Maternal Employment and Childhood Obesity: A Search for Mechanisms in Time Use Data / John Cawley, Feng Liu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cawley, John.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Liu, Feng.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w13600.

NBER working paper series no. w13600

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Maternal Employment and Childhood Obesity

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.

Summary:

Recent research has found that maternal employment is associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity. This paper explores mechanisms for that correlation. We estimate models of instrumental variables using a unique dataset, the American Time Use Survey, that measure the effect of maternal employment on the mother's allocation of time to activities related to child diet and physical activity. We find that employed women spend significantly less time cooking, eating with their children, and playing with their children, and are more likely to purchase prepared foods. We find suggestive evidence that these decreases in time are only partly offset by husbands and partners. These findings offer plausible mechanisms for the association of maternal employment with childhood obesity.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2007.