Degree Name

Education Specialist (EdS)

Semester of Degree Completion

1980

Thesis Director

Paul D. Overton

Abstract

Statement of Problem

Most parents face the question of whether the wife should seek employment outside the home during the years that their children are attending elementary school. Many families have no choice since the costs of daily living make it necessary to pursue a double income. A large portion of parents do, however, have a choice as to whether the mother should go to work. In many homes the second income goes toward obtaining some of the "extra-things" not normally available due to financial limitations.

Mothers who work outside of the home will have less time to stay home relatively and take care of their children. Furthermore, after she returns from her place of employment, her strength will compare unfavorable maybe even be exhausted. This may affect on her care of children. Cyrus (1952) found that the working mother's child is more irritable. Now Taiwan, Republic of China is stepping into industrialized society, and the number of working mothers is increasing; therefore, this topic needs to studied "what is the effect of maternal employment on the scholastic performance of children?"

Purpose of This Study

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if children with working mothers do in fact differ from children with nonworking mothers in school achievement as numerous educators and sociologists profess. More specifically, answers to the following questions were sought:

1. Is there a difference in school achievement among children from homes where the mother works full-time, part-time, or not at all?

2. Do boys and girls differ in school achievement among the maternal employment groups?

Conclusions

1. Maternal Employment And Intelligence. There is no difference in intelligence among children from homes where the mothers works full-time, part-time, or not at all.

2. Maternal Employment And School Achievement. There is no difference in school achievement among children from homes where the mothers works full-time, part-time, or not at all i.e. hypothesis 1,2,3, and 4 were rejected. The reason why might be that early elementary children were too young to quality to have achievement effected by the maternal employment status.

3. Sex Difference Of School Achievement Were Concluded As Follows: (a) There is no significant sex difference in first semester of first year. (b) In second semester of the first year, girls' grade point was higher than boys' for Chinese Language Arts and grade point average of 3 courses, but there was no difference on Arithmetic and Social Studies. (c) In the whole first year, girls' grade point was higher than boys' on Chinese Language Arts and grade point average, but Arithmetic and Social Studies are not significant. (d) In the first semester of second year, girls' grade point was higher than boys' on Chinese Language Arts and Arithmetic, but Social Studies and grade point average were not. (e) In the second semester of second year, there were significant differences between boys and girls on all 3 courses and grade point average. Girls were higher. (f) In the whole second year there were significant differences between boys and girls except for Social Studies, with girls being higher. (g) In the whole two years, girls were higher than boys on all 3 courses and grade point average.

There was no significant interaction among boys and girls i.e. boys and girls did not differ in school achievement among the maternal employment groups at any period or for any courses in the first two years of elementary school. Hypothesis 5,6,7, and 8 were accepted.

Recommendations

1. One of the findings of this investigation was that there is no difference in school achievement among maternal employment groups. The wise woman surely does not use all other ability outside of home, but she still faithfully carries out her duties in the home as well.

2. There are sex differences in school achievement of early elementary school children. The teacher should pay attention to the sex differences in his/her instruction.

3. The subjects of the present study were first two grade students of elementary school. If we want to understand the entire situation, we should continue studying what happens with the older students of elementary schools, high school students and college students.

4. This study only gives heed to the maternal employment status, and did not notice to the kind of profession, the official position, the children caring, the level of satisfaction of working mother, and the attitude of children toward maternal employment etc. Those factors should be noticed in the further studies.

5. There were some studies found where boys were higher than girls on mathematics and social studies, but the results of this study were opposite. The reason why has not been answered by the author. Is there a racial difference or not? That needs to be studied.

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