The Work and Family Transitions Project

Psychology Department

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Funded by National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH06577)

Over the past three decades, pressures associated with parental employment, work conditions, work schedules, and child care have become growing concerns of new parents due to the sharp rise in women's employment rates.   Of the 3.7 million women with infants under the age of 1 in 2003, 59 percent were in the labor force, a record high and almost double the 31 percent rate of 1976.   The rate of employment among married mothers with infants was slightly higher at 60.0%, while single mothers' employment rate was 54.4%.   Clearly the "working mother" has become the norm in the United States, yet there is still little consensus about the short- and long-term consequences of parental employment conditions for both parents and children.

Despite the fact that the majority of new mothers return to paid employment within 6 months of their child's birth, the transition to parenthood literature has paid little attention to the effects of this second transition on the mental health and relationships of mothers, fathers, and infants.   In addition, we know even less about how social and cultural factors, such as race, ethnicity, social class and family structure, shape how parents and children cope and develop across these multiple transitions.   In our ongoing project, we explore how families with fewer economic resources cope with the demands of new parenthood coupled with the demands of maintaining full-time employment.   Our data clearly indicate that the lower-income working families face unique challenges as compared to their middle-class counterparts.   We are also interested in how racial and ethnic factors as well as family structure (e.g., two- vs. single-parent families) may shape new parents experiences of work and family life in different ways.   To address these issues a longitudinal study is currently underway at the University of Massachusetts Amherst that has been ongoing since 1996 and is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.   Linked below, the two key projects that comprise the Work and Family Transitions Project are explained.