James Coleman's theory regarding family social capital and Mel Kohn's ideas regarding work and personality suggest that parental work may affect child cognition. Using a sample of 1,067 9-to 12-year-old children of working and nonworking mothers from the 1992 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth's Child-Mother data set, we found that the most important determinants of children's reading and math achievement were characteristics of the children and parents themselves. Paternal work hours had some effects on math achievement, and maternal work influenced reading achievement under some conditions. Policies allowing parents of either sex to schedule work flexibly may facilitate child cognitive achievement.
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