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This article was downloaded by: [McMaster University]On: 29 October 2014, At: 12:33Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
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Associations Between Employment and Financial andParental Stress in Low-Income Single Black MothersPhyllis Gyamfi MA a , Jeanne Brooks-Gunn PhD a & Aurora P. Jackson PhD ba Columbia Universityb University of PittsburghPublished online: 22 Oct 2008.
To cite this article: Phyllis Gyamfi MA , Jeanne Brooks-Gunn PhD & Aurora P. Jackson PhD (2001) Associations BetweenEmployment and Financial and Parental Stress in Low-Income Single Black Mothers, Women & Health, 32:1-2, 119-135, DOI:10.1300/J013v32n01_06
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Associations Between Employmentand Financial and Parental Stress
in Low-Income Single Black Mothers
Phyllis Gyamfi, MAJeanne Brooks-Gunn, PhD
Aurora P. Jackson, PhD
SUMMARY. Using a sample of 188 low-income single black mothers(93 employed and 95 nonemployed), this study investigated financialstrain, maternal depressive affect, and parenting stress among formerwelfare recipients who are now working, and current welfare recipientswho are not employed. The findings suggested that being employed didnot reduce financial strain, as the two groups reported similar levels ofstrain. However, regression analyses indicated that not being employedwas associated with reporting higher levels of stress. Parenting stress
Phyllis Gyamfi and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn are affiliated with Columbia University.Aurora P. Jackson is affiliated with University of Pittsburgh.
Address correspondence to: Phyllis Gyamfi, Center for Children & Families,Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (E-mail: [email protected]).
The William T. Grant Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health (Pro-ject 1 RO3 MH56063-01) supported the study. The authros would like to thank theMacArthur Network on the Family and the Economy, and NICHD Research Networkon Child and Family Well-Being for their support. They are truly grateful to MandyBlake and other members of this project for help with data collection and data analysis.They would also like to thank the families for agreeing to participate in this project.Portions of this paper were presented at the Society for Research in Child Development(Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1999).
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Associations Between Employment and Financial and Parental Stressin Low-Income Single Black Mothers.” Gyamfi, Phyllis, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Aurora P. Jackson.Co-published simultaneously in Women & Health (The Haworth Medical Press, an imprint of The HawortthPress, Inc.) Vol. 32, No. 1/2, 2001, pp. 119-135; and: Welfare, Work, and Well-Being (ed: Mary Clare Lennon)The Haworth Medical Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2001, pp. 119-135. Single or multiple cop-ies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-342-9678, 9:00a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: [email protected]].
2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 119
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was also associated with attaining less education, having boys, reportingmore financial strain and depressive affect. Correlates of maternal de-pressive affect were mother’s education and financial strain. Interactioneffects were found for employment by financial strain, indicating thathigher levels of depressive affect were related to more financial strainamong nonemployed mothers. The findings suggest that although em-ployment is associated with better mental health for poor mothers, entryinto the workforce is associated with stronger links between financialstrain, parenting stress and depressive affect for mothers leaving wel-fare. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document DeliveryService: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: <[email protected]>Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc.All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS. Maternal employment, single mothers, low-income
The association between poverty and mental health problems hasbeen well established in epidemiological studies of low-income women(Adler, Boyce, Chesney, Cohen, Folkman, Kahn, & Syme, 1994).There is consistent evidence that low-income status is linked withhigher levels of mental health problems, particularly when combinedwith welfare receipt (Barnett & Marshall, 1992; Belle, 1982, 1990).Many of these studies suggest that poor women experience more threat-ening and uncontrollable life events as well as exposure to more epi-sodes of violence and crime than do non-poor women (Baruch, Biener, &Barnett, 1987; Belle, 1990). Mental health problems are exacerbated forsingle mothers, since many tend to cope with their problems alone (i.e.,have less social support). Economic circumstances have also been indi-rectly linked to children’s adjustment through their effect on parents’psychological functioning (Conger et al., 1992; Elder, 1974; Jackson,Brooks-Gunn, Huang, & Glassman, in press; McLoyd, 1998; McLoyd,1990). Many of these studies have focused on either employed parentsin low-wage jobs or on parents who have lost jobs, but not on parentswho are persistently unemployed or on parents who vacillate betweenwelfare and work. Despite the many differences between poor em-ployed and poor non-employed mothers, these groups are often not dis-tinguished within analyses, especially when looking at the possibleeffects of welfare receipt (Smith, Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, & Lee, inpress). Furthermore, a comparison of the links through which financialstrain influences psychological functioning has not been made for these
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groups. For example, paid employment may render benefits to parentssuch as increased self-esteem, contact with other adults, and relief fromhousehold and child care responsibilities, which may moderate some ofthe negative effects of economic hardship on parental mental health andon parenting behavior.
One goal of the current welfare legislation is to limit the amount oftime that families are on welfare by implementing time limits and creat-ing programs that help move welfare recipients into the workforce. Inthis situation, successful programs are defined as those moving recipi-ents into a stable work situation with an increased wage rate. Althoughworkforce participation may improve the lives of welfare recipients(Zaslow & Emig, 1997), movement into the labor market may have im-plications for parents’ relationships within their families, parentingpractices, and parental emotional health (Brooks-Gunn, Berlin, Smith &Lee, in press). Entry into the workforce may have positive and/or nega-tive influences when looking at different sets of outcomes.
This paper will examine the following issues related to maternal em-ployment, welfare receipt, and low-income status: First, given that em-ployment status has been shown to affect the psychological well-beingof women, where employed mothers fared better than unemployedmothers (Kessler & McRae, 1982; Sears & Galambos, 1993), it isworthwhile to investigate such links in a specific group of moth-ers–low-income single mothers who have received welfare at one timeor another. Specifically, depressive affect will be examined in twogroups: (1) Mothers who are former welfare recipients and currentlyworking for pay; and (2) mothers who are not employed and receivingwelfare. The rationale here is that welfare and work may be associatedwith different patterns of stress in low-income single mothers. It is ex-pected that mothers who are working will have lower levels of depres-sive affect, based on studies of more middle class, two parent families.This comparison is made for two groups of single black mothers, bothof whom have or are currently receiving welfare.
Second, financial strain will be examined in the two groups. Fewstudies have focused on examining financial strain among low-incomeemployed and nonemployed mothers. However, it is expected that fi-nancial strain may be similar in the two groups, since previous welfarerecipients who have entered the workforce are likely to be in low-wagejobs, experience job instability, and have no health and vacation bene-fits (Smith et al., in press). In addition, entry into the workforce for for-mer welfare recipients is usually associated with more expenses, suchas child care, transportation and work-related clothing expenses. Given
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these circumstances, making ends meet is likely to be as difficult forformer welfare recipients as it is for mothers currently receiving welfare(Edin & Lein, 1997).
Third, given that parenting stress is more likely to occur in low-in-come single mothers than middle-income parents (Belle, 1990; Brooks--Gunn, 1995), parenting stress will be examined in the two groups. Likefinancial strain, few studies have investigated parenting stress in pooremployed and nonemployed mothers. If poor employed mothers reportless depressive affect, the stresses of parenting may be lowered. Alter-natively, employment may result in increased parenting stress, due tothe juggling of work and family, and having less time with the family(Stegelin & Frankel, 1993).
In this investigation, we draw theoretically on previous work of Con-ger et al. (1992), McLoyd (1990), and Jackson et al. (in press) to exam-ine associations among employment, financial strain, and parentingstress. Conger and his colleagues theorize that objective economic cir-cumstances affect parents’ experience of financial stress or strain,which reduces their psychological well-being. Parental psychologicaldistress (or depressive affect), in turn, disrupts effective parenting be-haviors (perhaps through parental stress) and, thereby, child outcomes.McLoyd theorizes that an accumulation of risks is associated with eco-nomic hardship among single mothers (among them psychological dis-tress and little social support), which affect children’s developmentdifferentially depending on the presence of protective factors that medi-ate between economic hardship and child developmental outcomes.Jackson and her colleagues theorize that economic conditions (earn-ings) and the availability of instrumental social support influence ma-ernal psychological functioning and child development through theireffect on mothers’ experience of financial strain, which, in turn, is asso-ciated with the quality of parenting. There is empirical support for theseassumptions (see Conger et al., 1992; Jackson et al., in press; McLoyd,1990; McLoyd & Wilson, 1991).
Research on welfare and work transitions has shifted from just evalu-ations of welfare-to-work programs with an emphasis on self-suffi-ciency, to including investigations of related to the well-being of familiesand children (Chase-Lansdale & Brooks-Gunn, 1995). Recently, strate-gies used by welfare-dependent families to financially support them-selves and their children have also been a focus (Edin & Lein, 1997;Smith et al., in press). While many of these studies suggest complimen-tary strategies of work and welfare for families, little attention has been
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paid to possible transitional employment and/or welfare effects onmothers and children living on welfare.
Despite the popular belief that welfare mothers would rather stay onwelfare than work, research has shown the opposite (Edin & Lein,1997; Edin & Jencks, 1992; Harris, 1997). In many cases, welfare-de-pendent mothers often substitute or combine work with welfare. Edinand Lein (1997) and others have documented that women who leavewelfare in search of work find that the jobs available to them do not pro-vide enough income to support their families. The existing structure ofthe labor market, discrimination and segregation impede upward mobil-ity, and may limit the opportunities for low-income women even ifwomen do leave welfare (and many have, given the 40% to 50% dropsin welfare caseload during the late 1990s). Those who have left welfarein the past several years still hover around the poverty threshold (Cancian,Haveman, Kaplan, Meyer & Wolfe, 1999).
In sum, while the research on (mostly middle-class) maternal em-ployment has focused on how employment can positively affect amother and her children’s well-being, poverty scholars often offer op-posing viewpoints. One is that maternal employment, poverty, and sin-gle-parent status function as cumulative burdens on families, therebyresulting in poorer developmental outcomes among low-income chil-dren of employed mothers in comparison with those of nonemployedmothers. The other is that the financial and psychological benefits asso-ciated with employment are so substantial that children whose mothersare employed demonstrate better social and academic outcomes thanlow-income children whose mothers are not employed (Desai, Chase-Lansdale, & Michael, 1989; Vandell & Ramanan, 1992). Moreover,some believe that women may see the dual role of being employed andbeing a mother as a way of enhancing their lives, in that multiple rolesprovide diverse sources of support and an increased sense of purposeand meaning (Barnett & Marshall, 1992; Marks, 1977; Thoits, 1983).Others believe that combining the roles of employment and mother-hood can be a strain on low-income women because of occupationalexperiences such as high job demands, few opportunities for advance-ment, low salary and poor work skills (Adelmann, 1987; Hibbard &Pope, 1985; LaCroix & Haynes, 1987; Menaghan & Parcel, 1995).
The goals of this study are two-fold: First, based on the findings sug-gesting that employment status is likely to affect the psychologicalwell-being of mothers, this study will investigate the differences in fi-nancial strain, parental stress and symptoms of depression between
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low-income employed mothers who have exited welfare, and low-in-come nonemployed mothers who have not left welfare. Given that em-ployed mothers in this sample are likely to be earning low wages, it isexpected that financial strain will be similar for both groups. Levels ofparental stress and symptoms of depression are expected to be higherfor nonemployed mothers, in accordance with the research suggestingbeneficial effects of working. We test these assumptions by comparingthe two groups of mothers, controlling for any demographic differencesbetween the employed and nonemployed mothers.
Second, based on findings suggesting that financial strain is commonin low-income women, and may be associated with depressive affectand parenting stress, this study will see whether financial strain is dif-ferentially associated with two dimensions of psychological distress(depressive affect and parenting stress) for employed and nonemployedmothers (see, for example, Adler et al., 1994; Jackson, 1998, 1999;Jackson et al., in press; McLoyd, 1990, 1998). It is expected that higherlevels of financial strain will be more strongly associated with depres-sive affect and parental stress in the nonemployed than the employedmothers. That is, being employed will in a sense buffer mothers fromthe untoward effects of financial strain (Wilson, Ellwood, & Brooks-Gunn, 1995).
METHOD
Participants
The participants in this study are 188 single black mothers (mean age =28.64; SD = 5.07) who are current and former welfare recipients, andtheir preschool children (mean age = 4.7; SD = 7.41). The mothers livein three New York City communities with substantial numbers oflow-income families, and were recruited through the Office of Employ-ment Services of the New York City Human Resources Administration.This office administers the city’s welfare programs and offers a widerange of employment programs and support services. This on-goingstudy began in 1996, shortly before the Personal Responsibility andWork Opportunity Reconciliation Act was passed. Two-to-three-yearfollow-up visits are currently being completed.
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Sample Selection and Procedure
The mothers and their preschoolers were selected by obtaining thenames of employed mothers eligible for child-care vouchers. The listincluded mothers with a 3- or 4-year-old child living in zip code areasrepresenting New York City communities in the boroughs of Manhattan(Central Harlem), Brooklyn (Bedford-Stuyvesant), and Queens (Ja-maica), with 150 randomly selected for contact. These mothers wereformer welfare recipients. They were sent a letter describing the study’sinterest in learning how parents of young children manage their respon-sibilities and requesting participation in the study. Mothers who indi-cated a willingness to participate by returning a form were contacted bytelephone to arrange an appointment for a home visit. Follow-up letterswere sent to prospective respondents who failed to return the form.These mothers were invited to participate through additional letters,phone calls, and visits to their home (if they had no working phonenumber) to explain the purpose of the research and to encourage theirparticipation. The number of employed mothers who responded was 93.
A second group, nonemployed mothers, was recruited in the sameway. A list of 150 welfare recipients who were in education, training,and job placement programs was generated. Recruitment procedureswere the same as those described above. The number of nonemployedmothers who responded was 95 (Jackson et al., in press).
A final sample of 188 women and their children were interviewed intheir homes by a team of two researchers. One researcher interviewedthe mother, and the other performed assessments on the child (a blackresearcher conducted the mother interviews). The child interviewerswere women of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. The initial in-terviews were completed between February 1996 and January 1997.The mothers were paid $25 at the start of the interview.
Measures
All variables used in analyses, with the exception of the mothers’ de-pressive affect and single-item variables, are scales with values that re-flect the mean of values for component items. Alpha coefficients wereobtained for scales with three or more items. Items were reversed whencalculating the mean value on scales so that a higher score indicatedmore of the attribute named in the label.
Employment. Employment status was coded dichotomously, denot-ing either that the mother was currently employed 10 hours or more a
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week or not. The sample includes 95 nonemployed mothers and 93 em-ployed mothers. Of the 95 nonemployed mothers, two reported working(but each less than 10 hours a week).
Economic Strain. Financial strain (3 items; alpha = .56) was mea-sured by asking mothers to indicate on a 4-point scale how often theyborrowed money in the last two years from family and friends to helppay bills, decided not to buy something they needed because they couldn’tafford it (1 = not at all; 4 = a lot), and how difficult they have found pay-ing bills lately (1 = not at all difficult; 4 = very difficult) (McLoyd et al.,1994). These dimensions of objective economic circumstances andfeelings of economic hardship were drawn from McLoyd et al. (1994)and are indicative of the economic pressures associated with the stressof low-income status. The mean and standard deviation for the totalsample were 2.9 and .77, respectively.
Family Demographics. Maternal education was determined by ask-ing mothers to indicate the highest level of education completed: Ob-taining less than high school education (n = 39), obtaining high schooldiploma or GED (n = 19), and obtaining more than high school educa-tion (n = 130). Of the 130 mothers receiving more than high school edu-cation, only 20 had Associates or Bachelor’s degrees from college.Maternal age was measured in years (mean age = 28.64; SD = 5.07).Number of children mother has and Number of adults in the householdwere determined by maternal reports (mean number of children =2.01; SD = 1.15); (mean number of adults in household = 1.81; SD =1.01).
Maternal Mental Health. Depressive affect (20 items; alpha = .88)was measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depressionscale (CES-D), which asks respondents to indicate on a 4-point scale (0 =less than once a day; 3 = most or all of the time) how often during thepast week they felt depressed, lonely, sad, unusually bothered by things,that they could not get going. Although this scale is not used to assessclinical depression, mothers with scores of 16 or above are consideredto be at risk for depression (Radloff, 1977) (mean = 15.74; SD = 10.54).
Parental stress (7 items; alpha = .64; Abidin, 1990) was assessed byasking mothers to indicate on a 6-point scale from 0 (not at all true) to 5(completely true), the extent to which items such as “My child seems tobe much harder to care for than most,” and “There are some things mychild does that really bother me a lot,” is true for them (mean = 1.74;SD = .91).
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RESULTS
Descriptive Analyses
Demographic comparisons between employed and nonemployedmothers are presented in Tables 1 and 2. The comparative analysis re-vealed that mothers in both groups were similar in age, as were the ageand gender of their children. However, chi-square results indicated sig-nificant differences in maternal education (p < .05). Additionally, t-testresults indicated significant differences in the number of children themother has (p < .01) and the number of adults in the household (p < .01),as employed mothers had fewer children and more adults in the house-hold than did the nonemployed mothers.
Financial Strain, Depressive Affect, and Parenting Stressin Employed and Nonemployed Mothers
Mean comparisons between financial strain, depressive affect andparenting stress indicated that employed and nonemployed mothers
Gyamfi, Brooks-Gunn, and Jackson 127
TABLE 1. Demographic Comparisons Between Employed and NonemployedMothers
Variables Employed(N = 93)
Nonemployed(N = 95)
Significancea
(p-value)
MeansMother's age (years) 28.87 28.42 ns(SD) (4.83) (5.32)Mean child's age (months) 55.14 56.69 ns(SD) (7.89) (6.87)Number of children mother has 1.77 2.25 2.91 (.00)Number of adults in household 2.04 1.58 �3.23 (.00)
(1.20) (.72)FrequenciesMom education
Some HS & less 14 25 6.23HS diploma & GED 6 13 (.02)Some educ. beyond HS 73 57
Child sexBoys 50 54 nsGirls 43 41
Father present in child's lifeb
Yes 55 50 nsNo 38 45
Note. aT-test conducted for continuous variables. Linear by linear association chi-square test of signifi-cance conducted for categorical variables. P-values in parentheses for both tests. bFather presence is de-termined by maternal reports of Y/N: does child see father regularly?
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were similar in financial strain (M = 2.89; SD = .74; M = 2.93; SD = .79,respectively). Mean differences for depressive affect for employed andnonemployed mothers were 14.45 (SD = 9.68) and 17.01 (SD = 11.23)respectively. Forty-four percent of the sample had scores above 16 onthe CES-D, indicating risk for depression. Mean differences for parentingstress for employed and nonemployed mothers were 1.59 (SD = .90)and 1.90 (SD = .89), respectively.
Analysis of covariance tests revealed significant differences for de-pressive affect (p < .10) and parental stress (p < .05) in the two groups.Employed mothers reported fewer symptoms of depression and less pa-rental stress than the nonemployed mothers did. Both groups of mothersreported similar levels of financial strain (see Table 2).
Intercorrelations between variables were calculated for both groupsin separate analyses. The results indicated that for employed mothers,financial strain (r = .25; p < .05) and maternal depressive affect (r = .37;p < .001) were significantly associated with parental stress. However,higher levels of education were significantly associated with decreasedparental stress (r = �.21; p < .05) and depressive affect (r = �.21; p <.05). The correlation results for employed mothers are presented inTable 3.
Intercorrelation results for nonemployed mothers revealed that fi-nancial strain was significantly positively associated with depressiveaffect (r = .38; p < .001), which was also significantly positively associ-ated with parental stress (r = .25; p < .05). Like employed mothers, a
128 WELFARE, WORK, AND WELL-BEING
TABLE 2. Mean Comparisons of Financial Strain and Maternal Mental HealthBetween Employed and Nonemployed Mothers
Employed Nonemployed Employed Nonemployed
Variables Sample Mean(SD)
Sample Mean(SD)
Predicted Mean(SE)
Predicted Mean(SE)
F
Financial straina 2.89 2.93 2.91 2.92 ns(0.74) (0.79) (.082) (.081)
Depressive affectb 14.45 17.01 14.29 17.17 3.20+
(9.68) (11.23) (1.12) (1.11)Parental stressc 1.59 1.90 1.58 1.89 4.98*
(0.90) (0.89) (.095) (.096)
Note. Analysis of covariance test controlling for number of children and number of adults in the household.aFinancial strain scale ranges from 1-4, with 4 indicating difficulty paying bills lately.bDepressive affect scores of 16 or above are considered to be at risk for depression.cParental stress scale ranges from 1-5, with 5 indicating more stress related to parenting.Sample means are presented with standard deviation in parentheses; Predicted means are presented withstandard error in parentheses. Employed (N = 93); Nonemployed (N = 95).* p < .05; + p < .10
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higher level of education for nonemployed mothers was significantlyassociated with decreased parental stress. The correlation results fornonemployed mothers are also presented in Table 3.
Associations Between Financial Strain and Mental Healthin Employed and Nonemployed Mothers
Regression analysis tested the additive effects of child’s gender,child’s age, mother’s age, mother’s education, number of children themother has, employment status, and financial strain on maternal depres-sive affect. The results revealed that mother’s education was signifi-cantly associated with maternal depressive affect (β = �4.72; p < .05),indicating that less educational attainment was linked to higher levels ofdepressive affect. Financial strain was also a significant correlate of de-pressive affect (β = 5.70; p < .001), whereby higher levels of financialstrain were associated with higher levels of depressive affect. An inter-action trend between financial strain by employment (β = �3.63; p <.10) suggested that depressive affect and financial strain were associ-ated for those who were not employed but not for those who were em-ployed. More specifically, higher levels of depressive affect were relatedto higher levels of financial strain for nonemployed mothers. The re-sults are presented in Table 4.
Parenting stress was the dependent variable in a second regressionanalysis. Mother’s education (β = �.32; p < .05), employment status(β = �.26; p < .10), child’s gender boy (β = �.27; p < .05), financial
Gyamfi, Brooks-Gunn, and Jackson 129
TABLE 3. Correlation Between Variables for Employed Mothers (below diago-nal), and Nonemployed Mothers (above diagonal)
MomAge
MomEducation
ChildSex
# ChildrenMother Has
ParentalStress
FinancialStrain
DepressAffect
Mom age �.09 �.10 .45*** �.14 .12 �.10Mom education �.04 .06 �.20 �.23* �.04 �.16Child sex .06 �.16 �.09 .03 �.12 .16# of childrenmother has
.47*** �.12 �.08 �.07 .03 �.03
Parental stress �.02 �.21* �.29** .02 .18 .25*Financial strain �.05 .14 �.11 �.07 .25* .38***Depressive affect �.10 �.21* .01 �.16 .37*** .15
Note. * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001Employed (n = 93); Nonemployed (n = 95)
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strain (β = .15; p < .10), and depressive affect (β = .00; p < .01) were as-sociated with parenting stress. The results suggest that attaining moreeducation, having a job, reporting lower levels of financial strain, anddepressive affect are related to less parenting stress. No interaction wasfound for financial strain by employment.
DISCUSSION
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity ReconciliationAct of 1996 (PRWORA) was introduced to move welfare families fromwelfare dependency to self-sufficiency. Keeping the tenets of PRWORAin perspective, the present study sought to investigate the correlates ofdepressive affect and parenting stress by examining two low-incomegroups on several variables. The groups consisted of former welfare re-cipients who are currently working for pay, and current welfare recipientswho are not employed. Few studies have done comparative analyses onemployed and nonemployed low-income groups while looking at indi-cators of well-being among single mothers (see McLoyd, 1999; Smith,
130 WELFARE, WORK, AND WELL-BEING
TABLE 4. Regression Analysis Predicting Depressive Affect
Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Child's gendera 1.50(1.53)
2.26(1.47)
2.25(1.46)
Child's age �.00(.10)
�.00(.10)
�.00(.10)
Mother's age �.16(.17)
�.20(.16)
�.22(.16)
Mother's educationb �4.81*(1.90)
�4.77**(1.82)
�4.72*(1.81)
# of children mother has �.60(.77)
�.47(.73)
�.48(.73)
Employment statusc �2.39(1.58)
�2.13(1.51)
8.43(5.69)
Financial strain 4.03***(.96)
5.70***(1.29)
Employment � Financial strain �3.63+
(1.89)
Adjusted R2 .037 .119 .132∆R2 .084 .017
Note. Unstandardized coefficients with standard error in parentheses.(N = 188) + p < .10; * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.aChild's gender dummy coded as 0 = boy; 1 = girl.bMother's education dummy coded as 0 = high school not completed;1 = high school grad and beyond.cEmployment Status dummy coded as 0 = nonemployed; 1 = employed.
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Brooks-Gunn & Jackson, 1997). As might be expected, employed moth-ers tended to have completed more years of school and have fewer chil-dren than nonemployed mothers did; other studies have suggested thatsuch mothers are likely to leave welfare earlier (Harris, 1997).
As hypothesized, employed mothers reported fewer symptoms of de-pression and stress than nonemployed mothers. According to Belle(1990), women experiencing chronic stressful conditions, particularlythose with financial problems, single-parent status and lack of employ-ment are more likely to suffer from mild to chronic depressive symp-toms, which have been found to be indirectly linked to child outcomesvia parenting behavior. Other researchers have found that unemploy-ment and job loss are likely to increase psychological distress (McLoyd,Jayaretne, Ceballo & Borquez, 1994; Thompson & Ensminger, 1989).In one study, work conditions (such as occupational complexity) wereassociated with greater maternal cognitive stimulation, and having aregular work schedule was associated with more positive child-parentinteractions (Kalil & Corcoran, 1998). In addition, many parents suffer-ing from psychological distress have reported less positive attitudesabout parenting, often viewing the parenting role as difficult and un-satisfying. Often, such parents engage in inconsistent and harsh parenting(McLoyd, 1990; Jackson, Gyamfi, Brooks-Gunn & Blake, 1998). Sev-eral studies have suggested that such parents tend to be more critical andless affectionate toward their children (Conger et al., 1994; Elder, 1974;McLoyd, 1998; McLoyd, 1990). As expected, our findings were consis-tent with these few studies.
However, our findings also indicated that being employed did not re-duce financial strain overall, suggesting that employed mothers werenot earning more. Employed mothers were earning on average $8 anhour and working for about 35 hours per week. The opportunities forhigher wage jobs do seem uncertain (Edin & Lein, 1997; Edin & Jencks,1992). Those who have left welfare in the past several years still hoveraround the poverty threshold (Cancian, Haveman, Kaplan, Meyer &Wolfe, 1999). Research indicates that inconsistent full-time work pat-terns are common among welfare leavers, which may influence thelives of families in terms of income stability (Cancian et al., 1999; Har-ris, 1997). According to Bane (1997), the danger of the new welfare lawis in the flexibility afforded at the state level, particularly since unem-ployment rates differ. Many former welfare recipients will likely faceemployment hurdles and insufficient training opportunities, given thatvital businesses that can provide stable employment for recipients arelacking in urban neighborhoods (Bane, 1997).
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Also as expected, links between employment and depressive affectwere moderated by financial strain. Financial strain and depressive af-fect were associated for nonemployed mothers, but not for employedmothers. This finding suggests that although employed mothers wereexperiencing financial strain, it was not contributing to their depressiveaffect. Perhaps employed mothers were feeling more efficacious, sinceemployment has been found to be associated with positive effects forlow-income, single mothers (Harvey, 1999; Jackson, 2000). Currentstudies have noted that maternal employment has become economicallyessential for families, especially with the increase of single parenthoodand TANF requirements.
There are some important limitations that should be acknowledged.First, all the measures were obtained from maternal self-reports, and theextent to which they match actual behavior is unknown. However, thereliability and validity of all measures have been established, althoughthe financial strain variable had a low alpha coefficient (.56) due to thelimited number of items. The low alpha coefficient may limit the abilityto find effects. Second, the data are cross-sectional, and longitudinaldata clearly are necessary to establish causal links that may exist amongvariables. Third, while this study focuses on former welfare recipientsnow in the job market, these results may not generalize to welfare recip-ients who have begun the transition to employment because of sanc-tions imposed by the welfare law of 1996. Mothers who were employedwhen these data were collected may be better functioning than theirpeers who have joined the paid labor force because of welfare time lim-its and sanctions. Future longitudinal studies should include both em-ployed and nonemployed mothers who enter and leave the job marketboth voluntarily and because of time limitations and sanctions. Lastly,all of the mothers in the nonemployed group were expected to partici-pate in self-sufficiency activities in line with New York City require-ments. Consequently, these recipients were receiving benefits with theexpectation of joining the workforce. However, time limits were not inplace.
It is important to note that moves into the workforce are not likely toalleviate family conditions related to economic problems unless accom-panied by a reduction in financial strain (Brooks-Gunn et al., in press).As the present findings suggest, although mothers exited welfare andmoved into the workforce, they still reported parenting stress, whichwas in part due to financial strain. Indeed, for low-income families, in-come and employment are inextricably intertwined. Factors such as loweducational attainment and social problems (like discrimination and
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prejudice) have resulted in employed parents of color earning low sala-ries and working in jobs where upward mobility is unlikely, increasingthe likelihood of persistent poverty (Jencks & Phillips, 1998). Not sur-prisingly, higher levels of education seem to increase the likelihood ofmaternal mental health, regardless of employment status. These find-ings have implications for successfully moving welfare recipients intothe workforce by targeting programs that focus on making higher educa-tion more attainable and increasing wage rates for low-skilled workers.
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