Work Matters: How Parents’ Jobs Shape Children’s Well-Being

This event will be held in Tyrrell Hall, with the reception upstairs and the lecture in the auditorium on the first floor.

5:30-6:00 PM – Light Reception
6:00-6:15 PM – Introductions
6:15-7:15 PM – Lecture
7:15-7:30 PM – Q&A

Judy Berry Lecture Series featuring Maureen Perry-Jenkins, Ph.D., Princeton University Press

How new parents in low-wage jobs juggle the demands of work and childcare and the straightforward ways that employers can help.

Low-wage workers make up the largest group of employed parents in the United States, yet scant attention has been given to their experiences as new mothers and fathers. Work Matters brings the unique stories of these diverse individuals to light. Drawing from years of research and more than fifteen hundred family interviews, Maureen Perry-Jenkins describes how new parents cope with the demands of infant care while holding down low-wage, full-time jobs and the long-term implications for child development. She examines why some parents and children thrive while others struggle, demonstrates how specific job conditions impact parental engagement and child well-being, and discusses common-sense and affordable ways that employers can provide support.

In the United States, federal parental leave policy is unfunded. As a result, many new parents, particularly hourly workers, return to their jobs just weeks after giving birth because they cannot afford not to. Not surprisingly, workplace policies that offer parents flexibility and leave time are crucial. But, Perry-Jenkins shows that the time parents spend at work also matters. Their day-to-day experiences on the job, such as relationships with supervisors and coworkers, job autonomy, and time pressures, have long-term consequences for parents’ mental health, the quality of their parenting, and, ultimately, the health of their children.

An overdue look at an important segment of the parenting population, Work Matters proposes ways to reimagine low-wage work to sustain new families and the development of future generations.

Maureen Perry-Jenkins is professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. www.instagram.com/mpj728

Sociology | Psychology

Professor Maureen Perry-Jenkins has garnered national and international recognition for her research focused on the challenges facing working-poor families as they cope with the stress of new parenthood and holding down full-time work. In her time at UMass, Dr. Perry-Jenkins has received over 2 million dollars in funding from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct her longitudinal research that examines how work conditions and policies affect the well-being of new parents transitioning to parenthood. She has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and chapters and in 2015 completed a year as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford where she developed the book Work Matters that examines the impact of parents’ low-wage work on children (2022). Professor Perry-Jenkins was named a Fellow by the National Council on Family Relations in 2014. In 2018, she received the Ernest W. Burgess Award, Outstanding Contribution to Family Science from the National Council on Family Relations. From 2018-2021 she served as Co-President of the Council on Contemporary Families, and 2022 received the Alexis J. Walker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Feminist Family from the National Council on Family Relations. She is also a member of the Conference Planning Committee for the Work and Family Research Network, an international organization aimed at highlighting the cross-disciplinary research on work and family. She serves on the editorial board of the five top family journals, has served on NIH review panels, and is committed to mentoring the next generation of junior faculty scholars through thee Mellon program and as a NIH K-Award Mentor.

**This event is free and open to the public**

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