Child health and parental paid work

Peter Burton, Kelly Chen (), Lynn Lethbridge () and Shelley Phipps
Additional contact information
Kelly Chen: Digonex Technologies Inc.
Lynn Lethbridge: Dalhousie University

Review of Economics of the Household, 2017, vol. 15, issue 2, No 11, 597-620

Abstract: Abstract We ask how the paid work of Canadian married mothers and fathers is affected when a child has a physical/mental condition or health problem that leads to restrictions in daily activities. Using the Statistics Canada National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, we find that married mothers of children with disabilities are less likely to engage in paid work and/or work fewer paid hours per week. No statistically significant changes in paid work participation or hours are apparent for fathers of the same children. We find, moreover, evidence that the degree of specialization within families increases when there is a child with a disability. These responses are consistent with traditional gender roles within families, and may make sense as a ‘household’ coping strategy. However, such a division of labor may generate economic vulnerability for mothers compared to fathers.

Keywords: Child disability; Maternal labor force participation; Within-household; Intra-household; Family; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 J14 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11150-014-9251-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:reveho:v:15:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s11150-014-9251-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/11150/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11150-014-9251-z

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economics of the Household is currently edited by Shoshana Grossbard

More articles in Review of Economics of the Household from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().