Mothers' work conditions, income, and parenting of young children.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the interplay of positive work conditions with parenting behaviors across children's first 4 years. Background: Most mothers in the United States are employed in paid work during their children's early years. Research typically has focused on the ways that such employment can conflict with the intensive demands of parenting, but it can also help mothers socially and psychologically during this important period of children's development. Method: Integrating federal survey data on occupational conditions with parenting reports of job flexibility and parenting behaviors from 5,250 mothers in the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, we estimated how work conditions were associated with stimulating and sensitive parenting and whether these associations were stronger for mothers with lower income. Results: Results of autoregressive modeling demonstrated that job flexibility, opportunities for mastery, and opportunities for connection were positively associated with a composite measure of stimulating and sensitive parenting. Significant interactions indicated that many associations were more pronounced for mothers with lower income. Conclusion: Our results build upon prior work, demonstrating that positive work conditions can support parenting during early childhood and that this is especially true for low-income households. Implications: These results bridge the work-family and parenting literatures with important policy implications, such as adopting family-friendly policies within companies.

Type of household firearm ownership and firearm suicide among adolescents, 1976-2018.

After declining steadily for almost two decades, the rate of firearm suicide among adolescents (aged 15-19 years) has increased nearly every year since 2007. At the same time, overall levels of household firearm ownership have been declining. In this paper, we examined whether and how types of firearms in the homes of adolescents have changed over time, and the extent to which such changes are associated with trends in firearm suicides among adolescents. Our analyses focused on understanding these trends among Black and White male and female adolescents to better understand longstanding race-gender differences in firearm ownership and firearm suicide. With combined data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the findings show that handgun ownership in Black and White households increased over the last four decades, while overall levels of firearm ownership declined. Increases in handgun ownership were predictive of increased firearm suicide rates among White adolescents, especially among males. We found no significant relationship between firearm suicide among Black adolescents and firearm ownership among Black households, regardless of gun type, which is potentially unsurprising given that firearm ownership is substantially lower in Black households compared to White households. Possibly reflecting race and gender differences in household gun ownership, our findings also show that rates of firearm suicide were lower for Black and female adolescents and highest for White male adolescents. Taken together, these findings provide new evidence on the relationship between trends in firearm ownership and adolescent firearm suicide and address important questions about the influence of race and gender for understanding firearm suicide among adolescents.

Gender Disparities in Increased Parenting Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Research Note.

Public health measures aimed at curbing the transmission of COVID-19 increased parenting responsibilities during the early stages of the pandemic. This research note examines time-use data from the American Time Use Surveys to provide several fresh insights as to how mothers took on a disproportionate share of this responsibility compared to fathers during this period. First, the gender gap in total parenting time narrowed by 18%. Meanwhile, the gender disparity in time in educational activities increased by 113% and was not explained by changes in mothers' labor force participation. Mothers also took on 20% more time in secondary caregiving compared to fathers. Estimates among working parents indicated that the amount of time in which mothers coupled paid work with caregiving increased by 346% compared to fathers. These results highlight how fathers marginally increased their caregiving responsibilities compared to mothers, but not in activities that parents tend to rate as more stressful or intensive, such as supervising children's schooling and multitasking at work. The estimates provide clear evidence of the unequal caregiving burden placed on mothers during the pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Acceptance in a Cohort of Diverse New Zealanders.

BACKGROUND: New Zealand's Immunisation Programme is an important pillar in the war against COVID-19, making high vaccine uptake essential. This study sought to: (1) identify potential vaccine uptake rates among New Zealanders prior to programme rollout; (2) understand reasons for unlikelihood/likelihood of vaccine uptake; and, (3) explore sociodemographic differences in risk of and reasons for vaccine hesitancy. METHODS: Data were collected in March 2021 (n = 1,284) via a web-based survey. Respondents were a diverse sample of New Zealanders who were part of a large, pre-existing social research sampling frame. Multinomial and logit regressions were estimated to examine sociodemographic predictors of vaccine hesitancy and reasons for likelihood/hesitancy. FINDINGS: Overall, 70% reported they would likely take the vaccine once available (i.e., very likely or somewhat likely). Being younger and less educated were correlated with greater vaccine hesitancy risk (i.e., very unlikely, somewhat likely, or unsure). Women were more likely than men to say they were unsure (Relative Risk Ratio = 1.60) vs. either likely or unlikely and to identify concerns regarding personal health, such as potential side effects, as a reason. Men identified concerns surrounding trust in vaccines and the perceived exaggerated risk of COVID-19 to them and the population. INTERPRETATION: Although a majority intend to take the COVID-19 vaccine once available, a sizeable minority who were more likely to be young, female, and less educated, were unsure about or unlikely to get the vaccine, primarily due to perceptions of unknown future side effects. Ethnicity was not statistically associated with vaccine hesitancy, suggesting that public health efforts aimed at increasing vaccine acceptance among Maori and Pacific peoples-subgroups most at-risk of COVID-19 infection and morbidity-should focus on inequities in health care access to increase uptake.

Trends in Mothers' Parenting Time by Education and Work From 2003 to 2017.

Scholars have been increasingly concerned about the rise in "intensive mothering" and its implications for the well-being of children and women and for inequality more broadly. These concerns, however, reflect a key assumption: that socioeconomic disparities in mothers' parenting time observed in earlier eras have continued to grow. Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2003-2005 and 2015-2017 (n = 13,755), we test this assumption by examining whether maternal education gaps in active time spent with children have persisted across the 2000s. We pay particular attention to the continued socioeconomic bifurcation in women's access to full-time stable work, assessing whether changes in the education-related time gap are due to changes in who works and how much. We find that the gap in active childcare time between mothers with a college degree and those without has closed dramatically. Although some of this narrowing was driven by declines in time among college-educated mothers, most was driven by increases among mothers with less education. These trends, however, are observed only among mothers who were not employed full-time. Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analyses further reveal that although most of the increase in active care time among nonworking mothers with less education was attributable to behavioral change, 58% of the decline among nonworking, college-educated mothers was a result of sociodemographic compositional changes. These findings illuminate population-level trends in mothers' active parenting time, provide insights into the driving factors, and help update theories, qualitative findings, and policy considerations related to mothers' and children's well-being.

Mothers' Job Loss and Their Sensitivity to Young Children's Development.

As the economy diversifies and stratifies, more mothers of young children experience job instability. To advance understanding of the implications of this trend, this study examines the role of job instability in maternal sensitivity, an important component of child development, during their children's first 3 years of life. Structural equation models with longitudinal multimethod data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,211; 1991-1994) revealed that mothers' involuntary job loss, but not other job transitions, was negatively associated with sensitivity. This association was most pronounced among mothers with less education. Mediation analyses found that the association was explained by changes in family income and maternal depression, pointing to policy-relevant mechanisms for reducing inequalities among children.

Family Firearm Ownership and Firearm-Related Mortality Among Young Children: 1976-2016.

: media-1vid110.1542/5972298231001PEDS-VA_2018-1171Video Abstract BACKGROUND: Firearm-related fatalities are a top 3 cause of death among children in the United States. Despite historical declines in firearm ownership, the firearm-related mortality rate among young children has risen over the past decade. In this study, we examined changes in firearm ownership among families with young children from 1976 to 2016, exploring how such changes relate to recent increases in firearm-related mortality among 1- to 5-year-olds. METHODS: Individual-level data from the National Vital Statistics System were merged with household-level data from the General Social Survey to create national-level estimates of firearm-related child mortality and family firearm ownership from 1976 to 2016 (n = 41 years). Vector autoregression models were used to examine the association between firearm ownership and child mortality. RESULTS: The proportion of non-Hispanic white families with young children who owned firearms declined from 50% in 1976 to 45% in 2016 and from 38% to 6% among non-Hispanic African American families. The proportion of white families with young children who owned handguns, however, increased from 25% to 32%; 72% of firearm-owning families with young children now own a handgun. Increases in handgun ownership partially explained the recent rise in firearm-related white child mortality (B = 0.426), net of economic conditions, and sociodemographic characteristics of firearm-owning families. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in the types of firearms in the homes of US families may partially explain recently rising firearm-related mortality among young white children. These findings hold relevance for pediatricians and policy makers aiming to reduce firearm-related mortality and promote firearm safety in children's homes.

Doing it All? Mothers' College Enrollment, Time Use, and Affective Well-being.

The rising share of women in college with dependent children and growing emphasis on two-generation policies for reducing socioeconomic inequality have galvanized research aimed at determining whether mothers' increased education can improve their and their children's well-being. Yet as part of this effort, scholars have overlooked signs that mothers' college enrollment may not be unequivocally good for families. This research brief aims to bring greater attention to this "side of the story." To do so, we analyze time diary (2003-2015) and well-being data (2010, 2011, 2013) from the American Time Use Survey. We find that mothers in college experience a time squeeze that limits their time in caregiving, self-care, and work, on one hand, and school-related activities on the other. This time squeeze may explain why mothers enrolled in college (compared to mothers who were not in school) also reported less happiness and more fatigue during activities with their children.

Firearm Ownership in High-Conflict Families: Differences According to State Laws Restricting Firearms to Misdemeanor Crimes of Domestic Violence Offenders.

This study examines the association between state laws that prohibit firearm ownership for offenders convicted of misdemeanour crimes of domestic violence (MCDV) and firearm ownership in two-parent families with high-conflict male partners with arrest histories. Mixed effects logistic regression models applied to data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth cohort (n = 5,350) determined that living in a state with laws that prohibited firearm ownership for convicted MCDV offenders decreased the likelihood of firearm ownership among families with high-conflict males by 62%. The length of the time limit length on firearm prohibition was correlated with incremental decreases in firearm ownership in such families, with the probability of firearm ownership among families with high-conflict males decreasing from 30% in states with no MCDV laws restricting access from firearms to 12% in states with permanent prohibition on firearm ownership. These findings have significance for public health policy aimed at decreasing intimate-partner homicide.

Disparities in sleep duration and restedness among same- and different-sex couples: findings from the American Time Use Survey.

Study Objectives: The importance of sleep for health necessitates investigation of disparities in multiple aspects of sleep. Given the potential disruption to sleep posed by the well-documented discrimination experienced by sexual minorities, disparities related to sexual minority status warrant such attention. This study sought to (1) measure differences in same- and different-sex couples in sleep duration and perceived restedness, (2) examine how the link between sleep duration and restedness varied among same- and different-sex couples, and (3) assess variation in restedness across state-level sexual minority indicators. Methods: Participants in the Wellbeing Module of the American Time Use Survey, assessed in 2010, 2012, and 2013 (n = 17378), completed time diaries assessing sleep duration and evaluated their own restedness. Results: Multinomial and ordinal regression analyses showed no links between partner sex and sleep among men. Women with same-sex partners reported lower restedness than women with different-sex partners, and perceptions of restedness were more strongly linked to sleep duration for the former than the latter. Finally, women with the same-sex partners living in states more supportive of sexual minorities reported better restedness than those in less supportive states. Conclusions: Women with same-sex partners were vulnerable to lower restedness, especially when they reported lower sleep duration or were in less supportive environments. Such disparities could underlie related disparities in health, as sleep health is predictive of health outcomes. Future research is needed to explore the role of sleep in explaining variation in health outcomes among sexual minority women.

Alcohol use and change over time in firearm safety among families with young children.

BACKGROUND: Improperly stored firearms pose a clear health risk to children. Previous research concurrently links alcohol use with lower levels of firearm safety. The objectives of this study were to assess (1) how families move from unsafe to safer firearm storage practices and (2) how parental drinking was associated with moving away from unsafe firearm storage practices. METHODS: This study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, 2003 when children were two years old and again when they were four years old. Parents were asked about firearm storage practices, alcohol consumption, and information to measure other confounding variables. Their responses were used to identify families who engaged in unsafe firearm storage practices (n = 650) during the initial testing period and to assess how alcohol consumption and other variables were associated with moving to safer firearm storage practices at the second testing period. RESULTS: Families grew more likely to adopt safer firearm storage practices as their children aged, compared with continuing unsafe practices. Multivariate logistic regressions indicated that parental drinking, however, reduced the likelihood that parents moved to safer storage practices, controlling for covariates. Other families- and community-level variables, in particular, family structure, were also associated with the likelihood of moving to safer firearm storage behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Families with higher levels of alcohol use may need additional assistance in addressing firearm safety. The findings call for future research to better understand how physicians can counsel at-risk families to help them store firearms more securely.

Nonstandard Work Schedules, Family Dynamics, and Mother-Child Interactions During Early Childhood.

The rising number of parents who work nonstandard schedules has led to a growing body of research concerned with what this trend means for children. The negative outcomes for children of parents who work nonstandard schedules are thought to arise from the disruptions these schedules place on family life, and thus, the types of parenting that support their children's development, particularly when children are young. Using a nationally representative sample of two-parent families (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth cohort, n = 3,650), this study examined whether mothers' and their partners' nonstandard work schedules were associated with mothers' parenting when children were 2 and 4 years old. Structural equation models revealed that mothers' and their partners' nonstandard work schedules were associated with mothers' lower scores on measures of positive and involved parenting. These associations were mediated by fathers' lower levels of participation in cognitively supportive parenting and greater imbalance in cognitively supportive tasks conducted by mothers versus fathers.

Relationship Conflict, Work Conditions, and the Health of Mothers With Young Children.

Past research has shown that marital conflict is associated with poorer health among women and that new children come with declines in relationship quality and increased stress. The primary aim of this study was to explore how these two patterns converge-and what might buffer the risks of both to women's health. We do so by examining the potential for paid work, more often thought of as a stressor for women managing family roles and relationships, to help women weather tensions at home while raising young children. Drawing on the work-family facilitation and research substitution perspectives, structural equation modeling analyzed integrated data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort and the Occupational Information Network database. The models revealed evidence that work characteristics can be protective. Specifically, the negative association between relationship conflict and mothers' health was weaker when mothers or their partners worked in jobs with positive social-psychological conditions, such as feelings of sociability and support. These findings highlight the potential for work-family facilitation among new mothers.

Health-Related Parenting among U.S. Families and Young Children's Physical Health.

Parenting is a constellation of behaviors, yet investigations of the link between parenting and children's health typically focus on singular behaviors. Thus, patterns of health-related parenting among U.S. families, associations between patterns and children's physical health, and the prevalence of such patterns among different sociodemographic groups remain unknown. Applying latent class analysis to the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001; n=8,550) revealed six parenting patterns. The pattern characterized by high levels of television watching was associated with the worst overall health; the pattern characterized by the highest consumption of food and amount of outdoor play was linked to the highest odds of obesity. Children of less educated mothers and Black mothers were more likely to experience both of these patterns than the patterns associated with the best child health, but these patterns did not differ for Hispanics (versus Whites). Income differences only appeared for patterns associated with children's general health.

Transitions in Living Arrangements Among Older Mexican Americans.

This study examines the transition from independent living to a coresidential living arrangement across the late life course among older unmarried (i.e., widowed, divorced/separated, and single) Mexican Americans. Using 18 years' worth of panel data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly, event history analyses revealed that age at migration, physical disability, and cognitive impairment were strong predictors of the transition to a coresidential living arrangement. Importantly, a decline in physical and cognitive abilities heightened the risk of transition to a coresidential living arrangement, net of time-variant measures of disability and impairment. These findings provide evidence for incorporating a dynamic approach to examining living arrangements across the late life course for Mexican-origin Hispanics living in the United States, with implications for policy and service providers.

Instability in Parent-Child Coresidence and Adolescent Development in Urban South Africa.

There is widespread recognition of the importance of family stability for child development. South Africa presents an interesting context in which to study the consequences of family instability because of the traditionally fluid nature of household composition due to labor migration, child fostering, and non-marital fertility. More recently, the HIV pandemic has added another source of instability. Within South Africa, however, patterns of instability differ markedly across racial groups. We use the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) data to examine the implications of changes in parent-child coresidence for educational and sexual development of young South Africans. We show that changes in maternal and paternal coresidence have implications for the timing of sexual initiation for both black and coloured adolescents. Maternal and paternal transitions also lead to poorer educational outcomes for coloured adolescents, but parental disruptions are not significantly related to educational outcomes for blacks. These findings suggest that the implications of coresidential instability vary by race, reflecting racial differences with respect to cultural, social, and economic conditions.

Maternal Education and Investments in Children's Health.

Maternal education differences in children's academic skills have been strongly linked to parental investment behaviors. This study extended this line of research to investigate whether these same maternal education patterns in parenting are observed among a set of parenting behaviors that are linked to young children's health. Drawing on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (n = 5,000) and longitudinal models incorporating random effects, the authors found that higher levels of maternal education were associated with more advantageous health investment behaviors at each phase of early development (9 months, 2 years, 4 years, 5 years). Moreover, these disparities were typically largest at the developmental stage when it was potentially most sensitive for children's long-term health and development. These findings provide further evidence of a developmental gradient associated with mothers' education and new insight into the salience of mothers' education for the short- and long-term health and well-being of their children.

A Research Note on Time With Children in Different- and Same-Sex Two-Parent Families.

Public debate on same-sex marriage often focuses on the disadvantages that children raised by same-sex couples may face. On one hand, little evidence suggests any difference in the outcomes of children raised by same-sex parents and different-sex parents. On the other hand, most studies are limited by problems of sample selection and size, and few directly measure the parenting practices thought to influence child development. This research note demonstrates how the 2003-2013 American Time Use Survey (n=44,188) may help to address these limitations. Two-tier Cragg's Tobit alternative models estimated the amount of time that parents in different-sex and same-sex couples engaged in child-focused time. Women in same-sex couples were more likely than either women or men in different-sex couples to spend such time with children. Overall, women (regardless of the gender of their partners) and men coupled with other men spent significantly more time with children than men coupled with women, conditional on spending any child-focused time. These results support prior research that different-sex couples do not invest in children at appreciably different levels than same-sex couples. We highlight the potential for existing nationally representative data sets to provide preliminary insights into the developmental experiences of children in nontraditional families.

Maternal Education and the Link between Birth Timing and Children's School Readiness.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored whether mothers' education magnified the benefits of their fertility delays for their children. METHODS: Multiple-group path modeling assessed whether and why the positive association between mothers' age at first birth and children's test scores was greater for children of college educated women than children of other women. RESULTS: Older age at first birth was associated with higher math and reading test scores among the children of college educated women via their mothers' higher income and cognitive support for children. These mediational paths were less pronounced among the children of high school educated women and were not observed among the children of high school dropouts. CONCLUSION: The potential for women's delayed fertility to have benefits for their children's early educational experiences depended on their own educational attainment.