Maternal Work Intensity and Childhood Health: Heterogeneity Over Stages of Child Development

Over the past six decades, the labor force participation of working mothers in the US has grown significantly. This study is motivated by the growing trend of mothers’ labor force participation and examines the effect of maternal work intensity on child health. It employs the Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ intergenerational survey data and instrumental variable (IV) probit and ordered probit regression techniques. The results show that maternal hours worked has a positive and statistically significant effect on the likelihood of having a healthy childhood, although the estimated magnitude is modest. The fixed effect estimation that accounts for heterogeneity across stages of child development (infancy, early childhood, mid-childhood, and late childhood), reveals that maternal hours worked has a negative and significant effect on childhood health for the first two stages (infancy and early childhood) of child development and a positive effect for the late childhood period.