POSTPARTUM EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS, FAMILY-BASED CARE ARRANGEMENTS, AND THE MOTHER-INFANT RELATIONSHIP AT AGE-2

This longitudinal study examined the relations of postpartum maternal employment profiles with infant-mother attachment security, maternal s ensitivity, and concurrent child and maternal characteristics in a rur al Canadian sample. Contrary to expectations, dyads where mothers retu rned to outside work after six months post-partum showed higher Q-SORT scores on attachment security than other dyads, and higher sensitivit y scores than dyads in which women were not employed outside the home in the first two years. Post six-month returners also reported less ch ild domain parental stress, less avoidant coping, and less child exter nalizing behaviour problems than other mothers. The data therefore emp hasize the importance of a process-oriented approach to understanding early relationships within a family context, which is in keeping with results from the recent NICHD study on early child.