Understanding the Importance of Parental Time With Children: Comment on Milkie, Nomaguchi, and Denny (2015)

Kalil and Mayer argue against the research article by Milkie et al that ruled out the importance of maternal time in child development. There are important problems with the authors' theoretical framework, measures, estimation models, and interpretation of the results. Consequently, the research provides little insight into the question of whether maternal time with children is beneficial to child outcomes.