Implications of Nonstandard Work Schedules to Child WellBeing

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Implications of Nonstandard Work Schedules to
Child Well-Being

• Wen-Jui Han
• Columbia University

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Background

• A substantial body of scholarship indicates that
  working nonstandard schedules takes a significant
  mental, social, and physical toll.
• As of today, however, we still know very little
  about the relationship between parental
  nonstandard work schedules and child development.
• We do not know whether child benefit or suffer
  from mothers working at nonstandard hours.
• The association may be moderated by maternal and
  family characteristics.

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So, Is there a Relationship?(between nonstandard
Work Schedules and Child Well-being)

• For Young Children (under age 3)
• The timing of maternal nonstandard work schedules
  may be important the effects of mothers working
  nonstandard schedules tended to be negative,
  particularly if these schedules began in the
  first year of life, and particularly for measures
  of cognitive development at 24 months and
  expressive language at 36 months.

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So, Is there a Relationship?Cont.

• For School-Age Children (age 5 and above)
• Children would not particularly suffer
  cognitively
• But children of highly skilled mothers may have
  more to lose the importance of the absence of
  nurturing and cognitively stimulating mothers
• Children would have more behavior problems
• In single-mother, welfare, and low-income
  families the importance of supervision and
  monitoring
• May also be true for children of mothers with
  high hourly wage and professional/managerial jobs
  the importance of the absence of cognitively
  stimulating mothers, but the effects are small.

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Summary of Other Results

• PATTERNS Mothers who had ever worked nonstandard
  hours by prior assessment month and are working
  nonstandard hours at current assessment month are
  found to have stronger effects on their
  childrens cognitive outcomes.
• INTENSITY Mothers who had ever worked
  nonstandard hours for 30 or more hours per week
  seem to have the least beneficial effects on
  their childrens cognitive outcomes.
• FATHERS The significant negative effects of
  mothers nonstandard hours schedules seem to be
  stronger for children whose mothers and fathers
  having both ever worked nonstandard hours by the
  assessment month.

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What explains the relationship between mothers
work schedules and young childrens cognitive
outcomes?

• Hypothesis I
• The care children receive from the mother at
  home that is, mothers who are employed in the
  early years of their childs life, and at
  nonstandard hours, are more likely to be
  depressed and to provide less sensitive care
  and/or a less stimulating home environment.
• Hypothesis II
• The care children receive outside the home or
  from caregivers other than the mother that is,
  the different effects associated with mothers
  working nonstandard hours on childrens cognitive
  outcomes may derive from children experiencing a
  different quality and type of care.

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The Potential Mediating Factors

• Maternal Depression higher depression
• Home Environment lower scores in HOME
• Type of Child Care
• Significantly less likely to be cared for in
  center-based care by age 3, even lower than that
  of mothers not working
• Center-based care has been shown to be positively
  associated with childrens later cognitive
  outcomes.

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Implications/Future Directions

• The importance of both the quality of children
  receive at home and in child care may help
  explain some of the negative association between
  mothers nonstandard work schedules and child
  cognitive outcomes.
• The complexities of providing care for children
  whose parent(s) work at nonstandard hours (e.g.,
  multiple child care arrangements are particularly
  prevalent in families where mothers work rotating
  shifts) are comprehensively discussed in
  Pressers recent work (2003).

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Implications/Future Directions, cont.

• Toward theory development
• Whether work schedules at different ages have
  different effects.
• The time of the day (evenings, nights, or
  variable hours) the mother worked has no effect
  on cognitive outcomes but may be important to
  childrens behavior problems.
• More research is needed
• The importance of voluntary employment schedules
• Difficult working conditions
• Maternal role strain
• Poor quality child care
• Frequent changes in child care arrangements
• The quality of time mothers and fathers spend
  with their children

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To our kid(s) who inspire us in many ways at all
times