Mothers at Work: a Study of the Health of Primary School Children Carried out for the Kent Paediatric and Child Health Society.

It is a fairly new and socially important phenomenon that very many mothers should work outside their homes. There have been several recent studies of this subject, but only one, and that only in passing, has attempted to discover what effect, if any, this practice has had on the children's health and behaviour (Jephcott, Seear, and Smith, 1962). Nevertheless dognatic opinions are often expressed on the adverse effect of such work on the children, and it has commonly been considered a cause of juvenile delinquency, though Wootton (1959) discusses the evidence for this and finds it inconclusive. In 1959 the Kent Paediatric and Child Health Society decided, through its research committee, to investigate the problem as far as could be done within the limits of the school medical examination andhead teachers' reports on character and behaviour.