Effect of Maternal Employment on Adolescent’s Grittiness

Maternal care is a crucial influential factor in the cognitive, non-cognitive and personality development of a child. Recently, female parents are increasingly assuming professional roles which might decrease maternal presence and care which might or might not have an effect on the development of a child’s non-cognitive abilities. Due to the same reason, mothers face conflicts within their families and with their own conscience on undertaking a job. Reviewing the literature, though we could find many studies pertaining to effect of maternal employment on infants, there were only a very few studies done on adolescence and never before was a study conducted on the difference of grit, a non-cognitive trait, w.r.t maternal employment on adolescents. This study aims to primarily measure the difference in grit among adolescents aged between 15-17 of full time working and non-working mothers, to assess the effects of maternal employment on an adolescent’s grit. A sample of 161 eligible participants collected through purposive random sampling were assessed. Close ended questionnaire design was used to carry out investigation. Grit was measured using Short grit scale (Angela lee Duckworth and Patrick D. Quinn, 2007). To analyze the data statistically, Independent sample t test was employed. Results indicated no significant difference in grit, among the adolescents of working and non-working mothers; implying to the fact that female parent’s employment status has no influence on the grittiness of the adolescent child.