Abstract
Relations between maternal employment and young adults' work and family expectations, and self-efficacy were examined with 721 college students (mean age = 21 years). Young men expected more work hours per day and older retirement age, whereas women expected full-time work at a younger age and more time with spouse and children each week. Individuals with employed mothers reported less traditional family attitudes (e.g., fewer children planned, egalitarian division of household duties). Although women with employed mothers expected to spend less time per week with families than women with nonemployed mothers, men with employed mothers expected to spend more time with their families than men with nonemployed mothers. Women reported greater general, parenting, and work self-efficacy than men, and individuals with employed mothers reported greater parenting self-efficacy. Men with consistently non-employed mothers were particularly likely to report lower self-efficacy. Processes within dual-earner families are discussed as potential mechanisms underlying development of offspring self-efficacy.
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