Maternal employment and child abuse

The present study, comprising a sample of 133 dual earner and 136 single ea rner couples, aims at exploring the relationship between mother's employmen t and violence toward children. The data strongly indicated that, non-worki ng mothers reported higher rates of violence. As for working parents, work stress and income are found to be indirectly related to child abuse. Family life education programmes, and opportunities for learning alternative non- punitive ways of managing interpersonal conflict are suggested, among other s, to help reduce violence in families.