Study Suggests Benefits of First-Year Maternity Leave

A child’s intellectual development may be impaired if its mother works outside the home during its first year, but could be enhanced if she works the second and third years, a new study concludes.

The study also suggests that a mother who works all three years neither hinders nor hampers a child’s development.

“I find the results reassuring--working need not have a negative effect overall,” said Francine Blau, a University of Illinois labor economist and co-author of the study that was also conducted by Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

The researchers analyzed data from a nationwide sample of women aged 21 to 29 in 1986 and their 874 children, who were 3 and 4 years old at the time and had been tested once on a standardized vocabulary test.

They found that a child whose mother worked throughout his or her first year scored about 6% lower on the widely used Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test than a child whose mother did not work.

When researchers looked at mothers who were home the first year after giving birth but worked the second and third years, they found their children scored about 4.5% higher on the test than those of mothers who hadn’t worked during those two years.

Researchers said if mothers worked all three years, the development levels balanced out.

That is, the development of a child whose mother worked the first three years was about the same as that of a child whose mother stayed home those three years.

In an interview last week, Blau said the negative impact of working the first year shows how important quality child care is. She also said the results demonstrate the benefits of maternity leave the first year.