A STUDY OF THE SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF CHILDREN OF WORKING AND NON-WORKING MOTHERS IN THE NORTH AREA OF BOZEMAN, MONTANA by Lynda Stevens A professional paper submitted to the Department of Graduate Study in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY Bozeman, Montana August, 1969 Acknowledgement I would like to thank Dr. S. Gordon Simpson for all of his helpful guidance and assistance throughout the year. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 STATEMENT AND IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM 1 PROCEDURE FOLLOWED .... 1 LIMITATIONS . 3 DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS USED 4 II. SOME PERTINENT LITERATURE 5 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT ....... ... 5 EFFECTS OF MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT ON THE CHILD 10 MOTHERS RELATIONSHIP TOWARD HER CHILD AND HER WORK . . 23 CHANGE IN THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE FAMILY . .31 III. REVIEW OF THE INSTRUMENT AND RELATED LITERATURE . . . 37 DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEST INSTRUMENT THROUGH PILOT STUDIES 38 TESTING THE INSTRUMENT . ................ 40 THE SAMPLE . . ... 40 RELIABILITY . 40 . VALIDITY . : 41 CONCLUSIONS . 41 IV. RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 44 RESPONSE AND PERCENTAGE TABLE ..... 48 SELECTED REFERENCES 56 APPENDIX ....... . 60 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION . Within the American society today, more and more mothers are work¬ ing full-time while raising a family. Many researchers have tried to prove that the variable, working mothers, has affected the children in many different ways. The researchers have asserted that maternal em¬ ployment has a detrimental effect on the personality and social adjust¬ ment of children, especially if the mother works during the first five years of the child's life. Statement and importance of the problem This research study was con¬ ducted to compare the social adjustment of children of working and non-working mothers in the north area of Bozeman, Montana. The northern area of the city has a lower socio-economic standard than the rest of the city. The north area of the town had a program, the Children's Activitiy Program, which had a staff who cared for the children of working mothers. The children attending this program were used as a major part of the subjects of the children of working mothers. The null hypothesis was that there is not a significant difference in the social adjustment, as measured by the Is of Identity Test, of child¬ ren of working mothers and of non-working mothers. Procedure followed .To select the children to be subjects, the author used the cumulative folders at the Hawthorne Elementary School to 2 • ft. ft* r .» vT *,v*: _< :■#■ 0 secure 22 matched pairs. The pairs were matched according to their age (within four months), sex, classroom in the school, and ordinal position in the family. All subjects had to meet the following criteria: (a) had been enrolled in his present public school for at least six months; (b) was not a member of any minority group; (c) was born in the United States; (d) was from an intact (united) family. To be among the working mothers’ subject group, the child’s mother had to work at least 32 hours a week and had to have been employed for at least the past six consecu¬ tive months. To be among the non-working mothers' subjects group, the child’s mother had to have never worked more than one month during the life time of the subject. Each subject took a letter home asking permission to use the child in the research study. Then each mother was called by the author of this study to confirm her working status. Twenty^-two matched pairs were selected to be given the test. The subjects were tested in groups, by grade level. The author read the,Is of Identity Test to each group of subjects. Before the test was given, each group was told, ’’This test that you are about to take has no right or wrong answers. They are simple statements about which each person feels differently. We want to know how you.feel about these statements. Read the statements and decide whether you believe they are always true. If you believe that they are always true, put an X in the first column. If you believe that they are not always true, put an X in the second column. Once in a long while you may not be able to decide about the statement. In 3 this case put an X in the third column. Try not to use the third column at all." The students were then allowed to ask questions pertaining to the test. Each statement was read only once. The students read along using their own copy of the test. The test was given at 8:45 A.M. to all three groups. Before the test was given, the following words and concepts were discussed: (a) communists, (b) socialism, (c) democracy, (d) revenge, (e) asylums. Limitations The author conducted the research within the north area of Bozeman, Montana. A sample representative of the entire city was not used. The sample was taken entirely from the Hawthorne Elementary School in the north area of town. Hawthorne Elementary School was used since the children attending the Children^ Activity Program at¬ tend the school. The review of literature was done at the Montana State University Library. Only a few articles were obtained from other libraries. A more extensive review of literature would have required distant travel¬ ing to other universities within the state. The test was given orally to all subjects while the students read along using their copy of the test. When the test was validated, Weiss had the students read the test by themselves. Weiss felt (49:183) that it might be necessary to discuss all words and concepts included in the test thoroughly prior to administering the test if given to children below the fourth grade level. , • 4 Definitions of the terms used ■ A child was included among the working mothers’ subjects if he met the following criteria: (a) mother was presently employed full-time, i.e., at least 32 hours a week; (b) mothers had been employed for at least the past six consecutive months. A child was included among' the non-working mothers’ subjects if he met the following additional criteria: (a) mother had never worked during the life time of the subject. (A single work episode of less than a .month's duration was not considered to be disqualifying.) Weiss considered people to be ’’socially adjusted" if they were "the Most useful members of the group, while those ’maladjusted’ as those who are often unhappy, nonuseful or even dangerous." (51:187) IT r\ CHAPTER II SOME PERTINENT LITERATURE This is a review of selected research dealing with the effects of maternal employment upon children. Since there are other factors related to this study, they will be included briefly. The study will be sub¬ divided into four sections: (1) historical development, (2) effects of maternal employment upon children, (3) mother’s relationship to her children and to her work, and (A) the change in the structure and func¬ tion of the family due to maternal employment. At the end of each sub¬ division, there will be a brief summary of the conclusions of the re¬ search. In the several studies examined, a specific level of confidence was not indicated in terms of significance; therefore, statements refer¬ ring to significance are assumed to represent either the 05 level or the .01 level of confidence. Historical Development Social concerns for the children of mothers who work outside of their homes has had a long history. The early beginning related to the industrial revolution in England and Europe when the invention of ma¬ chines outmoded home industries and forced not only men but their wives and children into factories and mills for their living. During the latter part of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, there were many problems of the ’’poor working class.” Mortality statistics indicated that the babies of factory women died in alarming numbers. There was 6 evidence of increasing juvenile crime developing in the.overcrowded new industrial centers (9:41). Many humanists felt that something had to be done about the deplor¬ able state of infants and children left without care while the mother worked away from home. In England, infant schools developed; in France, the ecoles a tricoter of Oberlin, the salle d^ospitalite of Mrae. de Pastoret, and the salle d’asile of the philanthropic lawyer Cochin; in Italy, the infant schools of Aporti; and in Belguim, the e'coles-gardien- nes (9:40-82). In the second half of the nineteenth century, the problem of the working mother and her children developed in the United States. The first day nursery was opened in New York City in 1854. But they were not developed until well into the twentieth century. These nurseries served mainly working mothers who were without husbands. After 1911, mothers started to receive pensions which decreased the demand for care of their children (3:9-37). Between 1910 and 1925 there were a number of studies performed by economists and social workers involving employed mothers and their children. Analyses of mortality statistics demonstrated that the like¬ lihood of death during the first year of life was higher if the mother worked outside the home (9:257-262). The social opinion of the people of the United States by the 1930's indicated that.mothers should not work outside the home unless she had to because of economic need. Welfare workers, in an attempt to keep 7 mothers at home, assisted them in meeting economic needs without outside work. But the number of working women continued to increase and their jobs became more varied (9:55~58). During the depression, the first studies appeared which attempted to investigate the characteristics of children of employed mothers (25: 116-136). The study undertaken by The Family Consultation Bureau of the Child Development Institute of Columbia University foreshadowed some of the more recent studies. It compared 50 families of employed college women with 50 families of non-employed college women through an inten¬ sive interview. All of the women had at. least two years of college, were under 45 years of age, and had at least one child under ten years old. The employed women came from families with low incomes, but there were also women who worked because they were restless or because they thought themselves to be "career women.” The results of the research indicated that there was no significant difference between the groups in health status, in marital, sexual and emotional adjustment, and in num¬ ber and seriousness of child problems. The problems of children in both groups were.judged to be more highly related to the mother’s emotional adjustment than to her occupational status (9:40-82). World War II caused an increasing migration of families to war in¬ dustry centers. Crowded housing conditions increased the numbers of women working outside the home, and inadequate number of nurseries were also in evidence . (42:2). Since the end of the war, the new conditions have changed the social if C. -- j!cr v- 8 life within the United States. One out of every four mothers of child¬ ren under the age of six is in the labor force, and the number of such mothers has doubled since 1950. More than four million pre-schoolers have mothers who work including 1,600,000 under the age of three (33: 71-76). The United States Department of Labor predicts that there will be a 25 percent increase in the number of women in the labor force by 1970 over 1960 (34:18). A still larger proportion of these older women will work by 1970 (34:1-6). It was estimated that within the next decade 98 percent of all women will have worked for pay at some period in their ' lives (26:13). The lower the father^ income, the more prevalent work¬ ing mothers appear to.be. Twenty-seven percent of all children under 18 * in a husband-wife family whose father earned less than $2,000 a year have - an employed mother. By contrast, the figure is 18 percent for children whose father earned between $6-10,000 a year (40:291). The present situation has stimulated many articles regarding the effects of maternal employment on the child, on the husband, on the community and on the mother’s housework. Professionals in human behav¬ ior, such as social workers, educators and psychologists, have been caught up in the enormous dissection of the American mother. Their find¬ ings are sometimes contradictory. Studies by Glueck and Glueck and by Nye have identified the working mother as being largely responsible for juvenile delinquency (8:17). On the other hand, studies by Hand, Hitch¬ cock, and Bandura of personality adjustment in elementary school child¬ ren have found no significant difference existing between children of *»--**k^ « -r> r> - vr w. .1..^ -CT. •**" *-** * -’»t^*:'^. *^■ tf7 ^,V|N‘i ^ f 9 working mothers and children of non-working mothers (25:116-120). In 1948, a well-known sociologist, H.S. Bossard, made a study of the effects of maternal employment in a chapter on "Families Under Stress." Bossard mentioned five items which he considered obvious problems to children of mothers working outside the home. These were: (a) the com¬ bined strains of being wife, mother and outside employment tends to make mothers unduly tired, with the consequent feelings of impatience and irritability; (b) the factor of loneliness, emotional and otherwise, of the child whose mother is away from home; (c) the factor of neglect in the child who is neglected, and who rationalizes that neglect to justify the inevitable consequences of neglect; (d) many children seize upon their parents1 absence to.run riot and to secure greater independ¬ ence than they could otherwise;.(e) the working mother is less able to share with the child the impact of his daily adventures (8:26). Beyond the mere comfort of her presence, the child feels a need to tell of the day's experiences to his mother. This has a therapeutic and an educa¬ tional value and.permits the mother to measure the day's activities in light of propriety (5:380-384). However, there has been an increase in the number of research studies which have attempted to identify the many variables that influ¬ ence children's development, as related to factors of maternal employ¬ ment. The studies in general are of three types: (a) those that investi¬ gate the effects of maternal employment on children; (b) those that in¬ vestigate the working mother's.relationship to the child and to her work; 10 bJLi. and (c) those that investigate changes in the structure and.function of the family due to maternal employment. Effects of Maternal Employment on the Child Social and mental adjustment of the child. A brief report was pub¬ lished by Hand of the adjustment of 102 children in grades 4 through 8. Hand used the California Test of Personality, ratings by teachers and choices by classmates. He divided the children into two equal groups of "well-adjusted’' and "maladjusted.” In each group there were 27 boys and 24 girls. He obtained information from each child regarding whether his mother was presently employed outside the home.' The percentage of children with working mothers was reported for both the "adjusted" and "maladjusted" groups. The over-all percentage for both groups was the same (31.4 percent), with a slightly higher percentage of girls and lower percentage of boys in the "well-adjusted" group having working mothers and a higher percentage of boys and lower percentage of girls in the "maladjusted" group •having working mothers. However, these differences were not statistically significant. These results cannot be considered * seriously because of the source of the data regarding maternal employ¬ ment and the absence of discrimination between maternal employment which was either full-time employment, part-time.employment or combinations of the two (14:245-246). Rouman approached the problem from the point of view that contempo¬ rary social conditions jeopardize the mental health of children. This i included employment of mothers, divorces creating stepparents, and guardians or the absence of an adult male in the home. He used a school population of 16,000 pupils of which 400 were more.serious cases under supervision of the .guidance staff. This group was used to study the relationship of parental care to the children’s problems. (Physically handicapped and mentally retarded children were excluded.) The cases were divided into four "parental care" groups: full-time employed mother (18 percent), stepparents or guardians (16 percent), absence of adult male (12 percent), and intact families where mother did not work (18 per¬ cent). This latter group had none of the characteristics of the first three groups and was selected at random from the remaining cases to serve as the control group. The group of mothers who were employed full-time came from intact families. This indicated that of the 400 seriously disturbed children, two hundred and eighty-eight (72 percent) were from intact families, of which only 72 children had full-time em¬ ployed mothers (35: 105-112) . Rouman states that "Apparently, there are many children whose mothers work, who do not present problems in school" (35:111). But he does not give the figures for the percentage of school population with full-time working mothers; therefore, one cannot judge whether the 18 percent of cases with full-time employed mothers is more or less than the statistical expectancy for that group. Rouman compares the four "parental care" groups on the basis of four items: (1) major reason for referral of the child to the guidance service, (2) age of the child, (3) order of birth of the child, and (4) 12 personality components. This writer thus considered a comparison between <3 Group I (the full-time employed mother group) and Group IV (the control group). The main differences for referral to the guidance staff lie in "academic failure" and "withdrawing behavior." "Academic failure" was t. the main reason for referral for 28 percent of the employed mothers1 group and 40 percent of the control group. "Withdrawing behavior" was the main reason for 33 percent of the employed mothers’ group in con¬ trast to 20 percent in the control group. Regarding the order of birth, there was a stronger tendency for children of working mothers to be the youngest in the family .(36 versus 22 percent) and an only child (22 ver¬ sus 5 percent). The children of the control group tended to be either the middle child (1 percent employed mothers' group, 13 percent control group), of the oldest child (26 percent employed mothers* group, 47 per¬ cent control group) (35:105-110). Rouman, too, used the California Test of Personality to estimate the personality components of the children. He reported only the per¬ centage of the group which fell below the fiftieth percentile. On three characteristics, approximately the same percentage of children in both groups fell below the fiftieth percentile; these characteristics’ were the feelings of belonging, family relations and school relations. The contrasts involved other areas. More of the children of employed mothers lacked self-reliance (50 versus 0 percent below the 50 percentile), and more were withdrawing (68 versus 0 percent). Whereas, there were no children of employed mothers below the fiftieth percentile in the above 13 components, the control group lacked social skills (60 percent), lacked a sense of personal worth (61 percent), and had anti-social.tendencies (61 percent) (35i109-112). Rouman’s study found differences in age and birth order of the two groups, yet did not try to match the children on these factors when comparing the groups on reasons for referral and on personality components. Bandura conducted a study of 60 deviant children in grades one through four which contributed insight for this study. Bandura selected, by means of teacher ratings and behavior observations, 30 children who were extremely aggressive and 30 who were extremely inhibited in behavior exhibited at school (in classroom and on playground). At the time of the study, ten mothers of the aggressive children and seven mothers of the inhibited children were employed full-time; this represented a total of 28 percent of the sample. Since the national average in 1959 of working mothers of school children was about 40 percent, Bandura concluded that the "working mothers in this community were not contributing more than their statistical share of the extreme emotional problems of aggression and inhibition in children" (2:89-123). Hoffman performed a study in which she hypothesized that the child¬ ren of working mothers will be more disturbed in general than the child¬ ren of non-working mothers. The sample included 176 white, intact fami^ lies with at least one child in the third through sixth grades of three elementary schools in Detroit. There were 88.working-mother families and 88 non-working-mother families matched on occupation of father, sex 14 of child, and ordinal position including the status of being the only child. The pairs of families were matched by sex of the child. Her positive hypothesis was.tested by comparing the matched pairs on the use of non-adaptive -responses to frustration, intellectual performance, and sociometric ratings by classmates. The results showed that both groups of working-mother children were more likely to use non-adaptive responses to frustration. They also showed lower intellectual perform¬ ance and were less liked by the other children in the class .'(171193-194). The lower intellectual performance of the children whose mothers worked may have been a function of low ability or low motivation. Hoffman hypothesized that if it is true that the working mothers who like.work feel guilty about their employment and consequently over pro- - tect their children, then the intellectual ability of their children may be impaired. Mothers who solve their children’s problems for them may hamper their intellectual development by drpriving them of valuable problem-solving experience. Working mothers’ children were expected to be low on ability and on performance. Scores on the Primary Learning Aptitude Test for third graders and the Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test for fourth, fifth and sixth graders were available. Hoffman's expecta¬ tions were borne out. The children whose mothers had positive attitudes about their work obtained lower scores on these tests than their non- working counterparts. This difference was significant .’(175194-195) . In summary, the different authors concluded that: (1) there was no difference in the two groups of children in adjustment; (2) working Kt ir* \ M* ^ T JS*'V-4»*r _Jt.. 15 mothers’ children were, more withdrawing and less self-reliant; (3) work¬ ing mothers probably contributed less than their share of extremely ag¬ gressive and extremely inhibited children; and (A) children of mothers with positive orientations to work were less assertive and less effective in social relations while those of mothers with negative attitudes toward work are more assertive and hostile. Personality characteristics of the child. Bowlby, Goldfarb, and Spitz have equated maternal deprivation with maternal employment. They stated that maternal employment has a detrimental effect on the person¬ ality development of the child. This analogizing from the results of studies of extreme deprivation to situations involving the impact of the employment of mothers upon the personality development of "normal” children in otherwise "normal" homes has been studied herein (6:334). Burchinal hypothesized that there was no relationship between mater— nal employment and selected personality characteristics of children. Two grade levels, seventh and eleventh, were used to determine whether the children's adjustment in the early and late adolescent periods was affected by maternal employment during their early and/or present lives. About 98 percent of all students in.Cedar Rapids completed the question¬ naire from which data were taken for all the dependent variables used in the investigation. A second three-page questionnaire was sent to each of the families. The original group consisted of 1,824 of which 91 per¬ cent completed both questionnaires. The number of cases were reduced after several control variables were imposed. Several controls were 16 used in all analyses. These included the grade level and sex of the children. Non-white families and families in which the child was not living with both of his parents were deleted from the sample. Age, sex, race and parental marital status the investigator stated were related to the dependent and independent samples and hence they were controlled. Socio-economic status was also considered as a possible control variable. This study found a low negative relation between: (a) the educational levels of fathers and mothers; (b) the social status scores based on the husband's occupations and education; and (c) the degree of employment of wives in each of the five selected periods of the children's lives (6:334-338) Burchinal found that of the 55 correlation coefficients calculated for each grade and sex sample, only seventeen were statistically signifi- > cant. All the significant results supported an association between mater¬ nal employment and greater personality disturbance in the children. How¬ ever, the overwhelming majority (92 percent) of coefficients were non¬ significant. Within the methodology used, apparently maternal employ¬ ment per se cannot be considered an index of maternal deprivation having consequent detrimental effects on the.development of children (6:334-340). The conclusion of Burchinal's study coincides exactly with that of another study conducted by Siegel, Stolz, Hitchcock and Adamson (39:534). Their study conducted with kindergarten children found that "one may surely conclude from these data that maternal employment per se is not the overwhelming influential factor in children's lives that some have thought it to be" (39:545). 17 Scattered data from several other investigations generally support this conclusion. Nye found no differences in psychosomatic scores between controlled samples of children whose mothers were and were not employed (31:260-267). In an earlier study, Burchinal reported non-significant differences between anxiety scores of children whose mothers were employ¬ ed and of children whose mothers were not employed (6:340). Hand also failed to observe any significant differences in personality adjustment between’children whose mothers were employed and those whose mothers were full-time homemakers (14:245-246). In summary, the different authors concluded that : (1) there was no relationship between maternal employment and selected personality char¬ acteristics; (2) maternal employment per se was not the overwhelming influential factor in the children*s lives; (3) there was no difference- in psychosomatic scores of working and non-working mothers' children; and (4) there were no significant differences between anxiety scores of children whose mothers work and those who are not employed. School achievement, aspirations and expectations of the child. Burchinal investigated school achievement at the same time as the in¬ vestigation about personality characteristics. The hypothesis stated that there was no relationship between maternal employment, measures of school adjustment and social relations of the children. Correlations among the five maternal employment indices and the intelligence scores, achievement scores, grades, days absent, days tardy, school activity participation.scores and community activity participation were calculated. 18 Achievement level were measured by the median score on the Stanford Achievement Test, and the Iowa Test of Educational Development. School activity scores were developed from a ten-item index based upon parti- i cipation in community organizations appropriate for the age levels of the children. Twenty-two of the 140 correlation coefficients were statistically significant. After further statistical analysis with independent and dependent variables, all of the.support against the hypothesis was eliminated (6:338-340). Nye used a questionnaire with 2,000 children in grades 9.through 12. There was no significant relationship between maternal employment and educational competence as indicated by grade point average. Nye controlled the variables of socio-economic status, family size, edu¬ cational level of mother, rural-urban residence, and sex. When anal¬ ysis was limited to children of full-time working mothers versus non¬ working mothers, the results, showed a higher grade point average in children of the employed mothers though the difference was not sta¬ tistically significant. (30:240-244). Nolan and Tuttle asked teachers to rate their pupils. The sample consisted of children of 100 employed homemakers and children of 100 full-time homemakers. The teachers were asked to rate their pupils on a four-point scale in the following areas: academic achievement, rela¬ tion between child^ ability and his achievement, acceptance by peers, the child’s.acceptance of teacher supervision, and evidence of home training. The results revealed few differences between children. For .* JMM.JVVA W.W»^ .v.-':U*' ' ‘ ,v 1 r _JL^. 4. i K.»* < 19 the younger children (6 through 11 years), there were no statistically significant differences. Among the older children (12 years and over), children whose mothers were employed scored slightly higher in academic achievement and acceptance by peers than children from homes with full¬ time homemakers. In general, there were*.no significant differences in school grades and rated adjustment characteristics of children of employed and non-employed mothers (32:122-124). Hitchcock used 14 pairs of boys .of: working and'non-*-working mothers in grades three through six. He found no significant differences in I.Q. scores or achievement test scores in reading and arithmetic for sons of working and non-working mothers. The largest mean difference was in reading with the sons of working mothers scoring higher (41:761). Frankel compared boys attending a co-ed high school for intellect¬ ually gifted students with 29 pairs of boys matched on the Pintner Advanced Test of Intelligence. In each pair there was a high academic and a low academic achieverv Data were obtained by the personal inter¬ view and by a questionnaire prepared by Frankel. No significant differ¬ ences were found in the socio-economic levels of these two groups. The frequency of maternal employment was significantly greater among the low achievers than among the high achievers. More than 80 percent of the mothers of low achievers were working. The occupations of the working mothers of the two groups were significantly different. Half of the working mothers of high achievers as compared to one-fourth of mothers of the low achievers held professional positions, for the most part, as 20 school teachers. The mothers of the high achiever’s group had been working about four years longer than mothers of low achiever’s group. The most important finding was the greater number of working mothers employed in non-professional jobs among the low achievers as compared to the high achievers. The mothers of the low achievers appeared to be more aggressive and hostile, and less involved with their sons than the working mothers of high achievers. They were found to reject their role as.homemaker and in general were dissatisfied with their position in the family. Frankel concluded that there was no evidence that ma¬ ternal employment per se contributed either positively or negatively to the academic achievement of these boys. On the other hand, the fact that working mothers of high achievers were college graduates in professional positions as teachers may be responsible for the academic standards of this group. Also the longer employment of these women may have become more acceptable to the children especially since the teach¬ ing profession . tends to minimize the separation of the family (10:776-80) Banducci used 38,001 high school seniors from which to draw a sample for finding the effects of maternal employment on the achieve¬ ment, aspirations and expectations of the child. The sample was stra¬ tified by socio-economic status (on the basis of the father's occupa¬ tion) , and sex, then divided into students of working mothers and students of non-working mothers. He found that the fact that mothers were employed full-time had little, if any, detrimental effect on the children in regard to educational aspirations, achievement^ and 21 expectations. There was a trend for the children of working mothers to have higher educational aspirations and expectations than the children of non-working mothers. This trend was true with the exception of boys from the professional socio-economic level (1:263-267). However results of one study are at variance with the null differ¬ ences obtained in other investigations. Hoffman found some differences between employed and non-employed mother's children in regard to intell¬ ectual performance. The sample used in this study was delineated on pages 9 and 10 of this study. Hoffman found that children of employed mothers showed lower intellectual performances than the children of non-working mothers. Depending on whether their mothers enjoyed or disliked their work, the children differed, and in different ways, from the children in the control groups whose mothers were not employed (17:187-197). Stolz indicated that this might have been a reflection of the teacher's prejudice if the teachers knew about the home background of their stu- tends when they rated them, as they assumed most elementary teachers would (41:761). In summary, the different authors concluded that: (1) there was no relationship between maternal emplojmient, measures of school adjustment and school relations indicated by achievement tests; (2) there was no significant relationship between maternal employment and educational competence indicated by grade point average; (3) among children 12 years old or over, the children whose mothers were employed scored higher in academic achievement and acceptance by peers than children of non-employed 22 mothers as indicated by . teacher ratings; (4) there was no difference in I.Q.'s or achievement test scores in reading and arithmetic for sons of working and non-working mothers; (5) there was no.evidence that maternal employment per se contributes either positively or negatively to academic achievement of intellectually gifted low and high achievers as indicated by a personal interview and a questionnaire; and (6) children of employed mothers showed lower;intellectual performances than the children of non¬ working mothers as indicated by teacher ratings of intellectual perform¬ ance. 23 The Mothers Relationship to her Child and to her Work The mothers relationship toward her child. The expectation that working mothers* children will differ from other children correlates with the assumption that working mothers differ from non-working mothers in their child-rearing attitudes and practices.. There is little evidence on this matter, and the research;’ stated in this study, does not strongly support this assumption. Studies which have utilized inventories and questionnaires reported by the mother of their child-rearing attitudes and practices have general¬ ly found no differences between working and non-working mothers' scores. Peterson found no differences in mother-daughter relations between work¬ ing and non-working mothers of adolescent girls (38i536). Powell found no significant differences in attitudes toward child-rrearing practices between working and non-working mothers (32:125-131). Kligler found no differences in mothers' scores on a measure of traditional versus devel¬ opmental approaches to child-rearing when she compared her working and non-working mothers.(38:537). These studies made no provision for the likelihood that working mothers are defensive and self-protective in re¬ porting their relations with their children. There have been several studies on the different approaches to discipline used by working and non-working mothers, but their findings are inconsistent. Burchinal and Lowell reported that "the homes in which the mothers work tend to prefer slightly stricter disciplinary methods and encourage their children's independence" (38:536)-. Vtf* ■I ** * > !cr,. -'V* / 'J ^ 'h.tB'mA.tt, ^jL^at \ 24 Von Mering interviewed mothers of different professional backgrounds in an attempt to reveal differences in discipline. He found that the em¬ ployed professionally trained mother had higher expectations for their children; they placed a significantly greater emphasis on discipline; they were more prescriptive concerning household responsibilities, and they emphasized independence training more. These findings were based on comparisons between small groups of eight and between working and non-working mothers who were not strictly comparable in educational background (46:21-34). Hoffman found that a working mother’s approach toward discipline seemed to depend on.her attitude toward work. Working mothers who enjoyed their work were less severe in their discipline and used less power-assertive influence techniques with their children than did non-working mothers . (17:187-197). Two studies have supported the idea that working mothers are less sensitive toward their children. In a study by von Mering, the results indicated that non-employed mothers with a background of professional training gave significantly more elaborate analysis of their children than did either employed mothers with professional training or non-employ ed mothers with liberal arts background. Von Mering concluded that "these mothers tend to professionalize the maternal role by adopting the stance of clinician toward their children" (46:33-34). In Yarrow’s study, the non-working mothers were more often rated as reflecting sensi¬ tivity to the child’s needs than working mothers (30 percent versus 12 percent) (57:223-228). (W* r^'l' -> no-MaffWiV^-^^N-w.*... .. ■ •.■JL'MKCNK.NW*-**+k* 25 Mother’s relationship toward her work. Yarrow has done a thorough study of the relationship of the work role to the employed and non-employ- ed mother. He used 100 mothers, 50 working and 50 non-working. The sample involved middle and upper middle white, suburban and urban social classes. The families of all were intact and all had children of element¬ ary school age. The families of the working and non-working mothers were comparable in size of family and in the age and.sex distribution of the children. He studied the qualities of mothering and the differences in rearing. His data provided a .negative answer, both in adequacy of mothering and in differences in rearing. The only difference between the groups appeared in the greater frequency of occurrence of marked overt rebellion and outbursts of protest by the children of non-working mothers (28 percent as compared with 10 percent in the children of working mothers). Fewer of the non-working mothers (24 percent) express lack of confidence within the child-creating role than do the working mothers (42 percent) (57:224). . Several authors have commented on anxiety and guilt found to be characterized in working mothers. As mentioned above. Yarrow found that more working than non-working mothers expressed lack of confidence in the child-rearing role (57:224). Kligler found that working mothers exhibited marked anxiety and guilt about their children and reported that they tend to compensate for their absence by trying harder to be good mothers (38:536). Fisher noted that "many of the professional mothers tried too hard to prove to themselves and their .‘relatives that they were 26 not neglecting their children. They spent as many.actual hours with them on the average as the homemakers did" (38:537). The mother’s motivation for work and the meaning which work holds for her were investigated. These factors seemed to be paramount in ana¬ lyzing the factors bearing on the effect of maternal employment on the child. Hoffman argued that the effect of maternal employment on children will differ according to the mother’s attitude toward her work. The theory she presented was that the mother who likes her work will feel guilty about it, therefore, tries to compensate for it by demonstration of affection and adequate discipline but fewer demands on the child. While the mother who dislikes her work will be quite guiltless and therefore may show less positive affect, less discipline, and more de¬ mands on the child.. These differences in parent-child relations would bring differences in child behavior. Hoffman used the two groups of 88 mothers explained on page nine (L7 :187-189). The children of mothers who liked their work associated signifi¬ cantly more positive affect with their mothers than did the children of non-working mothers. The children of mothers who disliked their work associated less positive (not significant) and less negative affect (significant) with their mother than did children of non-working mothers. The mothers who liked their work reported significantly more feelings of sympathy, less feelings of hostility, and.less severe dis¬ cipline than the non-working mothers. The mothers who did not like their work reported significantly less power assertion over their children k *V**:-. 27 and significantly more assertiveness of the child toward the mother (17 ;190-197). Hoffman also found that the children of mothers who disliked work reported more regular participation in household tasks. In peer group characteristics the children of mothers who liked their work were more likely to play with younger children than those of their own age, to take less initiative in making friends, and to have less influence on peers. The children of mothers who disliked their work showed less impulse con¬ trol, used physical force more frequently, and responded to frustration in a non-adaptive manner. The results showed that mothers with positive attitudes toward their work behave differently toward their children than do mothers who had negative attitudes toward their work. And the children, in turn, behave differently. On the whole, the mothers with positive orientations toward work are relatively high in affect toward the child, use milder discipline, and require less in household tasks, while their children are less assertive and less effective in social relations. The findings regarding the mother with negative work orientations are not as clear. Hoffman interpreted this as indicating less involvement with the child; the child was assertive and hostile (i7:193-197). Berger (4:241-249), a clinician, reviewed psychiatric case records of 22 children whose problems were judged to be.related to their mother^ desire to return to work. All of the children had been referred to the Harriet Lane Children's Psychiatric Service of Johns Hopkins Hospital be¬ cause of behavior difficulties.*. The mothers had all been employed before marriage, had met dissatisfactions in marriage, and had contemplated a 28 return to work. Fifteen of the mothers were described as perfectionists and prestige-oriented. They demanded conformity and superiority in their child’s conduct, just as they had earlier demanded excellence of themselves in their own work performance. The other seven mothers were described as predominantly hostile and rejecting toward their children. Berger concluded that the children's difficulties represented a response to maternal demands for conformity which was a displacement to the child of the mother's frustrations regarding employment (4:241-249). Siegel and Haas concluded tht these findings highlight the possibility that attitudes and values which can be functional in a working mother may be dysfunctional in a mother. They could not substantiate this view be¬ cause they did not know to what extent such attitudes were character¬ istic of other mothers of children brought to a psychiatric clinic, mothers who are similar to these in a variety of respects but who did not have the same employment history, and to what extent the mothers whose cases were selected for review were typical of mothers with this sort of employment history. The findings were viewed as suggestive for more systematic research 08 :535-536). Sears, Maccoby and Levin also investigated mothers who were full¬ time homemakers but who had previously had work experience. Of 379 mothers, only 30 percent had worked prior to marriage, 43 percent had worked after marriage but not since their kindergarten aged child was born, 17 percent had worked at least part-time since this child was born, and only 7 percent had never'worked in-ja paid position. The 29 authors tried to find out whether work experience ,,spoiled,, these women for assuming their later roles as wife and mother. In regard to their attitude toward pregnancy, 48 percent of those who had worked, compared with 29 percent of the non-workers, were "delighted" when they learned they were pregnant. There was no difference among the three groups of workers. The authors also explored how much conflict the mothers felt in shifting from employment to motherhood or about combining the two. They found that among the lower socio-economic group, attitudes toward work made little difference in the acceptance of pregnancy. Among the upper-middle status group there were few of those who reported "much sacrifice" in giving up work who were ’’delighted" with pregnancy; but about half of the mothers in the "some sacrifice" group were Vdelighted" with pregnancy; about a third in the "no sacrifice" group who were in¬ different about the work were "delighted" with pregnancy; and a "high proportion" among those who were glad to give up work were "delighted" with pregnancy. The authors concluded that, despite the fact that so many of the women had worked at one time or another, there was relative¬ ly little conflict about acceptance of the mother role , (37:137-149). Siegel and Haas.summarized the findings of two authors, Kligler and Yarrow. Kligler found that significantly more women worked because of interest in the job and that there was improvement in these working mothers' children.behavior as a.result of their employment. The mothers explained that they were happier working and that this was reflected in improved relations at home. Yarrow grouped employed and non-employed 30 mothers into two groups: those satisfied with their present work status and those dissatisfied with it.‘ She found that "if mothers are in their preferred work or non-work role, working or not makes little difference in their child-rearing" (57:223-228). Yet, dissatisfied'mothers, wheth¬ er working or not, differed importantly in child-rearing from those who were satisfied. The complexity of the relation between maternal employ¬ ment and child-rearing practices is also suggested by Yarrow’s data on the interaction between educational level and emplojanent status in re¬ lation to child-rearing practices (38:536-538). In summary, in reference to-mother’s relationship toward the child, the different authors have concluded that: (1) the questionnaires of child-rearing attitudes and practices have generally found no differ¬ ences between working and non-working mothers; (2) working mothers pre¬ fer stricter disciplinary methods-and encourage their children’s.inde¬ pendence; (3) professionally trained mothers had higher expectations, placed a greater emphasis on discipline, and emphasized independence training more; (4) working mother’s approach to discipline depended on her attitude toward her work; and (5) working mothers are.less sensitive toward their children. In reference to the mother’s relationship toward her work, the different authors have concluded that: (1) more working mothers lacked confidence within the child-rearing role; (2) working mothers exhibited marked anxiety and guilt about their children; (3) mothers with positive orientations toward work are relatively high in affect toward the child, used milder discipline, while their children 31 are less assertive and less effective in social relations; (4) children’s difficulties in behavior represent a response to maternal demands for con¬ formity; (5) among women who had once worked, there is relatively little conflict about acceptance of the mother role; (6) women who worked because of interest in the job felt that there was an improvement in their child¬ ren’s behavior; and (7) if mothers are in their preferred work or non¬ work role, working or not makes little difference in their child-rearing. The general finding was that working mothers do not differ from others in child-rearing attitudes and practices. Change in the Structure and-.Function of the Family Due to Maternal Em¬ ployment Hoffman did a study of the effects of maternal employment on house¬ hold tasks and parental power relations. In a carefully controlled study of 88 working and 88 non-working mothers of children in third through sixth grade, the author found three family conditions which are related significantly to maternal employment: (1) working mothers participate less in household tasks and their husbands participate more; (2) they have less control over the activities in the household; (3) they are less likely to endorse the traditional sex role ideology than the mothers who stay at home. An attempt to.relate an increase in the wife’s power over the husband with outside employment did not show clear-cut results. The data regarding husband and wife activities and control within the home were obtained from their children. The children answered 32 questions concerning which family members did a series of routine household activities and which decided about the activities (16:27-35). Stolz ques¬ tioned the validity of the children’s answers about which of their parents make such decisions and the ceal source of power (41:752). Hoffman argued that even if the child did not report correctly for a particular act, the over-all responses to the total set of questions were'-a reflection of his general picture of the power relationship between parents (16:36). Nye analyzed a.number of differences which related to the structure of the family. He collected his data from questionnaires sent to 2,000 mothers of children in grades one and ten. He found that employed mothers had fewer pre-school children, smaller families, higher education, and husbands in lower socio-economic categories. The employed mother had different recreational patterns than the unemployed mothers’ activities of less visiting, telephoning, card playing, partying, and television viewing. Of the five items intended*to indicate unfavorable attitudes toward children, only one showed significant differences between the two groups. More unemployed mothers stated that ’'Children make me nervous” (29:69-70). Some interesting alterations to the general findings were revealed by subsampling. In small families, employed mothers are more likely to be well-adjustive to children than non-employed mothers, but the reverse is true of families with four or more children. Differences in the length of time the mother’ had been employed failed to show any significant differ¬ ences, but the pattern indicated that adjustment in children becomes im¬ proved the longer the mother workd. Nye concluded that if employment 33 - . initially produced poorer adjustment in children, it was probably related to role conflicts. As behavior becomes more congruent and as family ex¬ pectations are modified, these conflicts are presumably decreased (29:69-72) In summary, the different authors concluded that: (1) working mothers participate less in household tasks and their husbands participate more; (2) working mothers have less control over the activities in the house¬ hold; (3) working mothers are less likely to endorse the traditional sex role ideology than the mothers who stayed at home; (4) employed mothers have fewer pre-school children, smaller families, higher education and husbands in lower socio-economic categories; (5) more unemployed mothers stated that "children make me nervous’'; and (6) employed mothers are more likely to be well-adjusted and to children than non-employed mothers, but the reverse if true in families with four or more children. The research used in this study indicated a need for further research which would take into consideration the following factors: 1. A control of pertinent variables, such as socio-economic status,'’ intactness and size of family. 2. A few of the studies did not indicate if there findings were statis4- tically significant or not, and none of the studies told at which level of confidence. 3. There is a need for a more precisely defined criteria of employment and non-employment. 4. It might be profitable to investigate the relation of the specific 34 kinds of work a mother performs to mother-child relations and chile1 behavior. 5. It should have been obvious that mothers differ widely in methods of rearing children whether or not the mother works. 6. There.were many different methods used in collecting data regarding child behavior, achievement and adjustment. 7. There was little information regarding the different effects of mater¬ nal employment on the sons and daughters, and in regard to overt be¬ havior. 8. There is a need to get away from the self-report method for attaining information. Past research has accepted the students statements as a statement of actual attitude and practice. 9. For most research purposes the hon-intact family and the Negro family should be studied separately but they have hot been studied at all. CHAPTER III REVIEW OF THE INSTRUMENT AND RELATED LITERATURE The Is of Identity Test devised by Thomas M. Weiss, Ph.D. from Arizona State University, Tempe, was chosen for use in this study due to its appropriate purpose of measuring ‘’social adjustment.” In an Associated Press release in December, 1958, Dr. Walter F. Johnson, President of the American Personnel and Guidance Association, was quoted as saying “the test may be a reliable tool for telling socially adjusted groups from maladjusted ones. With refinement the test might be used to indicate differences in social adjustment among individuals as well as groups.” It would seem, on the basis of empirical evidence, that those ills which are peculiar to mankind might be causally related to man’s dis¬ tinguishing characteristic - his ability to symbolize and respond to his symbols, namely his language ability (19:268). Many authors, in¬ cluding Malinowski, Mead and Whorf, have shown that the way in which man interprets his world is a function of his language. Whorf pointed out that the language which man uses is determined for him by his cul¬ ture and because individuals within that culture talk fluently from early childhood each man believes himself to be an authority on the process (56:207). Obviously, language is the chief medium for communication among humans. As languages have evolved through the ages, men have • X-Wi, t rn+^t\ J^K*+9**i.i 36 incorporated in the language structure their ideas about the structure of their environment, both inside and outside their skins. Some of these ideas are still considered correct; many were inadequate because of early man’s limited knowledge of his world. Through empirical testing much .erroneous information has been corrected, but the structure of the lan¬ guage has not changed greatly; as a result it does not correspond to the structure of the world as it is known today . (19!115), Dr. Weiss based his ”IS of Identity” (I.O.I.) Test upon the non- Aristotelian principles. Alfred Korzybski (20:117-121) proposed over thrity-five years ago that maladjusted language habit patterns might contribute to maladjustment. In his work, Science and Sanity, he sug¬ gested that one of the major reasons why science has progressed is be¬ cause scientists us'e a language structure that corresponds nearly with the structure of the real world. Korzyski suggested that.so long as man continued to accept Aristotle’s laws of thought as'lsiws of nature he would operate in an inflexible prescientific manner which was mal¬ adaptive and hence contributive to maladjustment. He insisted that Aristotle’s laws of thought were false to empirical fact, and that while such laws were convenient for words they were not convenient for process reality, which organisms must ultimately adjust.to for survival. Specif¬ ically, he pointed out that any form of the verb "to be” which identifies the labeT with the thing labeled is of necessity misleading, unless one is conscious of the part one’s own nervous system plays in the process when.such identification is made.’ For example,-the early man of 37 Aristotle's day who knew little about nervous systems, saw a leaf and the physiological reaction which he experienced was given a label. On the basis of his limited information,' he said "The leaf is green," des¬ cribing the green as a property possessed by the leaf. The greenness however, was a joint phenomena between that which was being observed and the observer (19,: 121-122). Consider two persons describing caviar: One of them says, 'Caviar is good'; the other. 'Caviar is bad.' While both are talking about something they call 'caviar,' they are also talking about themselves. This 'is' which identifies the label or the property ('bad') with the object ('caviar') is called.by general seraanticians the 'is of identity' (19:121-123; 49:69-71). 4 The discipline called general semantics (a discipline based on modern scientific, non-aristotelian principles ^ not to be confused with semantics) is based on.the premise that the structure of a lang¬ uage in which men expect to deal with and describe the world they see around them should be similar in structure to that world. Or, if simi¬ larity of structure is lacking, those who use the language should be aware of its limitations best they be led into pitfalls of misevalua- tion and misunderstanding. General seraanticians point to the 'is of identity' as one of these limitations (49:70). If the unthinking use of the 'is of identity' can lead to mis-' evaluation and misunderstanding, then it may be both a precursor and a symptom of maladjustment (49:71). The general objective of Weiss' 38 research was to test the hypothesis that an important underlying reason for an individual^ lack of adjustment is his use of the language patterns of a structure dissimilar to the structure of the non-verbal world, and his unawareness of the dissimilarity. Development of the Test Instrument Through Pilot Studies Weiss studied language as it relates to behavior by observing, re¬ cording, and analyzing the language behavior of a variety of people. The behaviors observed included such physiological reactions as blush¬ ing, trembling, stuttering, fighting, and withdrawal (non-participation), A record of the language used by those displaying such bodily responses was also kept, along with a similar record for those persons.who, during their relationships with the investigator, displayed no such reactions (.49; 71). After a year of observation, a comparison was made between the language used by the persons who displayed overt physiological reactions and that used by those who did not. In the opinion of the investigator, there was a sound basis for inferring that a difference did exist bet¬ ween the two sorts of language behaviors. In the former, there seemed to be a much greater use of the ’is of identity,! a much greater degree of ’overgeneralization,’ a much more frequent confusing of the orders of abstraction. Those who displayed a bodily reaction, appeared to be less aware of the role language was playing in the physiological responses of their organisms. This is not to say that such reactions did not occur in the other group, simply that they occurred less noticeably (49:71). 39 The instrument, Dr. Weiss believed, should be simple, for the phys¬ iological reactions seemed to develop as often from simple rematks and statements as from more complex ones. Further, since it should be de¬ sirable to test . several age and intelligence groups, the test should not depend upon lreading ability1 nor ’intelligence’ as measured by I.Q. tests. While the ’is of identity’ and confusion of orders of abstraction probably occur more frequently in more involved language from an educator’s standpoint it seems more important to determine if this habitual tendency is found in less involved language (52:73). On the basis of empirical evidence, it is apparent that there is no ’true’ or ’false’ statement, in the absolute sense. ’’True' and ’false' are evaluations or judgments which occur inside the skin.of the observer. Even scientific 'truths’ are.tentative, ’true' only to a degree, ’true' only so far as is known. For example, ’matter cannot be created nor destroyed' was a scientific 'truth’ which was justified on an empirical basis in 1900. It is not 'true' in 1960, as nuclear physicists have demonstrated (21:667). Weiss thought that measurement of the tendency to operate in an either-or, two-valued manner could be accomplished by forcing the testee to react to an evaluation,’ judgment, or fiction on a true-false instru¬ ment, in which a 'false' response was the only empirically sound basis for displaying lack of identity, lack of an either-or orientation and an awareness of orders of abstraction, and on which a ’true* response would indicate the opposite types of language behavior (51:185-187). 4-;: '• |>» ‘ f j’ . r* ..i.j. i. -Z i.. . .. V >»■''V:.«.»n J ZxuMzatJ&UbiisnJ AO Testing the Instrument (47:311--316) The correlations obtained in the pilot studies were not sufficiently high to justify a larger study in and of themselves; however, the obvious difference between the mean scores of the Boys Vocational School group and.the high school group on the I.O.I. Test, plus empirical evidence that the two groups did in fact use the ’is of identity’ in differentcdegrees, suggested that if the sample were increased, the procedure standardized, and the items refined, such a test might well distinguish between groups who adjusted differ¬ ently to society. The Sample The samples used in the major study consisted of: 1: 280 individuals in correctional institutions (the ’in* group, consisting of boys at the Boys Vocational School and Ionia State Reformatory, Ionia, Michigan). 2. 236 individuals in Lansing public high schools (the tout’ group, consisting of approximately equal numbers of boys and girls from Eastern and Sexton high school and Walter French junior high school.) The following data were entered for all testees: age, sex, church attendance, church affiliation, I.Q. score, score earned on.the test, and for the noninstitutional group, teacher ratings. The teacher rating was a composite by several teachers on each student, and ranged from four (poorly adjusted) to one.(very well adjusted). Reliability Reliability was determined by first making an item analysis. This permitted equating two halves of the test by including ■* H %i BtaJfijacjiaA. * * , 4i parallel items of equal difficulty in each of the halves. The correla¬ tion thus obtained indicated the reliability of a test of fifty items. Reliability on the full1 length test was determined by the Spearman Brown prophesy formula and found to be 0.94, which closely approximated the reliability found in each of the pilot studies. Validity . Validation of the.test was accomplished by: 1. Comparing teacher ratins with I.0.I. Test scores for those in . the lout! group, by means of correlation, analysis of variance, or analysis of variance with covariance adjustment. 2. Comparing, by analysis.of variance I.0.1. Test scores of the total.'out1 group with I.O.I. Test scores of the total ’in* group. 3. Comparing the I.O.I. Test scores of finf and 'out' groups for individual self rating items by analysis of variance and for self rating item 101 by analysis of variance with covariance adjustment. Conclusions (52:177-180) Highly significant differences (.01) were found between the means of the I.O.I. Test scores for groups sorted on the basis of . (1) teacher ratings, (2) institutionalized .versus non- institutionalized, and (3) self-rating item 101. Significant differences C»05) were found between the means of the I.O.I. Thst scores for groups sorted on the basis of (1) church affili¬ ation, (2) self-rating item 103. However, when covariance adjustment of I.Q. score was applied, these showed nonsignificance. * -*. 1 .■<*".,".i^:^. ^>TWf.. SMmm^atC, XjmX'StiSm 4 i'* 42 No significant differences were found between the means of I.O.I. Test scores for groups sorted on the basis of (1) age, (2) sex, (.3) church attendance, (4) diagnostic and prognostic ratios, (5) self-rating items 102,104,105. Weiss found the test developed in his study gives a satisfactory indication of social adjustment or maladjustment; that a person’s use of the ’is of identity’ is related to his degree of social adjustment. This conclusion was based on the finding that.institutionalized boys (thereby classified as maladjusted by society) do use the ’is of identity* to a greater degree than those not institutionalized, as evidenced by a lower mean score on the I.O.I. Test. The consistency between teacher ratings of social adjustment and scores made oh the I.O.I. Teist provided further evidence of validity of the test and relationship between ’is of identity* and degree of ad¬ justment. The greater the use of the !is of identity’ the poorer the teacher ratings; conversely, the lesser the use of the ’is of identity* the better the teacher ratings. Despite the fact that little or no relationship was found in the pilot studies between I.(^, score and the iise of the ’is of identity’ in the larger study a degree of relationship was found. Applying covari^ ance adjustment.to eliminate the influence of I.Q. score did not Alter the findings as derived from the analysis of variance, except in the case of religious affiliation. .Weiss noted that while.teacher ratings and scores on the I.O.I. T'rist correlate highly, teacher ratin2s and I.Q. scores do not. : 43 The analysis of variance showed no significant relationship between a composite self rating and I.0.I, Test scores. The suspicion that the self ratings (an introspective device) were unreliable as indicators of social adjustment was sustained by an item analysis which showed that the difference in scores on the 'ins! and ^uts* for.item 101 was highly significant, while for the remaining items it was not significant. CHAPTER IV RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The Is of Identity Test, which has 100 items, is scored to total¬ ing the number of false and undecided responses. The total number of false and undecided responses is the score on the test. Weiss (51;186) found that the norm for the "averagely” adjusted individual falls any¬ where between 40 and 60. The higher the score, the more socially ad¬ justed the individual; conversely, the lower the score the greater the probability of social maladjustment. As stated in Chapter III, the general objective of this test is to measure one important underlying reason for an individual’s lack of adjustment, namely, his use of < language or language patterns of a structure to the structure of the nonverbal world, and his unawareness of the dissimilarity. When the twenty-two matched pairs? scores were totaled, the results were, as follows: Group A - Children of working mothers - 935 points Group B - Children of non-working mothers ^811 points The mean for all subjects was 39.68 points. This mean is lower than that which Weiss had predicted, but he did not validate the test with children below the fourth grade level. The mean for Group A was 42.5 points, and the mean for Group B was 37.0 points. The "t” test of the difference between the means was used. When the means are uncorrelated and the samples are of equal size, the formula is: +ZTX^2 Ni (Ni - 1) and = means of the two samples Z2 2 x ^ and z.x ^ “sums of the squares in the two samples Ni = size of either sample As stated by Guilford (12:183-185), Fisher’s ’'t" for testing a difference between uncorrelated means, can be used for very small sam¬ ples since degrees of freedom are taken into account. The Fisherfs "t" test, comparing Group A with Group B, revealed a "t" of 0.0955 which was not significant at the .05 level of confidence. Therefore, the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the social adjustment of children of working mothers and of non-working mothers in the north area of Bozeman, Montana was not rejected. The Fisher’s ’’t" test was used also to test the significance of the means of the male subjects (15 pairs) used in the study. The "t" test is applicable to samples of any size, as quoted by Guilford (12:183- 185). It is applicable to samples of any size, from two upward, drawn at random from a normal population. The "t" test assumes that the sam¬ pled populations are normal and equally variable. Moderate departure from normality and equality of variance in the population appear to have little effect on the utH test for difference between means. The male subjects of the working mothers had a total of 671 points, and a mean of 44.75 points; whereas, the male subjects of the non-working mothers had 46 a total of 536 points, and a mean of 35.75 points. The Fisher’s "t" revealed a "t” of 0.1519 which was not significant at the .05 level of confidence. Therefore, there was no significant, difference between the mean scores on the Is of Identity Test for males of Group A and Group B. The null hypothesis was not rejected. The female subjects (7 pairs) showed the least difference in means. The total points for the.females in Group A was 264 points, and a mean of 37.75 points. The total points for the females of Group B was 275 points and a mean of 39.28. The Fisher’s ”t" revealed a ”t” of 0.0170 which was not significant at the .05 level of confidence. Therefore, there was no significant difference between the mean scores of the Is of Identity Test for females in Group A and Group B. The null hypothesis was not rejected The means for the three differentf'grade levels were: Grp; A Grp. B 4th grade - 35.11 -37.77 3rd grade - 57.17 37.22 2nd grade -39.71 34.00 The "t" test for a difference between means was used with the means for the third graders. The formula used was: M - M i 2 \| Ix21 +£X22 . N1 + H2 . N1 + N2 - 2 • 47 and = means of the two samples 2 2 ^x.. and ^.x ^ - sums of squares in the two samples Nj and = number of cases in the two samples The formula was used since Group A and Group B were of a different size for the third graders. The ''t" score obtained was 0.2857 which was not significant at the .05 level of confidence. As an observation, it was noted that there was a 95 percent agree¬ ment on item number 6 as a false statement - ’’Snake is an ugly word." On item number 82 there was a 95 percent agreement that the statement was false - "Children are born bad." There was a 90 percent agreement that items numbered 24 and 84 were false -> "Barking dogs don’t bite" and "Questions have no answers." As seen in the table, there were nine items which 90 percent or more of the subjects felt were true statements.. On five of the items there was 95 percent agreement, they were: > "The sky is blue." "Exercise is good." "God is everything good." "A good man never cheats." "The bible is the greatest source of truth." The other four items on which there was 90 percent agreement that the statements were true,’.were: "A person who kills another person is a.murderer.", / "A wool skirt is warm." PERCENTAGE TABLE INDIVIDUAL FALSE AND UNDECIDED RESPONSES ON THE IS OF IDENTITY TEST IN REGARDS TO GROUP A AND GROUP B, AND THE PERCENTAGES OF EACH GROUPxS RESPONSES ITEM NUMBER • • GROUP A GROUP B No. of Responses Percentage No. of Responses Percentage 1 : 8 • ; 40 ’ ■ . 12 . 60 2 ;; • - • 6 85 : '■ ' 1 ' ; 15 3 4 : 57 : 3 43 4 r . - 3 • 43 • : ' 4 ' 57 5 - . .Mi . •: 53 10 • ' 47 6 . • . 19 . 46.5 V: ‘ .22 '.. 53.5 7 ; • • is : 50 .. . 18 • • 50 8 ; 3 •37.5 5 ; 62.5 9 ; 2 40 : • 3 60 10 ' ' 8 • 45 •; Mo ' 55 ‘ 11 ' . ‘ 5 ' : 83 ’ . 1 ’ . ' ^ 17 12 18 • ; 50 ; : 18 • ' '50 13 ; i2. 36 ’ 17 64 . 14 15 ; . : 51* 14 49 .15 • 8 • 61.5 ' , >■-. 5 38.5 • 16 4 44.5 5 55.5 ' : '• 11, r hi txii— Saa^yttiK » » SnrW^>-. < 49 ITEM NUMBER •. GROUP No. of Responses Percentag* GROUP B No. of Responses Percentage •17 5 . . 38.5 ' . v ; 8 • 61.5 18 12 60 8 • 40 • 19 • 17 52 16 V 48 • 20 ' 8 • 47 9 • 53 . 21 . .13 50/ 13 50 22 5 ■ 72 • 2 28 • 23 - 3 27 8 •73 24 21 : • 54 S 18 • 46 25 ' 14 ; 52 13 48 • 26 9 • 45 11 55 27 13 : 59.5 : : 9 ; 40,5 28 ■ '15 • 53 • ■ • 13 ; 47 29 15 68 • ’ ‘ 8 32 30 •• 7 54 6 46 31 6 66.5 . 3 33.5 32 4 66 ' ; 2 34 . 33 / • 2 40 3 60 • 34 2 ' 40 • ' V ■ ' , 3 60 • 35 • '• 5 • ■■ : 50 : 3 ‘ : 50 36 4 : 50 4 50 -37 4 57 ■ : 3 : ' 43 . 38 • .13 65 ; 7 35 50 ITEM NUMBER . GROUP A tfo. of Responses Percentage GROUP B No. of Responses Percentage 39 -• 1 •17 • ' 5 . 83 40 • 5 44.5 6 55.5 41 . . 3 ; 100 0 0 42 ‘ 10 V 59 ■ V ■ • • 7 41 43 . . 7 • 70 3 30 44 ’ 5 1 44.5 6 55.5 45 14 54.5 12 ' 45.5 46 12 ’55 10 : ■; 45 47 4 44.5 ' • / s,;;:/: ; ; 55.5 48 • Ml 55 45 49 •12 V • 52 Ml • 48 • 50 6 66.5 : •' ; ’ 3 33.5 51 2 .100 ‘ :■-V: o :. - V; o • 52 9 • 60.5 6 39.5 1 53 10 . ‘ : 52 9 48 54 ■ ' ' 2 ’ : 14 M2 ■ ’ 86 55 1 2 66.6 V. ; 1 • ; .33.4 56 10. • • 42 ■; i4 ‘ 58 • 57 15 : : so ' • 15 • ‘ 50 58 • • 7 70 . 3 • •; 30 * 59 : is. • • 56 14 . 44 51 ITEM NUMBER GROUP / No, of Responses Percentag< GROUP B :No. of Responses Percentage 60 5 45 6 55 61 5 62.5 3 37.5 62 18 •* 56 14 44 63 12 46 .14 : 54 64 55.5 ; 12 44.5 65 . • 5 - 30 • 12 ; 70 66 ,19 61 ’ 12 39 67 5 ’ • 55.5 4 ' 44.5 68 16 63 .11 : :' : ) . 37 69 • 9 ; 60.5 6 39.5 • 7° • 19 ; '55 • •16. •• 45 • • 71 ' ; 7 : 78 2 22 72 11 61 ; * 7 •. 39 73 12 57 9 43 74 13 41 ;i9 ■■ : 59 75 4 50 4 50 • 76 : n. * ; 79 3 21 : 77 ’ 15 • 60 . ■ :'’ ; 10 40 \ 78 • 5 • 50 5 • ’ v 50 • 79 : i2' 60 • 8 • 40 • ' 80 . . 4 67 ■ 2 33 -1 ^* i ^^ £ w.* t ^ V f . •■.»; ^ •» .^.. 1 -t—■•■..- Vl>....'^ « -« i 52 ITEM NUMBER GROUP i No. of Responses \ Percentage GROUP B No. of Responses Percentage 81' • 4 . 80 1 20 82 19 .46.5 22 53.5 83 4 57 • 3 43 84- ; 20 • 51.5 19 48.5 85 9 72 4 28 • 86 5 : ■ 71 2 29 . 87- 10 55.5 8 44.5 88 • 8 • 44.5 * 10 55.5 89 ‘ 13 56.5 ■ 10 43.5 90. . M7- • : 50 t; ?:; .17 50 91 ."11.: 61 ; : ■ >17 • 39 92 ' 10 •. • : 55.5 8 • 44.5 93 ■ 2 66.6 1 ' ; 33.4 94 1 5 •71 3 29 95 10 . 59 ■ * 7 41 96 9 64.5 5 • f . 35.5 • 97 16 ' 47 . is • 53 98 14 64 ■ : ■ ■ 9 •• 36 99 ' 8 • 42 'n • 58 < 100. 16 60 ’ 10 • r - P* O 53 "A circle is round." "Children should always obey their parents." Four statements seem to warrant comment. Three of the statements were answered false in the ratio of 1 Group B subject to 5 Group A sub¬ jects. These three items were: #2 - "Mules are stubborn." .7/11- "A boy who never lies is good." #41- "Needles are sharp.'1 One statement (#39) was marked false by more subjects in Group B in the ratio of 5 to 1. Statement number 39 is "Feathers are soft." There were seven items which were marked false in a ratio of at least 3 to 7 by Group A or Group B. The five items marked by 7 Group A subjects as false, but only by 3 Group B subjects as false, were: #43 - "A pitcher holds water." #71 - "Freedom of speech is good." • #76 - "We live.in the best of all possible worlds." #81 - "Children should always obey their parents." #85 - "No one gets by with anything bad without getting caught." The two items marked by 7 Group B.subjects as false, but only 3 Group A.subjects as false, were: #23 - "No one wants to die." #65 - "All children should be Christians." Recommendations This research study has attempted to.test the null hypothesis as it was applied to subjects of one specific area of Bozeman, 54 Montana. In terms of the United States as a whole, a much larger sampl¬ ing should be investigated. In future studies, maternal employment could be viewed as a psycho¬ logical variable in respect to its meaning to the mother, Maternal em¬ ployment may be contributor of self-esteem, a personal competitive weapon a means of economic survival or the attainment of social goals, an escape or an involvement received supportively or hostilely by the significant people in her life. . All of these meanings and many more are represented in mothers1 decisions to work or not. Research, therefore, might be directed to finding out what the consequences are for the mother’s relat¬ ionship with her child, for her own personal frustrations and failures, her feelings of fulfillment and attainment, or her resentful assumption of a parental dominance role abrogated by her husband as these are linked with employment and non-employment. Research could try to differentiate the all-inclusive variable of maternal employment into more highly specified categories. If one wants to know whether or not the sheer absence of the mother from the home is J. the important variable, then one shoudl subdivide the working women.ac¬ cording to the number of hours they are away from home while the child is there. If one wants to know the importance of the adequacy of super¬ vision, then one should subdivide the women according to whether or not the substitute supervision provided is adequate. One might feel that the important variable is the father's reaction to the mother’s employ¬ ment. In this case, the working mothers can be subdivided according to 55 some measure of the father's.attitudinal or behavioral response to his wife's employment. By selecting a particular aspect of mother's employ¬ ment, differentiating the working mothers according to this variable, and examining the differences between working and non^working groups separately, one can make a more formidable step toward understanding the crucial aspects of maternal employment in.relation to the child. In most working-mother studies, relations were examined between ma¬ ternal employment and some aspect of the child’s behavior directly, with¬ out considering intervening variables such as the effect of maternal em¬ ployment on parent-child relations, family structure, or.other aspects of family life. The jump between maternal employment and child behavior is too broad to be covered with one leap. One must first understand the various steps that intervene. ft' SELECTED REFERENCES 1. Banducci, Raymond. uThe Effect of the Mother’s Employment on the Achievement, Aspirations and Expectations of the Children,” The Personnel and Guidance Journal. 46:263T67, November, 1967. .2. Bandura, A. and R.H. Walters. Adolescent Aggression. Ronald Press, 1959. . . 3. Beer, Ethel S. The Day Nursery. New York: Dutton, 1938. 4. Berger, I.L. "Psychopathological Attitudes of Frustrated Previously Employed Mothers towards Their Offspring," Journal of Nervous Mental Disorders. 108:241-49, 1948. 5. Bossard, James H.S. The Sociology of Child Development. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954, 284-5. 6. Burchinal, Lee G. "Personality Characteristics of Children," Marriage and Family Living. 23:334-40, November, 1961. 7. Close, K. "Day Care as a Service for All Who Need It," Children. 12:157-60, July 1965. 8. Erickson, Erick Karl. "How a Working Mothers Absence from the Home Affects Juvenile Delinquency," Unpublished Master’s thesis, Montana State College, Bozeman, Montana, 1958. 9. Forest, Use. Preschool Education. New York: Macmillan, 1927. 10. Frankel, E. "Characteristics of the Working and Non-Working Mothers Among Intellectually Gifted High and Low Achievers," The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 42:776-80, April, 1964. 11. Freud, Anna. "Assessment of Childhood Development, a Review of Normality and Pathology." Children. 13:31r*2, January, 1966. 12. Guilford, J.P. Fundamental Statistics in Psychology and Education. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1965, pp. 183-85. 13. Groves, E.R. and W.F. Ogburn. American Marriage and Family Relation¬ ship. New York: Holt, 1928, 72-5.' 14. Hand, H.B. "Working Mothers and Maladjusted Children," Journal of Educational Sociology. 30:245-46, January, 1957. 15. Hartley, Ruth E. Children’s Concepts of Male and Female Roles. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1960, pp. 83-91. I-errill-P 16. Hoffman, Lois W. ’’Effects of Employment of Mothers on Parental Power Relations and the Division of Household Tasks.” Marriage and Family Living, 22:27-35, 1960. 17. . "Effects of Maternal Employment upon Children," Child Development, 32:187-97, March, 1961. 18. . S. Rosen arid H.R. Lippitt. "Parental Coerciveness, Child Autonomy and Child’s Role at School," Sociometry, 23:15-22. 19. Johnson, Wendall. People in Quandries. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1946, p. 268. 20. Korzybski, Alfred. Science and Sanity. Lakeville: International Non-aristotelian Library Publishing Company, 1958. 21. Krauskopf, Konrad Bates. Fundamentals of Physical Science. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1953, p. 667. 22. Lauer, Rachel. "Effects of a General Semantics Course Upon Some Fifth Grade Children," General Semantics Bulletin. Nos. 30 & 31, 1963-64. •23. Maccoby, Eleanor E. "Children and Working Mothers." Children, 5: 83-89, 1958. 24. . "Effects upon Children of Their Mother’s Outside Employ¬ ment," National Manpower Council. New York: Columbia Univer¬ sity Press, 1958. 25. Mathews, Selma M. "The Effects of Mothers’ Out-Of-Horae Employment upon Children’s Ideas and Attitudes.” Journal of Applied Psychology. 18:116-36, 1934, 26. Moore, B.M. "A sociologist Looks at Homemaking Education." Practical Home Economics, 5:1-13, April, 1960. 27. National Manpower Council, "Woraanpower," New York: Columbia Uni¬ versity Press, 1957. 28. Nolan, J?fancena L. and Dawn H. Tuttle. "Certain Practices Satis¬ factions and Difficulties in Families with Employed Homemakers," Bulletin 655, Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station, 1959. 58 29. Nye, F.I. "Employment Status and Recreational Behavior of Mothers," Pacific Sociology Review, 1:68-72, 1958. 30. . "Employment Status of Mothers and Adjustment of Adolescent Children," Marriage and Family Living, 21:240-244, 1959. 31. . "Employment Status of Mothers and Marital Conflict, Perman¬ ence and Happiness," Sociological Problems. 6:260-67, 1959.- 32. .and Lois W. Hoffman. The Employed Mother in America. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1963. 33. Pines,-Maya, "Someone to Mind the Baby," Changing Times. 71-76, January 8, 1968. 34. Reichert, A. "The Homemaker as Employed Worker," Journal of Home Economics. 53:18, January, 1961. 35. Rouman, J. "School Childrens Problems as Related to Parental Factors," Journal of Educational Research. 50:105-112, 1956, 36. Sanford, N, "Is College Education Wasted on Women?" Ladies Home Journal. 74:78-79, May, 1957. 37. Sears, R.S., Eleanor E, Maccoby and H. Levin. Patterns of Child- Rearing, Evanston, 111,: Row, Peterson, 1957, 38. Siegel, Alberta E. and T. Haas. "The Working Mother: A Review of Research," Child Development, 34:513-42, September, 1963. 39. , Lois M, Stolz, E. Alice Hitchcock and Jean M. Adamson. "Dependence and Independence in Children," Child Development. 30:533-46, 1959. 40. Sheerer, Elizabeth Taylor. "Changing Family I," Young Children. 20:290-300, May, 1965. 41. Stolz, Lois M. "Effects of Maternal Employment on Children: Evidence from Research," Child Development, 31:749-82, December, 1960. . 42. . Father-Relations of War-Born Children. Stanford Univer¬ sity Press, 1954. 43. Times Editorial Supplementary. "Women At Work:Looking After the Children," 2374; 681, November, 1960. - 59 4A. United States Department of Labor, ’’Manpower Challenge of the 1960's, James P. Mitchell, Sec., Pamphlet Letter 7. 45. Vellanti, Joseph T. "The Relations of Intelligence and Sex totbhe Use of the 'Is of Identity' for High School Students,” Science Education. 46:71-82, February, 1962. 46. Von Mering, F.H. ’’Professional to Non-professional Women as Mothers,” , Journal of Sociological Psychology. 42:21-34, 1955. 47. Weiss, Thomas M. "An Experimental Study,” General Semantics Bulletin. Numbers 32 & 33, 1965-66, pp. 100-04. 48. . "An Experimental Study Applying Non-Aristotelian Princi¬ ples in the Measurement of Adjustment and Maladjustment,” Science Education. ’AOrS^-lS. October, 1956. 49. . "Discussion of the Rationale and Previous Findings of the 'Is of Identity' Test as a Basis for Further Research," Science Educationcl43:181-83. March, 1959. 50. . "Identification Restricts Problem Solving,” Science Education. 43:184-85, March, 1959. 51. .. "Identification and Filse-to-Fact NotionsScience Education. 43:185-87, March, 1959. 52. . "The Construction and Validation of an 'Is of Identity* Test," General Semantics Bulletin. Numbers 24 & 25,' 1960, pp. 69-80. 53. . "Additional Experimental Evidence Supporting Korzyskian Principles,” Science Education. 45:114-18, March, 1961. 54. . "Measured Differences in Identification between Science and Non-Science Majors,” Science Education. 46:58-61, February, 1962. ' 55. Whatley, Alice Elrod. "Working Mothers Report on Problems and Con¬ cerns," Journal of Home Economics. 55:119-21, February, 1963. 56. Whorf, Benjamin Lee. "Science and Linguistics,” Language. Thought and Reality. New York and Cambridge: John Wiley & Sons and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1956, p. 207. 57. Yarrow, Marian Radke. "Maternal Employment and Child Rearing," Children. 8:223-28, November, 1961.• APPENDIX IS OF IDENTITY- TEST