Working mothers in the United States can relax. Their kids might
still get into Harvard. A study from researchers at the
University of Texas at Austin found no differences in children's
social and intellectual development during the first three years
of life between those whose mothers spent a lot of time with
them in infancy and those whose mothers spent less time because
they worked outside the home. The results were published in the
March/April 2005 issue of the journal Child Development. The
findings are significant because more than half of American
infants have mothers who are employed at least part-time during
their child's first year of life. Many psychologists and parents
worry that the time mothers spend away from their babies when at
work detracts from mothers' ability to be sensitive to their
babies' needs and to provide cognitive stimulation to their
children. Aletha C. Huston, PhD, and Stacey Rosenkrantz Aronson,
PhD, analyzed 24-hour diaries of time use from 1,053 mothers of
infants collected i