The study, which appeared in the current
online issue the journal Economics and Human Biology, looked at close to 25,000
people, and found that working mothers spent 17 fewer minutes cooking, 10 fewer
minutes eating with their kids, 12 fewer minutes playing with them and 37 fewer
minutes tending to child care than their nonworking counterparts. This was true
regardless of the mother's education, age or income, and the differences tended
to be greatest for mothers with children younger than 5. What about dads? The researchers found they
weren't picking up the slack. Employed fathers devoted only 13 minutes a day to
cooking for and playing with their children; nonworking fathers contributed 41
minutes to the same activities.
"It seems men are not doing much extra
work," said John
Cawley, the study's lead investigator.
Only about 15 percent of the fewer minutes
spent in activities devoted to their children's health by working mothers appear
to be offset by increases in time spent by husbands and partners. To make up for
the time deficit, the data suggested that working mothers spent two more minutes
per day than the stay-at-home moms purchasing prepackaged meals or ordering take
out, an amount of time the researchers said was statistically significant.
Study Stirs Outrage
Previous studies have found that the
children of working mothers tend to have a higher body mass index, or BMI, and
higher obesity rates than children of nonworking mothers. For example, in 2003,
the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
examined families with children 3 to 11 years old and found that 10 additional
weekly hours of maternal employment over the course of the child's life
increased their chances of becoming obese by 1.0 to 1.5 percentage points.
Cawley emphasizes that his investigation
isn't intended to point the finger of blame at either parent. The aim of this
latest study was to explore some of the reasons obesity may be tied to a
mother's job status by tracking how much time both parents dedicated to their
children's health.
Still, this type of data does tend to put working women on the defensive.
"Instead of giving her credit for giving birth to a healthy child, then
frantically trying to also financially provide for her family, keep a roof over
their heads, clothes on their backs, educational books on the shelf, we make
working moms feel bad about not having the time to make a healthy meal," said
Antoinette Rodriguez, a financial adviser in Manhattan and mother of a
7-year-old daughter. "I get the sense that working fathers don't sweat the small
stuff as much as moms. But then again, they're not judged for it."
Beth Anne Ballance, the mother of a 3-year-old son and a parenting blogger
for Babble.com, owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News, agrees that the
sort of findings reported in the study are often interpreted as a failure on the
part of mothers more than fathers. "Despite the progress we've made as a
society, despite women's equality, we still look to women as the main nurturers
of children," she said.
But she believes studies like this one short change fathers too.
"He's a parent, not a babysitter, so he's
just as responsible for choosing healthy foods and encouraging activity in our
kid," she said.
Study Drawbacks The
Cornell study didn't take into account the benefits of having a working mother
in the family. For one thing, the financial advantages are obvious. And many
believe working mothers provide positive role models for their children.
Additionally, the data doesn't prove that employment alone is what drives the
way mothers spend their time, nor did the study look at the quality of the
ready-to-serve meals -- were they unhealthy prepackaged foods or low-fat organic
fare, for example.
Cawley also points out that his research
didn't provide any clues as to why fathers didn't pitch in more. It's possible
the increased income from a mother's employment is used to hire nonfamily
caregivers to handle some of these caregiving, household tasks. Another possible
explanation is that fathers are unable or unwilling to increase time devoted to
household tasks when their wives work.
"I don't like phrasing the question as whether working moms contribute to the
problem. I think it's modern life that contributes to it," he said. "The
question is what can families and schools do to promote child health given the
changes in modern life?
What parents can do Cawley said, is get
better educated about the nutritional content of restaurant and prepackaged
foods, particularly if they don't believe they have the time to stop and prepare
a meal from scratch.
"In order to make more informed decisions,
consumers need to have nutrition and calorie information available where they
buy their food." He said while also noting that federal health care reform rules
will soon require chain- and fast-food restaurants nationwide to post the
calorie counts of the foods they sell.
He also recommends asking schools to
shoulder some of the responsibility. "Of course, we can't ask schools to do
everything, but there are some obvious easy changes they can make, such as
switching from easy-to-prepare popular foods in the cafeteria to healthier more
nutritious foods, and providing more opportunities for kids to get physical
activity throughout the day."
According to Cawley, the Institute of
Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged those
very same measures as part of a comprehensive change in school environments to
combat childhood obesity.