Childhood, Ahead of Print.
This paper analyzes mixed-status family work dynamics and identifies children’s work contributions. Most studies on work in mixed-status families in the United States leave out women’s contributions and ignore children’s contributions. This paper focuses on children’s contributions and the tasks they do to lighten mixed-status families’ overall workload. Results show children are aware of family’s work and how they redistribute and collaborate for the family unit. Children assess contributions across contexts reflecting an awareness of the socioeconomic interrelatedness of family, despite stratifying effects of legal status, demonstrating what it takes to live and work as mixed-status families in the U.S.