Staying in school: Maternal employment and the timing of black and white daughters' school exit

Most research examining the influences of maternal employment focuses on the mother and the child at only one stage of the child's life. By contrast, this study examines how temporal and status aspects of mothers' jobs during daughters' early childhood (aged 0 to 6), preadolescence (aged 7 to 12), and adolescence (aged 13 to 18) affect a key transition: the rate that daughters leave school. The sample consists of 246 White and 188 Black daughters aged 18 to 23 in 1990, drawing on data from both mothers and daughters from the 1968-1990 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Findings suggest that part-time maternal employment during any point in childhood increases the likelihood that Black, but not White, daughters will remain in school. Maternal employment characteristics have little influence in determining whether White daughters remain in school.