Understanding the relationships between mothers’ work conditions, economic hardship, and children’s externalizing problems among working single-mother families

Song, EunJee

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130134 Copy

Description

Title

Understanding the relationships between mothers’ work conditions, economic hardship, and children’s externalizing problems among working single-mother families

Author(s)

Song, EunJee

Issue Date

2025-07-01

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Zhan, Min

Committee Member(s)

• Wu, Chi-Fang
• Kim, Hyunil
• LaSota, Robin
• Hong, Jun Sung

Department of Study

School of Social Work

Discipline

Social Work

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Single mothers, Externalizing behavior, Economic hardship, Parenting

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among mothers’ work hours, economic hardship, and children’s externalizing behavior, with particular attention to the mediating role of parenting quality and the varying effects of child sex and work schedule type in single-mother families. As maternal employment has steadily increased in recent decades, especially among low-income single mothers, concerns have grown regarding the impact of work-related stress and financial hardship on parenting and child development. Many of these mothers are employed in low-wage, unstable jobs that offer limited flexibility and few benefits, potentially disrupting consistent caregiving and increasing the risk of behavioral problems in children. This study draws on secondary data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a nationally representative longitudinal dataset that oversampled nonmarital births in 20 large U.S. cities. The analytic sample includes 803 single mothers who lived continuously with their child from birth through age five and were employed when the child was one year old. Mothers’ work hours and economic hardship were measured at child age one, parenting activities at age three, and children’s externalizing behaviors at age five. Parenting quality was tested as a mediator, and subgroup differences by child sex and mothers’ work schedule type (standard versus nonstandard) were examined. Data were analyzed using the SPSS PROCESS macro (version 4.0), with bootstrapped mediation models and stratified subgroup analyses. The findings show that mothers’ work hours were not significantly associated with children’s externalizing behavior and did not predict parenting quality. Parenting quality also did not mediate the relationship between work hours and child behavior. Economic hardship, however, directly predicted higher levels of children’s externalizing behavior but did not influence parenting quality or serve as a mediating pathway. When analyses were stratified by child sex, economic hardship was a significant predictor of externalizing behavior among boys only. Parenting quality remained non-significant for both boys and girls. Among mothers with standard work schedules, higher parenting quality was associated with fewer behavior problems in children, suggesting a direct protective effect. This relationship was not observed among mothers with nonstandard schedules. These findings underscore the direct effect of economic hardship on child behavior and suggest that the influence of parenting quality may depend on maternal employment conditions. Mothers’ educational attainment also consistently predicted both parenting engagement and child outcomes, highlighting its critical role. Although the hypothesized mediation effect was not supported, this study contributes to our understanding of how maternal employment, financial strain, and parenting are linked to early childhood behavioral development in single-mother families. This study offers implications for practice, policy, and research. Practical recommendations include reducing material hardship and expanding educational access for single mothers. Policy suggestions emphasize the importance of affordable, flexible childcare, stable job scheduling, and investment in two-generation programs. Practice should focus on integrated, strengths-based approaches that support responsive caregiving amid economic stress. Future research should broaden sampling, examine mediators like maternal mental health and social support, and use longitudinal and qualitative methods better to understand children’s development in low-income single-mother families.

Graduation Semester

2025-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130134

Copyright and License Information

© 2025 Eunjee Song All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the author’s prior written permission.

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