Mothers ’ Employment, Education, and Parenting

This study investigates whether mothers’ education moderates the link between their work and parenting quality, differentiating among aspects of work that may negatively and positively influence it. Data came from the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development ( n = 1,345). The results revealed that part-time and higher status work were associated with increases in parenting quality for less educated women, but not for more educated women, thereby narrowing socioeconomic differences in the parenting behaviors linked to children’s mobility. Yet nonemployment among less educated women was associated with the lowest levels of parenting quality, pointing to a key source of inequality in the lives of children.