Maternal Employment and Child Obesity: When Child Care Matters

A substantial body of literature suggests that maternal employment stimulates child obesity. This study re-examines the existing relations and explores the role of alternative care on health status of working women’s children using Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC). Categorizing child care as relative, non-family, and kindergarten care, I investigate how each type of child care generates different effects. This study finds that child care given by kindergarten decreases the probability of child obesity according to the estimation for working mothers. If they depend on relative care, it stimulates children to gain weights. Non-family child care is found to be effective to lessen possibility of a child’s overweight when the mother has no job. Among working mothers, only children of self-employed women are affected by relative care in a negative way. Children who go to kindergarten are less likely to be obese regardless of their mothers’ job position such as full-time, part-time, and self-employed. JEL classification: I12, J22