New Columbia University Study Provides Good News for Working Moms

Good news for working moms! A recent study by researchers at Columbia University published in this month's Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development shows that children in homes where the mother works during the first year of life don't suffer the setbacks they were previously assumed to have when compared to children who are raised by a stay-at-home parent. The recent study was the most comprehensive evaluation to date of how children are affected by a mother's decision to work outside the home (both full-time or part-time), and included analysis of more than 1,000 children across the United States. The study concluded that while were slight delays in cognitive development noted in children who didn't have a parent around full-time, these delays usually became insignificant after first grade (meaning there was no notable long-term affect on intellectual aptitude) and was generally offset in early years by an improved financial situation (in the two-income household) and increased mother attentiveness, responsiveness and interaction when she was present.

There are few debates that really irk me as much as the "working mom" versus "stay-at-home mom" showdown. This study reinforces the rightness of fit principle: every family is unique and each family situation is different and each family operates differently. The ideal family model should be one in which there is unconditional love, unequivocal respect and unending compassion, encouragement & support. The rest is just mechanics.

Hopefully the findings of this study will enable mothers who do make the decision to work outside the home do so with more empowerment and less guilt, realizing that they can be fully-attuned, present parents in their children's lives.