsibility for the panel's background survey of existing data sources. Her assistance throughout this project has been invaluable. In addition, we wish to acknowledge the significant contribution of those who prepared the review chapters that are the heart of this report. Their conscientiousness in undertaking the task and their responsiveness to the panel's concerns in the numerous revisions have made this an important study that we hope will influence researchers and those who support research in this area during the years ahead.

Preface xi Ginny Peterson, administrative assistant to the Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy, assumed major responsibility for the myriad administrative details associated with the panel's work and supervised the production of the report. Irene Martinez typed and retyped the several versions of the document. Their roles have been essential to the successful completion of this project, and we are grateful to them for the time and energy they devoted. Finally, thanks are also due to David Goslin, executive director of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, for his support and encouragement, and to Barbara Armstrong, editor, who prepared this manuscript for publication. SHEILA B. KAMERMAN Chair, Panel on Work, Family, and Community

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