Impact of Children/Adolescent Mental Health Problems on Maternal Employment: A Longitudinal Analysis

One in eight children and adolescents in the UK are affected by mental health issues
(NHS, 2017). In the 21st century, these issues are becoming more prevalent and are
a major obstacle to learning, development, physical health and future economic
outcomes in children/adolescents (HM Government, 2011).
There needs to be more research in this area to see how mental health issues in
children/adolescents can create barriers to employment for family members,
particularly mothers, and whether there is a systematic variation in the way these
barriers differ for certain groups. This allows us to see the overall burden of these
issues on the economy.
My contribution to literature is to examine how mental health issues in
children/adolescents affect the work outcomes of their mothers using a longitudinal
dataset from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS).