As of 1995, 7,101,000 children had mothers who worked 35 or more hours each week, accounting for 34% of all children in the United States.  Of these children, 71% were cared for by persons not of their own family-with 39% in day care or "other early childhood programs."

(Source: U. S. National Center for Education Statistics, "Statistics in Brief," October 1995 [NCES 95-824], in the U. S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2000 [120th edition] Washington, DC, 1999, p. 395.)

"...[I]t amazes me that we need a study to tell us that child care is not the best place for children.

Here's the skinny: Our lives are full of choices and the consequences of those choices.  Should I laugh or cry when I read about the firefighter whose wife is in college, so their child has to attend day care?  Our children are not pets, and an upscale standard of living is not an entitlement.  It's all in the choices that we as parents decide to make."

When Mom spends long hours working outside the home, the increase in household income is easy to see. Perhaps not so noticeable is the slide in her children's academic performance. A new study by sociologists from Ohio State and Brigham Young Universities suggests that improving children's academic performance may have more to do with keeping Mom at home than it does with strengthening the public schools.

Published in Social Forces, the new study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, an ongoing panel study that began in 1979 with 12,686 youths between the ages of 14 and 21. In analyzing these data, the researchers quickly establish that "family social capital is important" in determining children's math achievement. Their statistical tests show that living with a married mother fosters significantly higher math achievement, while "higher maternal working hours are negatively associated with math achievement." The researchers accordingly acknowledge that "worries that possible reductions in social capital owing to maternal work hours may hinder children receive some support for math achievement." Nor can low math scores earned by the children of unmarried or overworked mothers be explained away as the consequence of their attending weaker schools than those attended by the children of married women who work fewer hours outside the home. The statistical tests show that "these [family] effects remain significant when school social capital variables enter the equation."

A similar pattern emerges when the focus shifts from math achievement to reading achievement. Once again, having a married mother predicts "gains in reading recognition," while "higher maternal work hours have negative effects." In contrast, "higher work hours for the mother's spouse are related to gains in achievement." That is, "high levels of paternal work hours actually promote reading recognition." As with math achievement, "family social capital effects persist as school social capital variables are introduced into the equation."

In reporting what they call "a counterintuitive finding," the researchers even note that "greater per pupil expenditures have a negative effect on gains in reading achievement."

In summing up their findings, the authors of the new study remark that "school capital effects are modest in size while family capital effects are stronger." Perhaps the time is right for "investment in the family as a key institution supporting child achievement."

(Source: Toby L. Parcel and Mikaela J. Dufur, "Capital at Home and at School: Effects on Student Achievement," Social Forces 79[2001]: 881-912, emphasis added.)