The present study examines the effects of maternal employment on parenting behavior of low-income mothers by incorporating economic and psychological perspectives of work and including benefits from public assistance programs as an additional income source other than wages. The research questions of this study are (1) whether public assistance use reduces economic hardship, (2) whether economic hardship mediates the relationship between maternal employment and parenting behavior among all low-income mothers in the sample, and (3) whether economic hardship or job quality mediates the relationship between maternal employment and parenting behavior among working low-income mothers. For this goal, data of low-income single mothers (all low-income mothers: n=1,650; working low-income mothers: n=950) was drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) and analyzed using logistic regression with robust standard errors and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows. First, although public assistance had some effects in reducing economic hardship, those who were disconnected from both employment and public assistance and those who were most disadvantaged did not benefit from public assistance programs. Second, although economic hardship had a negative relation with parental warmth and a positive relation with the use of physical discipline, it was the number of additional income earners that decided the levels of economic conditions of families. Third, mothers' full-time work had a negative association with having rules for routines; moreover, it was positively related with mothers' use of physical discipline. Fourth, among working low-income mothers, their employment status or public assistance use was not related to change in their parenting behavior. Lastly, although this study expected to find significant effects of maternal employment on parenting behavior, the results show that those effects were significant with regard to some parenting behavior (e.g., physical discipline and rules for routines) among all low-income mothers and inconsequential among working low-income mothers.

The results from this study suggest policy implications in designing and modifying social policies for low-income mothers, in the areas of welfare programs, childcare, and parent education. Further research on the effects of maternal employment on parenting behavior needs to successfully deal with selection bias and needs to include child outcomes to determine ways in which parenting behavior influences children's development and, thereby, the reproduction of poverty.