Young People’s emotional well-being: The impact of parental employment patterns Dr Linda Cusworth Social Policy Research Unit, University of York International Society for Child Indicators Conference July 2011

Outline of presentation  Introduction  Social context  Policy context  Theoretical context  Methodology  Results  Relevance to policy  Conclusions and further research

Introduction  Starting point  More than ‘working mothers’ debate  Huge changes in parental employment  Child poverty targets and policies  Limitations of previous research  Aims  Investigate any relationships between patterns of parental employment and young people’s educational and emotional well-being  Examine the impact of the timing of parental employment  Consider the role of other individual, parental and family factors

Social context  Trends in parental employment patterns  Men and women

. Source: Labour Force Survey from Hakim (1996a); from ONS (2002). Notes: no data available Economic activity rates of men and women,

 Trends in parental employment patterns  Men and women  Women by age-group Social context

Source: , Census data, from Halsey, 1988; 2001 Census and Labour Force Survey, from ONS (2001a) Female economic activity rates, by age- group,

 Trends in parental employment patterns  Men and women  Women by age-group  Women’s part-time employment  The influence of children  Household worklessness Social context

Distribution of employment across households,

 Trends in parental employment patterns  Men and women  Women by age-group  Women’s part-time employment  The influence of children  Household worklessness  Explaining the trends Social context

 Pre-1990s  Voluntary action vs. regulation  New Labour  Maternity leave and pay  Paternity rights  Parental leave  National Childcare Strategy  Welfare to Work  Making Work Pay  Conservative policies? Policy context

 Meritocracy  Social mobility  Intergenerational transmission  Forms of capital approach  Human/economic  Social  Cultural Theoretical context

 Quantitative  Secondary analysis  British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)  British Youth Panel (BYP)  Sample  Youth sample (7,347) Methodology

 During 4 periods  Infancy (0-1)  Pre-school (1-5)  Primary (5-11)  Current (when aged 11-15)  Father  Employed  Not in employment  Mother  Employed full-time  Employed part-time  Not in employment Measures of parental employment(1)

 Parental (dual parent families)  Father employed/mother full-time  Father employed/mother part-time  Father employed/mother not in employment  Father not in employment/mother employed  Father not in employment/mother not in employment (workless household)  Parental (lone mother families)  Full-time employment  Part-time employment  Not in employment Measures of parental employment(2)

Measures of parental employment(3)  Number of earners (at each stage)  No earners  One earner  Two earners  Workless household (at each stage)  No  Yes  Ever workless  No  Yes

Other variables  Low household income (60% median)  Family social class  At least one car  Housing tenure  Family type  Family conflict  Family communication  Parental emotional well-being  Parental educational qualifications  Child age  Gender

 Uni-variate  Frequency tables  Measures of central tendency/dispersion  Bi-variate logistic regressions  Each indicator/single explanatory variable  Multi-variate logistic regression  Forwards stepwise  Odds ratio  Proportion of variance explained  Model of best fit Methods

 What is it?  Why is it important?  How is it measured?  What is the evidence?  Parental employment  Socio-economic factors  Family factors  Parents’ emotional well-being  Parental qualifications  Children’s own characteristics Emotional well-being

 Troubled  Feel unhappy or depressed  Lose sleep worrying about things  Self-efficacy  Feel have a number of good qualities  I feel I am a likeable person  Self-esteem  Feel useless at times  Feel I am a failure  Feel I am no good at all  Happiness  How feel about family; friends; appearance; school; life as a whole Indicators of emotional well-being

Troubled 36.0% Low self-efficacy 11.2% Low self-esteem 44.7% Unhappy 22.2%

Bivariate odds – father’s employment Change in odds if unemployed TroubledUnhappyLow self- efficacy Low self- esteem Current

Bivariate odds – mother’s employment Change in odds compared to full-time TroubledUnhappyLow self- efficacy Low self- esteem CurrentPT Not 0-1PT Not 1-5PT Not 5-11PT Not

Bi-variate odds – number of earners Change in odds compared to no earners TroubledUnhappyLow self- efficacy Low self- esteem CurrentOne Two 0-1One Two 1-5One Two 5-11One Two

Statistically significant, but substantively small

Bi-variate odds – other variables  Troubled  Family conflict, mother EWB, gender  Unhappy  Family conflict, communication, age  Low self-efficacy  Housing tenure, conflict, communication, father qualifications  Low self-esteem  Conflict, gender Each explained more than 1% of variance

Multivariate model – feeling troubled  Mother currently not in employment compared with full-time employment ↓ feeling more troubled  High family conflict ↑  Poor mother emotional well-being ↑  Female ↑  Older ↑  Step or lone parent family ↑  Model explains very little of variance

Multivariate model – being unhappy (lone mother families)  Mother working part-time or not in the labour market ↓ being unhappy  Mother’s earlier pattern of employment entered model, but not statistically significant  High family conflict ↑  Poor family communication ↑  Female ↑

 Living with 2 earners ↓ being unhappy  High family conflict ↑  Poor family communication ↑  Poor mother emotional well-being ↑  Female ↑  Older ↑ Multivariate model – being unhappy (dual parent families)

 Mother’s employment (current and earlier) entered model, but not statistically significant  High family conflict ↑  Poor family communication ↑  Not having a car ↑ Multivariate model – low self-efficacy (lone parent families)

 Number of earners (current and earlier) entered model, but not statistically significant  High family conflict ↑  Poor family communication ↑  Living in rented accommodation ↑  Step family ↑  Poor mother/father emotional well-being ↑  Female ↑ Multivariate model – low self-efficacy (dual parent families)

 Mother in part-time or not in employment ↓ low self-esteem  Mother part-time when aged 5-11 ↓ low self- esteem  High family conflict ↑  Female ↑  Poor mother emotional well-being ↑ Multivariate model – low self-esteem (lone mother families)

 No current earners ↑ low self-esteem  Earlier number of earners in model, but not statistically significant  No car ↑  High family conflict ↑  Poor mother emotional well-being ↑  Father lower level qualifications ↑  Female ↑  Age ↑ Multivariate model – low self-esteem (dual parent families)

 In general, parental employment positive for emotional well-being  Financial capital  Nurturing role of mothers  Social capital  Earlier employment generally not significant  Other factors have greater influence  Family conflict  Mother’s EWB  Policy implications Summary and conclusions