Cross‐National Research Using Contemporary Birth Cohort Studies: A Look at Early Maternal Employment in the UK and USA

Abstract

The recent establishment of two national, longitudinal studies of contemporary birth cohorts in the UK and USA creates a valuable opportunity for cross‐national research on the experiences of young children and their families. This article describes these new datasets and highlights the potential advantages and challenges of their combined use. To illustrate some of the issues involved in comparative research, we describe our study of the patterns and predictors of UK and US mothers’ (re)entry into the labour force during infants’ first 9 months of life. Similar to previous studies, we find that US mothers engage in paid work much sooner after childbirth than UK mothers. In both samples, greater financial and human capital predict higher rates (and earlier entries) of post‐birth employment; however, among the subset of US mothers who were employed pre‐birth, it is socioeconomic disadvantage that predicts sooner returns. We consider how different policy environments in the UK and USA help to explain these findings, and discuss directions for future research with these data.

Acknowledgements

Funding for this project was provided in part by the Economic & Social Research Council (grant RES‐163‐25‐0002), the Center for the Analysis of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood (National Science Foundation Grant 0322356), and postdoctoral support to the first author from the McCormick Tribune Foundation and Center for Human Potential and Public Policy at the University of Chicago. We thank the editor and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments.

The Millennium Cohort Study is funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and a consortium of Government Departments headed by the Office of National Statistics. Data are managed and housed at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education in London, England. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort is being conducted by the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Institute of Education Sciences, in collaboration with numerous federal health, education and human service agencies. Data are managed and housed at NCES.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danielle A. Crosby

Danielle A. Crosby is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research focuses broadly on the understanding and promoting child development in the context of social and economic inequality.

Denise D. Hawkes

Denise D. Hawkes is a Research Officer at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her work focuses on the use and application of twin and longitudinal data in understanding the effects of family background and individual characteristics.