Work

Mothers’ Work Status and 17‐Month‐Olds’ Productive Vocabulary

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Literature examining the effects of mothers' work status on infant language development is mixed, with little focus on varying work-schedules and early vocabulary. We use naturalistic data to analyze the productive vocabulary of 44 17-month-olds in relation to mothers' work status (Full-time, Part-time, Stay-at-home) at 6 and 18 months. Infants who experienced a combination of care from mothers and other caretakers had larger productive vocabularies than infants in solely full-time maternal or solely other-caretaker care. Our results draw from naturalistic data to suggest that this care combination may be particularly beneficial for early lexical development.

Source: Infancy

DOI: 10.1111/infa.12265

Authors: Catherine Laing, Elika Bergelson

Institutions: Cardiff University, Duke University

Language: English

Topic: Language Development and Disorders

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institutes of Health