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Moms working outside of the home: Good for kids?

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

How to balance work and raising children is a critical question that most mothers face today.

Many women (my own mother fell into this category) do not have the option to stay home to raise their children because their families need their incomes to get by. Other women (myself included) get an education, start a career, and then decide to have children – leaving them with some big choices about if and how much they should work outside of the home.

To be sure, the solution to this conundrum is different for every family. Our family has decided its best for me to work part-time from home – a choice that provides us with some extra spending money and me with some time to interact with adults on an intellectual level.

But no matter what our circumstances and choices, all mothers are concerned with one thing: what is best for their children.

There is an interesting column this week in the L.A. Times this week that addresses this very question, and delves into the evidence about working moms.

It turns out – according to a systematic review by researchers at the University of California-Irvine – that children whose mothers who return to work while they are infants and toddlers fare the same in school and behaviorally compared to children whose mothers stay home. The review looked at 69 studies over a period of 50 years that included data about children’s school performance and behavioral problems.

The only children who struggled more were those whose mothers returned to very intensive full-time employment early on – a finding that makes a case for longer maternity leaves, the researchers said.

Several factors help explain why maternal employment does not have adverse effects on child outcomes, says Sharon Sassler, associate professor of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell.

For starters, the data shows that most women in the United States work, even after having a child (although many work part-time). Also, most children spend considerable amounts of time away from their families in school, Sassler explained, even as young as three and four years old.

But the biggest factor may be a cultural shift in parenting norms, she said.

“Even though more mothers are working, and more married families contain two working parents than in the past, various studies have revealed that children are spending more time with parents – fathers as well as mothers – than they did in the 1960s,” she said.

“The value of spending time with children has clearly increased, even if working mothers – and fathers – must decrease their own personal leisure time, devotion to house cleaning, or sleep to achieve that end.  And one of the more interesting research findings is that fathers – especially men with a college degree – have increased the amount of time spent with children, both when they are married and when they do not live with their children.  Not only does that offset any potential reduction resulting from working mothers time away from home, but it strengthens ties between all family members – husbands and wives or partners, as well as parents and children.”

In fact, Sassler herself is a working mother with a child in elementary school. On a personal note, she’s found that having two working parents has taught her son the value of cooperation. “He realizes that this is a team affair, and that sacrifices are sometimes required of all family members – but that we all benefit as well from the fruits of all of our labor,” she said.

To sum it up, navigating decisions about working outside of the home can certainly be a source of stress. But knowing the evidence shows that children thrive in both cases can help moms to make the decisions that are best for their families.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Youth Development Tagged With: , , ,

New evidence: Marijuana and driving don’t mix

February 17, 2012 By 1 Comment

We’ve all heard the warnings about drinking and driving, but what about driving while under the influence of other substances?

A new study published this week in the British Medical Journal found that drivers who use marijuana up to three hours before driving are twice as likely to cause a traffic accidence compared to those not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

While it may seems obvious that driving under the influence of any substance would lead to more accidents, this is the first systematic review to gather all of the evidence on traffic accidents and marijuana use.

“To our knowledge this meta-analysis is the first to examine the association between acute cannabis use and the risk of motor vehicle collisions in real life,” the researchers wrote.

The study reviewed nine studies of nearly 50,000 across the globe involved collisions on public roads. It found the increased risk was most pronounced in studies of fatal collisions, and that the impact of acute cannabis consumption on the risk of minor crashes remains unclear.

This type of review adds to the body of evidence that ultimately helps policy-makers understand public health threats. In this case, it seems clear that lawmakers and public health officials need to do more to help the public understand the dangers of driving while under the influence of marijuana.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , ,

The evidence on child abuse

February 14, 2012 By 2 Comments

No one needs an academic study to understand that child abuse and neglect has horrible effects on children and families.  The toll on young people and their caregivers – emotionally, socially and developmentally – is tremendous. But the problem also takes a broader toll on our health care system and society as a whole.

A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control quantifies the toll on society in financial terms. The study examined nearly 600,000 confirmed child maltreatment cases over the course of a year. Approximately 1,740 of the cases resulted in the death of a child. It found the financial costs associated with these cases to be $124 billion, which includes the costs of medical care, special education, the criminal justice system and lost productivity.

Researchers totaled the lifetime cost for each victim of child maltreatment who lived at $210,012 – a figure the matches the cost of other health conditions such as stroke, which has lifetime cost per person estimated at $159,846, or type 2 diabetes, which is estimated between $181,000 and $253,000.

Much of the data for the study came from a project at Cornell called the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN), housed in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR). The project makes high-quality datasets available to researchers, including data from individual studies and  annual federal data collection efforts, such as state child abuse and neglect and foster care statistics.

“This study very likely underestimates the actual burden as we learn more about the impact of early childhood adversity on brain development and health and well-being  across the life span,” said John Eckenrode, director of NDACAN, professor of human development and director of the BCTR.

“Fortunately, there are now evidence-based programs that may prevent child maltreatment and the associated costs to society,” he said. Among them is the Nurse Family Partnership, a program founded at the College of Human Ecology that aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged mothers and their children.

The take home message: Child abuse and neglect is a big problem. The better we can understand its intricacies and impacts, the better we’ll be able to prevent it in the future.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, Youth Development Tagged With: , , ,

Beware of pet turtles

February 8, 2012 By 3 Comments

They’re small, they’re cute and they seem harmless. But many pet turtles are illegal, and they can be a dangerous addition to your home. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control believes that pet turtles are the source of a salmonella outbreak among kids.

Since 1975, it’s been illegal to own a small turtle – with a shell less than 4 inches long – as a pet. (They are allow

ed for scientific and educational purposes only.)  That’s because they’re a recognized source of human Salmonella infections – a food poisoning that can be especially dangerous for small children.

Over the past year, there were 132 cases of Salmonella infections reported in 18 states, and the patients’ median age was 6 years old. Fifty-six of these patients who were interviewed by public health officials. Of them, 36 reported turtle exposure. In addition, five samples of turtle tank water from patient homes tested positive for the outbreak strain.

The take-home message: Small turtles are not suitable pets, and there is evidence that suggests they cause serious food poisoning among their owners, and especially children.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , , ,

Who works more: men or women?

February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s a dilemma as old as the feminist movement, and one that graces the house of nearly every family in American today: How should two partners divide the workload that comes along with earning money and making a home?

To be sure, there are as many answers to the question as there are families in America. The solutions depend on a myriad of variables – expectations of cleanliness, culinary preferences, earning potential, family values and more. The topic has filled the pages of magazines and newspapers across the country.

It turns out, researchers know more than most of us can imagine about how men and women share responsibilities. And, while every family is different, there are some norms across our society.

The best resource I’ve come across is called America’s Time Use Survey, an on-going collection of data that measures how much time people spend doing various activities. The survey is sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2010, the survey found:

  • On the days that they did household activities, women spent an  average of 2.6 hours on such activities, while men spent 2.1 hours.
  • On an average day, 20 percent of men did housework such as cleaning or doing laundry, compared with 49 percent of women.
  • Forty-one percent of men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 68 percent of women.
  • On an average day, among adults living in households with children  under 6, women spent 1.1 hours providing physical care such as bathing or feeding a child, and men spent 26 minutes providing physical care.

So, it’s clear that, on average, women are doing more of the housework than men, but the survey also shows that men work more outside of the home.  On the days that they worked, employed men worked 41 minutes more than employed women.

Of course, the survey reports averages, and individual households can differ greatly from those.  Still, it sparked some interesting discussions in our house.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, In The Media
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