Temperament among Children of Employed and Unemployed Mothers

This study compared temperament in children whose mothers are employed with children whose mothers are not employed. It included 120 children in each group, aged 9 to 16, from Varanasi city. Data were collected with personality inventories for preadolescents and late adolescents and analysed with t-tests. The abstract reports a significant difference in temperament between the two groups.

Key points

• The sample was 120 children of employed mothers and 120 children of unemployed mothers.
• The children lived in Varanasi city and were aged 9 to 16 years.
• Two Multidimensional Personality Inventories were used, one for ages 9 to 12 and one for ages 13 to 16.
• Data were analysed using the t-test.
• A significant difference in temperament was found between children of employed and unemployed mothers.

Limitations

The abstract does not say which temperament traits differed, in which direction, or how large the difference was. It also does not describe how the sample was chosen or whether other factors such as family income or education were considered, and a group comparison cannot show that maternal employment caused the difference.