Making the (right) time for parenting

Ever since women began entering the workforce, they have struggled to find the right balance between work and family life in order to have enough quality time with the kids.

Now, that struggle might become a little easier, thanks to a new study by a University of Toronto Mississauga professor, which reveals surprising insights on the link between the time a mother spends with her kids and their developmental outcomes.

Sociology professor Melissa Milkie examined the relationship between the amount of time a mother spends with her child and the child’s well-being by analyzing the outcomes of two groups: young children ages 3 to 11, and adolescents ages 12 to 18. She looked at two types of mother’s time: directly engaging in activities with kids, and just being in the kids’ vicinity. Her key finding? Engaged time with mom can have a greater impact on the outcomes of adolescents versus young children.

“Time may be more precious to an older child, because at that age, they have many outside interests and activities, so that time with their mother may be more meaningful,” Milkie says. “Perhaps there’s also something important about being in an activity together that conveys meaning to that older child, that represents a parent’s values, or that makes that child feel like they matter.”

Conducted with academics at the University of Maryland and Bowling Green State University and published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, the study is based on data from the Child Development Supplement of the 2002 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. families. Specifically, the researchers looked at what the participating 1,605 children and 778 adolescents included in their time diaries, which featured information on how, where and with whom they spent their time.

From the data, the researchers learned that the quantity of time a mother spends with their young children — whether participating in activities with them or just present — did not relate to their emotional or behavioral health, or their math and reading scores. Among adolescents, the more time mothers actively engaged in activities with them, the less likely they were to take part in delinquent behaviour, such as skipping school, shoplifting, staying out at night without permission, and getting in trouble at school or with the law.

In explaining why younger kids may not benefit as much from more time with mom — a finding that may seem counterintuitive to many mothers — Milkie says that while young children generally have more access to their mothers, a recent study using the same data shows that it’s the quality, not the quantity, of time that can make the most difference in how they fare. For example, she says, activities such as reading, eating meals or attending events can have positive behavioural results, but they can be offset by the negative impact of too much time together in unstructured activities, such as watching television.

The study also found that the amount of time mothers and fathers together participated in joint activities with their teens was connected to less delinquent behaviour, decreased substance abuse and higher math marks. The findings also revealed that a mother’s social and economic resources, such as education level, and distress levels also significantly influence childhood and adolescent well-being.

“Social class status outweighs the time factor…poverty is obviously related to kids’ outcomes through numerous pathways,” Milkie says. “If we want to help kids, we want to do things to help families that need more resources.”