Maternal life satisfaction and child development from toddlerhood to adolescence.

Autor/inn/en	Gupta, Nabanita Datta; Jessen, Jonas; Spiess, C. Katharina
Institution	Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung
Titel	Maternal life satisfaction and child development from toddlerhood to adolescence.
Quelle	Wiesbaden (2023), 23, VII S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	BiB Working Paper. 2-2023
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monographie
ISSN	2196-9574
URN	urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-90069-0
Schlagwörter	Kompetenz; Sozioökonomisches Panel; Psychosoziale Entwicklung; Wohlbefinden; Zufriedenheit; Mutter; Kind; Kleinkind; Leben; Jugendlicher
Abstract	In this paper we analyse the association between maternal well-being and child development at different ages. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) which captures maternal life satisfaction and numerous cognitive and non-cognitive child development outcomes. We identify a strong positive association between mothers' life satisfaction and their children's development when these are toddlers (2-3 years, VAB scores), of primary school age (5-10 years, SEB scores and Big 5) and in adolescence (11-14 years, life satisfaction, school grades and self-reported Big 5). This relationship holds when we control for a wide range of potentially confounding factors, including maternal education, employment, household income and maternal personality traits. We confirm our main findings with an IV estimation where we instrument contemporaneous maternal life satisfaction with that measured pre-birth and with a value-added model as some child outcomes are observed twice at different ages. Our findings suggest that mothers' life satisfaction is beneficial for their children's development at all ages and that it is fruitful for policy makers to identify measures through which maternal well-being can be raised.
Erfasst von	GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Mannheim
Update	2024/1