The Influence of Mother's Occupation and Employment Status on Emotional Behavior of School-age Children

Abstract

Women have career opportunities in various sectors of life, thus shifting from the role of mothers in household matters to being involved in the public sector and other social activities. One of the effects is that they spend limited time with children, which will affect their children’s emotional development. The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between the mother’s employment status and their interaction with their children and the emotional behaviour of preschool-aged children (4-6 years old), and also, to identify the relationship between the mother’s occupation with emotional behaviour of preschoolers (4-6 years). The design of this study was a cross-sectional approach with a sampling technique using stratified random sampling (N=46). This research was conducted at TK Aisyiyah 24 Malang on April 22 – 28, 2019. Questionnaire-Revised (PACHIQ-R) and Emotional Behavior Problems (KMPE) instruments were used in this research. Multivariate linear regression was used to know the impact of children‘s emotional behaviour problems. The results showed only the level of mother-child interaction significantly affected children’s emotional behaviour in a negative direction (t count > t table; -3,419 > 2,013; p-value = 0.01). Meanwhile, the value of F count > F table (6.965 > 2.42; p-value = 0.00). R2 = 0.465, adjusted R2 = 0.399. Data were collected using The Parent-Child Interaction instrument. The results showed only the level of mother-child interaction significantly affected children’s emotional behaviour in a negative direction. Keywords: work status, interaction intensity, emotional behavior, preschool age