THE ATTACHMENT BEHAVIOR OF 5-YEAR-OLD TO 6-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN - INFLUENCE OF MOTHERS PARTICIPATION IN THE LABOR-FORCE OUTSIDE OF THE HOME

The growing participation of women in the labor force has led to a cry of alarm concerning its effects on the emotional well-bein of childre n. In order to investigate this problem, 211 mother-child dyads were a ssessed; one group (N = 103) was composed by working mothers (WM), fro m the Nursing profession; the other group (N = 108) were housewives no nworking (NWM). In all the cases one child, 5 to 6 years old, was eval uated using a family drawing, scored in terms of attachment pattern. T he developmental level of the child was assessed by the Human Figure T est. Results indicate that there are no significant differences in att achment patterns between the groups. On the other hand, children of WM showed a significantly higher level of development than children from NWM. Age was an important factor, butdidnotreacha significant level. This investigation demostrates that mother employment does not promote insecure attachment or inhability to form attachment bonds.