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Biomedical subjects

E G Menaghan

Publications and source records attributed to E G Menaghan.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

The intergenerational costs of parental social stressors: academic and social difficulties in early adolescence for children of young mothers.

Social stressors embedded in parents' occupational and family roles have been shown to have effects on family interaction and the cognitive and emotional development of young children. Here we consider whether these patterns also hold for children in early adolescence. We study 1,158 10 to 14-year-old children born to the early childbearers among the female respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cohort. We find that both poor quality of parental employment and low quality of mothers' relationships with their partners have adverse effects on the cognitive stimulation and maternal warmth children receive; living in informal unions is also associated with poorer parent-child interaction. These family interaction patterns in turn both buffer the effects of stressful family conditions and shape academic and behavior outcomes directly. Some work and family conditions interact in their effects: In particular, single mothering has less adverse effects on cognitive stimulation and behavior problems when mothers are employed in occupations providing higher complexity. The effects of current conditions are diminished but seldom eliminated when we control for possible selection effects by using data from earlier waves to control for earlier levels of child problems. These findings suggest that current parental social stressors continue to have consequences for both academic and behavioral outcomes during early adolescence.

Achievement↗
PubMed1997

Effects of low-wage employment on family well-being.

Assumptions about the processes that link a mother's employment to the development of her child must underlie expectations about how children may fare when their mothers move from welfare dependence into employment. This article explores the idea, mentioned in the research overview by Zaslow and Emig in this journal issue, that the working conditions such as wages, work hours, and task complexity that mothers experience on the job can influence their behavior as parents and shape the home environments they provide for their children. This article discusses the significance of home environments for children's intellectual and emotional development and considers how home surroundings change when mothers begin jobs that are more rewarding or less rewarding. The authors conclude that, while maternal employment is not necessarily harmful, if welfare recipients find only low-wage, stressful jobs, working may prove costly for both family and child well-being. The authors recommend that welfare-to-work programs devote attention to (1) assisting mothers to obtain more complex work at good wages, (2) helping mothers understand the role home environments play in shaping children's development, and (3) encouraging parents to make their children's home surroundings as positive as possible.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The effects of maternal working conditions and mastery on child behavior problems: studying the intergenerational transmission of social control.

We assess the impact of maternal sense of mastery and maternal working conditions on maternal perceptions of children's behavior problems as a means to study the transmission of social control across generations. We use a sample of 521 employed mothers and their four-to six-year-old children from the National Longitudinal Survey's Youth Cohort in 1986. Regarding working conditions, we consider mother's hourly wage, work hours, and job content including involvement with things (vs. people), the requisite level of physical activity, and occupational complexity. We also consider maternal and child background and current family characteristics, including marital status, family size, and home environment. Maternal mastery was related to fewer reported behavior problems among children. Lower involvement with people and higher involvement with things, as well as low physical activity, were related significantly to higher levels of perceived problems. In addition, recent changes in maternal marital status, including maternal marriage or remarriage, increased reports of problems; stronger home environments had the opposite effect. We interpret these findings as suggesting how maternal experiences of control in the workplace and personal resources of control can influence the internalization of control in children.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

The stress process.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1978

Seeking help for parental concerns in the middle years.

This study focuses on a single problem--parents' concerns about their late adolescent and adult children--and traces the decision to seek assistance from the parental concerns which prompt it to the relief which may follow it. The extent of parents' concerns about their 16- to 35-year-old children was strongest when the family was in the midst of launching and the oldest child was 21 to 25. While parents reporting more concerns were more likely to be distressed, parental distress also differed by sex and parental optimism, especially at earlier family stages. Women and more pessimistic parents were more distressed. At later stages, these had little impact. Among help seekers, greater distress was associated with lesser use of family members and greater use of formal helpers. Parents with a strong sense of personal mastery were more likely to use formal helpers, particularly where lower income would otherwise predispose against use of formal help. Kind of help received rather than choice of helper was the strongest contributor to reported relief.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The determinants of first sex by age 14 in a high-risk adolescent population.

A study using data for mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and their children aged 14 or older indicates that, after accounting for a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic antecedents, children are significantly more likely to become sexually active before age 14 if their mother had sex at an early age and if she has worked extensively. In addition, early sexual debut is eight times as likely among black boys as among non-Hispanic white boys. Children who use controlled substances at an early age are more than twice as likely to have sex before age 14 as those who do not, although the type of substance having an effect is different for girls (cigarettes) and boys (alcohol). Church attendance is an important determinant of delayed sexual activity, but only when a child's friends attend the same church.

Adolescent↗