The Impact of Working Parents on Children:

An Interview with Author Ellen Galinsky

Aired February 15, 2000

David C. Barnett–The Families and Work Institute in New York recently explored the impact of working parents on children through the words of the children themselves. Ellen Galinsky is the author of the study, "Ask the Children," and she joins us on the phone. Good morning.

Ellen Galinsky–Good morning.

DCB–What was the initial impression that went into this study, that kids' views were not being taken into consideration?

EG–I think there are a number of reasons whjy nobody had ever asked children before. I think one reason is that parents were really afraid to know what kids thought because I think that they thought their kids would be very critical of them, that's number one, and number two, I think that there's a larger societal issue where we think that maybe children don't really know very much, that the way that it's been typically said to me is that if given a choice between broccoli and dessert, kids would choose dessert. I don't think that you can listen to the words of children in this book as well as their parents without not only feeling that there is so much to learn from them, and learn from their parents in a way that makes us be a better parent. I learned so much in doing this, and I've been doing this kind of research all my life.

DCB–Did you run into hesitancy from the parents to even let you talk to the children?

EG–In some cases, yes, sometimes parents would say, "you can talk to my children, but tell me what they say," and then we'd say no. The child has to feel that it's confidential, but what I've found is that because of this book, parents all over the country now have started to broach these taboo subjects, that in fact kids felt 31% about their fathers and 35% about their mothers, those were the kids that felt their parents were doing a good job at knowing what was going on in their lives, and i think that this book has helped not only ehlped us think about work and family in different ways, profoundly different ways, but it helps us as parents talk to our children.

DCB–Did you study all socio-economic levels?

EG–Yes. The way that I did this study was first, brought in researchers who studied the impact of fathers' and mothers' work on kids and asked them not only what they have learned, what surprised them, what advice they would give to us. Then we did a literature review on the subject for the American Academy of Pediatrics, because to help pediatricians to know how to talk to parents about what the literature really says versus what our opinions are, and then I went out around the country and talked to kids and parents in fifteen states within families so that you can get parents' and kids' perceptions and see whether they were the same or different within a family, and the we did a national respresentative survey, it was done in English classes of children in the 3rd through the 12th grade.

DCB–I'm wondering if there were differences between the children of welfare or working-class parents and thjose where the parents are just career professionals and may not necessarily have to work, but just do it out of a career option?

EG–There was a difference based on the child's perception of the family's economic need. The children who felt that their families were struggling economically saw their parents much less positively. The children who felt that their parents were not struggling saw their parents more positively and tow things I want to say about that. The first is that we all know people who grew up poor and who didn't know they were poor, so part of this is the way that parents convey money to their children, and the second thing is that money has had such a bad connotation in the issues of work and family life that the assumption is many parents are working out of greed, but yet the children who feel that their families are secure economically feel that their families have time to focus on them and really connect with them, which is what's really important to kids, that their parents are there for them is the way that kids talk about.

DCB–Got about a minute left, did you get into at all the recent research on brain development of young children and the need to have the parent there in the early years?

EG–Well, in fact, we are insome ways largely responsible for the interest in the brain development. We held a conference at the University of Chicago that launched a lot of this interest more than four years ago, and what that research shows is that the relationships are the way that the children's brain development and you're doing a program on child care, so it's not just the relationships with families, but also the child care providers. The first years do not determine fully what a child's going to become, but they are an important foundation. Kids keep growing and learning forever, that's what the brain research shows, so yes, it's something that we know a great deal about.

DCB–Ellen Galinsky is author of the study "Ask the Children: What America's Children Really Think About Working Parents." Thanks for joining us this morning.

EG–Thank you.