Twice the Effort, Twice As Likely to be Suspended: Exploring the Interplay between Maternal Nonstandard Employment, Maternal Academic Involvement, and School Suspension

Background: As the United States continues to move towards a global economy the need of working beyond the standard Monday through Friday work schedule has increased. In comparison to men, women are twice as likely to select hours outside of the standard work schedule to accommodate their family life. Prior research has explored maternal nonstandard employment and its association to their children’s academic achievement; however, little is known how nonstandard work schedules is associated with school suspension. Students in the United States have missed more than 11 million school days due to school suspension. Black youth and students in special education have been disproportionately impacted by school suspension. Due to school suspension affecting approximately one-third of students across their K-12 experience, policymakers, researchers, and professionals have outlined school suspension as a major problem. Maternal academic involvement has been identified as a significant factor in student achievement, motivation, and aiming toward higher education, but little is known of the influence it may have on reducing school suspension—particularly for mothers with nonstandard employment.

Methods: This study conducted a path analysis using the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing dataset to examine the relationship between maternal nonstandard employment and maternal academic involvement and school suspension. Children’s special education status was tested as a potential moderator for all three response variables, and maternal academic involvement was tested as a potential mediator between maternal nonstandard employment and children’s school suspension rates. Disability Critical Race theory was utilized to guide this study.

Results: There was a positive relationship between mothers working a sporadic schedule and their school-academic involvement, but not their home-academic involvement. There was a negative relationship between mothers working on the weekends and home-academic involvement, but not school-academic involvement. There was a negative relationship between mothers working on the weekends and youth school suspension, but the association was lost when covariates were included in the model. In comparison to White mothers, Black mothers had increased maternal school-based and home-based academic involvement, but higher likelihood of school suspension. Similarly, in comparison to mothers without a child in special education, mothers who had a child in special education had increased maternal school-based and home-based academic involvement, but higher likelihood of school suspension.

Conclusions and Implications: This study utilized Disability Critical Race theory to explain the patterns of suspension outcomes for Black youth as well as those in special education, despite higher points of maternal academic involvement. This study offers implications on improving anti-racism and anti-ableism initiatives through interdisciplinary collaboration at the community and policy level as well as strategies of advancing social work practice at the macro-level.