When Mothers' Work Matters for Youths' Daily Time Use: Implications of Evening and Weekend Shifts

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Child Fam Stud
• Personal Author:
  Lee, Soomi ; Davis, Kelly D. ; McHale, Susan M. ; Kelly, Erin L. ; Kossek, Ellen Ernst ; Crouter, Ann C.
• Description:
  Drawing upon the work-home resources model, this study examined the implications of mothers' evening and weekend shifts for youths' time with mother, alone, and hanging out with peers unsupervised, with attention to both the amount and day-to-day consistency of time use. Data came from 173 mothers who worked in the long-term care industry and their youths who provided daily diaries. Multilevel modeling revealed that youths whose mothers worked more evening shifts on average spent less time with their mothers compared to youths whose mothers worked fewer evening shifts. Youths whose mothers worked more weekend shifts, however, spent more time with their mothers and exhibited less consistency in their time in all three activity domains compared to youths whose mothers worked fewer weekend shifts. Girls, not boys, spent less time alone on days when mothers worked weekend shifts than on days with standard shifts. Older but not younger adolescents spent more time hanging out with friends on evening and weekend shift days, and their unsupervised peer time was less consistent across days when mothers worked more evening shifts. These effects adjusted for sociodemographic and day characteristics, including school day, number of children in the household, mothers' marital status and work hours, and time with fathers. Our results illuminate the importance of the timing and day of mothers' work for youths' daily activities. Future interventions should consider how to increase mothers' resources to deal with constraints on parenting due to their work during nonstandard hours, with attention to child gender and age.
• Keywords:
  Adolescence Daily Diary Maternal Employment Nonstandard Work Schedules Time Use Work-home Resources Model
• Source:
  J Child Fam Stud. 26(8):2077-2089
• Pubmed ID:
  29056839
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5646823
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U01 HD051217/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051256/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 OH008788/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U01 AG027669/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HL107240/HL/NHLBI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD059773/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051276/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051218/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  26
• Issue:
  8
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:5f87c7638803f24ed39e53389bcf27568c57cb114bc6c4cfb78bc91b6ca7fc91
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/49337/cdc_49337_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 705.65 KB ]