Social critics and the general public have for some time voiced a variety of concerns related to the increasing entrance of women into the paid labor market. A popular assumption has been that the children of working women are prone to criminal activity. The authors analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), using multiple regression models to examine whether the occupational status of mothers has criminogenic effects on their children during adolescence and early adulthood (15- to 19-year-olds). After tracing the effects of maternal resources, work hours, and occupational controls to criminality, the authors find that cumulative time spent by mothers in paid employment had no measurable influence on criminal involvement. On the other hand, coercively controlled maternal work over time was related to greater criminal involvement (in their children) in adolescence.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bartusch, D., Lynam, D., Moffitt, T., & Silva, P. (1997). Is age important? Testing a general versus a developmental theory of antisocial behavior. Criminology, 35, 13-48.
2.
Belsky, J. (1988). The “effects” of infant day care reconsidered. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 3, 235-272.
3.
Broidy, L. M. (1995). Direct supervision and delinquency: Assessing the adequacy of structural proxies. Journal of Criminal Justice, 23, 541-554.
4.
Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G. J., & Aber, J. L. (Eds.) (1997). Neighborhood poverty. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
5.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2000). Employment characteristics of families. In Bureau Of Labor Statistics News. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.
6.
Chase-Lansdale, P. L., Mott, F. L., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Phillips, D. A. (1991). Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth: A unique research opportunity. Developmental Psychology, 27, 918-931.
7.
Chira, S. (1998). A mother’s place. New York: HarperCollins.
8.
Colvin, M. (2000). Crime and coercion: An integrated theory of chronic criminality. New York: St. Martin’s.
9.
Colvin, M., & Pauly, J. (1983). A critique of criminology: Toward an integrated structural Marxist theory of delinquency production. American Journal of Sociology, 89, 513-551.
10.
Currie, E. (1998). Crime and punishment in America. New York: Henry Holt.
11.
DeFronzo, J. (1996). Welfare and burglary. Crime and Delinquency, 42, 223-230.
12.
Dionne, E. J. (2002, July 26). The motherhood issue. The Washington Post, p. A33.
13.
Edwards, R. (1979). Contested terrain. New York: Basic Books.
14.
Eyer, D. (1996). Motherguilt: How our culture blames mothers for what’s wrong with society. New York: Random House.
15.
Fahey, T. (1995). The National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience: An annotated bibliography of research. Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.
16.
Farnworth, M. (1984). Family structure, family attributes, and delinquency in a sample of low-income, minority males and females. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 13, 349-364.
17.
Glueck, S., & Glueck, E. (1950). Unraveling juvenile delinquency. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
18.
Greenberger, E., Goldberg, W. A., Crawford, T., & Granger, J. (1988). Beliefs about the consequences of maternal employment for children. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 12, 35-59.
19.
Grogger, J. (1997). Incarceration-related costs of early childbearing. In R. Maynard (Ed.), Kids having kids: Economic costs and social consequences of teen pregnancy. Washington, DC:Urban Institute Press.
20.
Guo, G. (1998). The timing of the influences of cumulative poverty on children’s cognitive ability and achievement. Social Forces, 77, 257-288.
21.
Harvey, E. (1999). Long-term effects of early parental employment on children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Developmental Psychology, 35, 445-459.
22.
Haurin, R. J. (1992). Patterns of childhood residence and the relationship to young adult outcomes. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54, 846-860.
23.
Hillman, S. B., & Sawilowsky, S. S. (1991). Maternal employment and early adolescent sub-stance use. Adolescence, 26, 829-837.
24.
Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
25.
Hoffman, L. W., & Youngblade, L. W. (1999). Mothers at work: Effects on children’s well-being. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
26.
Kohn, M. L. (1977). Class and conformity, A study in values (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
27.
Kristol, I. (1996, March 6). Sex trumps gender. Wall Street Journal, p. A20.
28.
Luster, T., & McAdoo, H. P. (1994). Factors related to the achievement and adjustment of young African American Children. Child Development, 65, 1080-1094.
29.
Menaghan, E. G., & Parcel, T. L. (1991). Determining children’s home environments: The impact of maternal characteristics and current occupational and family conditions. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 417-431.
30.
Menaghan, E. G., Kowaleski-Jones, L., & Mott, F. L. (1997). The intergenerational costs of parental social stressors: Academic and social difficulties in early adolescence for children of young mothers. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 72-86.
31.
Messner, S. F., & Krohn, M. D. (1990). Class, compliance structures, and delinquency: Assessing integrated structural-Marxist theory. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 300-328.
32.
Nye, F. I. (1963). The adjustment of adolescent children. In F. I. Nye & L. Hoffman (Eds.), The employed mother in America (pp. 165-181). Chicago: Rand McNally.
33.
Parcel, T. L., & Menaghan, E. G. (1994a). Early parental work, family social capital, and early childhood outcomes. American Journal of Sociology, 99, 972-1009.
34.
Parcel, T. L., & Menaghan, E. G. (1994b). Parents’jobs and children’s lives. New York: Aldine.
35.
Riege, M. (1972). Parental affection and juvenile delinquency in girls. British Journal of Criminology, 12, 55-73.
36.
Rogers, S. J., Parcel, T. L., & Menaghan, E. G. (1991). The effects of maternal working conditions and mastery on child behavior problems: Studying the intergenerational transmission of social control. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32, 145-164.
37.
Roy, P. (1963). Adolescent roles: Rural-urban differentials. In F.I. Nye & L. Hoffman (Eds.), The employed mother in America (pp. 165-181). Chicago: Rand McNally.
38.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
39.
Sherman, A., Amey, C., Duffield, B., Ebb, N., & Weinstein, D. (1998). Welfare to what: Early findings on family hardship and well-being. Washington, DC: Children’s Defense Fund and National Coalition for the Homeless.
40.
Simpson, S. S., & Elis, L. (1994). Is gender subordinate to class? An empirical assessment of Colvin and Pauly’s structural Marxist theory of delinquency. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 85, 453-470.
41.
Strubel, A. (1996, March 18). What’s a woman to do, Mr. Kristol? Wall Street Journal, p. A19.
42.
U.S. Bureau of Census. (1993). Statistical abstract of the United States (113th ed.). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
43.
Vander Ven, T. M., Cullen, F. T., Carrozza, M., & Wright, J. P. (2001). Homealone: The impact of maternal employment on delinquency. Social Problems, 48, 236-257.
44.
Wadsworth, M. E. J. (1979). Roots of delinquency: Infancy, adolescence, and crime. New York: Barnes & Noble.
45.
West, D. J. (1982). Delinquency: Its roots, careers, and prospects. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
46.
Wikstrom, P., & Loeber, R. (2000). Do disadvantaged neighborhoods cause well-adjusted children to become adolescent delinquents? A study of male juvenile serious offending, individual risk and protective factors, and neighborhood context. Criminology, 38, 1109-1142.
47.
Wilson, W. J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York: Knopf.
48.
Working Moms. (1999, June 30). Suffolk Life, p. 8M.
49.
Zhao, J., Cao, J., & Cao, L. (1997, March). The effects of female headship and welfare on delinquency: An analysis of five-wave panel data. Paper presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Meeting, Louisville, KY.
50.
Zhang, J. (1997). The effect of welfare programs on criminal behavior: Atheoretical and empirical analysis. Economic Inquiry, 35, 120-137.
