Maternal employment and adolescent risky behavior.

This paper examines the impact of maternal employment during a child's first 3 years and during adolescence on his or her decisions to engage in a range of risky behaviors: smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, using marijuana and other drugs, engaging in sex and committing crimes. Using data from the NLSY79 and its young adult supplement, we do not find strong evidence that mother's employment--whether early in the child's life or during adolescence--affects the likelihood of participation in risky behaviors. We note as a caveat, however, that insufficient statistical precision makes it difficult, at times, to distinguish some potentially important effects from effects that are essentially equal to zero.