Full-time Maternal Employment and Strategies to Compensate the Lost Time to Boost Social-Emotional Development of Young Children

Abstract

This paper highlights full-time maternal employment and the strategies used by mothers to foster social-emotional development of their children aged 0-5years in Dar-es-Salaam. The data used in this paper was collected in a qualitative study that involved 42 mothers, their children, and domestic workers. The Attachment Theory was used to analyze the motherchild relationship and its implication for the social - emotional development of children. It is argued that the long duration of maternal absence without a quality relationship with children or unreliable secondary childcare arrangement affected children’s early development at different levels. Strategies used by mothers to compensate the lost time with children were identified. The Attachment Theory was used to explain the nature of attachment relationship between working mothers and their children. However, the conclusion was reached that social-emotional development is a complex phenomenon which should also be addressed by theories beyond psychology like theories from sociology and anthropology.

Key words: social-emotional development, maternal employment, attachment, care giving