TY - JOUR T1 - Parental Employment and Child Cognitive Development JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 155 LP - 192 DO - 10.3368/jhr.XXXIX.1.155 VL - XXXIX IS - 1 AU - Christopher J. Ruhm Y1 - 2004/01/01 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXIX/1/155.abstract N2 - Maternal employment during the first three years of the child’s life has a small deleterious effect on estimated verbal ability of three- and fouryear- olds and a larger negative impact on reading and mathematics achievement of five- and six-year-olds. This study provides a more pessimistic assessment than most prior research for two reasons. First, previous analyses often control crudely for differences in child and household characteristics. Second, the negative relationships are more pronounced for the reading and mathematics performance of five- and six-year-old children than for the verbal scores of three- and four-year-olds. ER -