MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT, PARENTAL ATTITUDES TO EMPLOYMENT AND CHILDREN'S SELF-CONCEPT

Abstract

This study investigated the differences between sons of employed and non-employed mothers in self-concept of ability, social self-concept and perceptions of parental behavior. This study also explored the relationship between parents' attitude toward the wife's role and the sons' self-concept and perception of maternal behavior. This research further examined the relationship between the sons' perception of maternal behavior and parents' attitude toward wife's role on the child's self-concept.;Twenty sons of employed mothers and twenty sons of non-employed mothers and their parents participated in this research. The sons were ten and eleven years old. The mothers were employed or homemakers for at least one year prior to the study and all were in first marriages.;The children were individually administered the Self Social Symbols Tasks, the Student's Perception of Ability Scale, the Bronfenbrenner Parent Behavior Questionnaire (mother) and the Vocabulary section of the WISC-R. The parents answered a demographic questionnaire to which Hollingshead's Four Factor Index of Social Status was applied and were also individually administered a questionnaire about attitudes towards the wife's role.;It was hypothesized that there would be no differences between sons of employed and non-employed mothers in their self-concept and in their perception of maternal behavior. The results indicated a statistically significant difference between the groups in the aspect of egocentricity. No other differences were observed between the groups on these variables.;It was also hypothesized that mother's work status would be unrelated to self-concept and perception of maternal behavior unless congruency of parental attitudes towards the wife's role was considered. Different statistical relationships emerged on these variables for each group and trends towards significance were observed between groups on some variables.;It was further hypothesized that the mother's work status would be unrelated to self-concept unless the sons' perception of maternal behavior was considered. Various patterns of results emerged for each group and trends towards significance were again observed between groups in some aspects of self-concept.;The results were discussed in terms of the necessity of examining intervening variables associated with maternal employment. The importance of considering congruency of parental attitude more fully before accepting that its mere presence is beneficial to child development was also emphasized.