Parent Work and Child Well-Being in Low-Income Families

Using data from the National Survey of America's Families, this paper finds that levels of parent work are not generally associated with positive child outcomes even when family income is considered. For all children, positive outcomes are more strongly associated with both family and child characteristics, such as education and mental health, than with patterns of parent work. Job characteristics, such as access to family leave and flexible work schedules, may have more of an effect on parenting and child well-being than levels of work.