title: The impact of a child's special health care needs on maternal work participation during early motherhood.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many women temporarily reduce work hours or stop working when caring for small children. However, mothers of children with special health care needs may face particular challenges balancing childrearing responsibilities and employment demands. This study examines how the work participation among mothers of children with special health care needs compares with that of mothers in general during early motherhood, focusing in particular on the extent of the child's additional health care needs.
  
  
  METHODS
  By linkage of the population-based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study with national registers on employment, child health care needs, and social background factors, 41,255 mothers employed prior to childbirth were followed until child age 3 years to investigate associations between the child's care needs and mother's dropping out of employment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 16.3% of the formerly employed mothers were no longer employed at child age 3 years. Mothers of children with mild care needs did not differ from mothers in general, whereas mothers of children with moderate [Risk Ratio (RR) 1.45; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17, 1.80] and severe care needs [RR 2.19; 95% CI 1.67, 2.87] were at substantial risk of not being employed at follow-up. The impact of the child's health care needs remained strong also after adjusting for several factors associated with employment in general.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Extensive childhood health care needs are associated with reduced short-term employment prospects and remain a substantial influence on mothers' work participation during early motherhood, irrespective of other important characteristics associated with maternal employment.
authors.affiliation: Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo. laha@fhi.no
authors.forename: Lars Johan
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Hauge
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kornstad
authors.forename: Ragnhild Bang
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Nes
authors.forename: Petter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.forename: Lorentz M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Irgens
authors.forename: Leif T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Eskedal
authors.forename: Markus A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Landolt
authors.forename: Margarete E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Vollrath
mesh_terms: D002654:Child Care / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D004651:Employment / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009664:Norway; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology*