With the growth in the service economy, 24-hour operations and communication technologies, many parents today work nonstandard hours during evenings, nights and weekends. Although various studies have found a linkage between parental nonstandard working time and negative outcomes for families and children, researchers agree that there is considerable diversity in the circumstances of families in which parents work nonstandard hours, including different degrees of predictability and autonomy over working time as well as in work conditions. The connection between parental working time and children’s wellbeing may also be affected by the wider socio-cultural context, such as work and family policies, availability of childcare arrangements, and cultural norms. This workshop aims to facilitate a scholarly exchange of research on the challenges stemming from various aspects of nonstandard working time to the wellbeing of family and children across different countries. The four papers approach nonstandard working time and families using diverse methodologies and from the perspectives of different family members.

Wen-Jui Han presents findings on the effects of parental working time patterns and wellbeing based on a sample of Chinese children. China, which is in the process of moving from being a primarily agrarian to an increasingly urban and market-oriented society, presents one of the most dramatic examples of a rapid socioeconomic transition in recent human history. Han found that children whose fathers worked nonstandard hours (particularly at night or on rotating shifts) had more behavioural, social and attention problems and poorer academic performance, when rated by their teachers.

Jianghong Li’s paper examines the association between both parents working nonstandard schedules and the social and emotional wellbeing of their children in the Australian context, using data from the Raine Study, with special focus on adolescents aged 16-17 years. The paper takes into account variations in family socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics, and investigates the possible moderating role they play in the link between nonstandard work schedules and child outcomes.

Sabine Andresen brings a new element to the debate on working time: poverty and living in disadvantaged conditions. She presents the results of a qualitative study of German families living under precarious conditions. Nonstandard work schedules are accompanied by insecure, temporary jobs and periods of unemployment. These families, who are often the object of demoralizing comments, struggle with bureaucratic obstacles, including constantly changing contact persons and the barely penetrable jungle of information on the public support system.

Eija Sevon and her colleagues approach the 24-h society from the point of view of young children who, on account of both parents’ nonstandard hours, attend day and night care. Finland is among the few countries in the world that offer public early child education outside normal business hours. They used a mobile diary method to compare children in regular day care with those in day and night care. They found that parental working patterns shape the daily lives of children by affecting daily routines, schedules and relationships with adults and peers, in both positive and negative ways

Discussant: Academy researcher ,

Demographic and societal trends, coupling with globalization, in recent decades around the world have changed the forms of parental employment and thus the way we care for our children. Research using data from developed countries such as United States have shown that parents working at hours that are early morning, evenings, nights, or rotating shifts may have compromised children’s well-being to certain degree. China presents one of the most dramatic examples of rapid socioeconomic transition in recent human history. This paper builds upon and extends beyond the existing literature to examine, as the first, this issue using a sample of children who were first graders in Spring 2014 in Shanghai, China. Approximately a quarter of the mothers and one-third of the fathers in our sample worked at nonstandard hours regularly. Using propensity score matching analysis, results indicate that children whose fathers working at nonstandard hours particularly at night or rotating shifts, had significantly worse behavioral problems in areas of internalizing, social problems, and attention; these children also had significantly worse academic performance rated by their teachers. As China is moving from being a primarily agrarian society with a planned economy to one that is increasingly urban and market-oriented enterprises, the tremendous economic and demographic shifts that may impact family and child well-being in an immense manner are due for a more in-depth understanding, for the benefit of well-being of the world.

This study aims to examine the link between working nonstandard schedules (evenings, nights, weekends, irregular or rotating on-call schedules) in both parents and the social and emotional wellbeing of their adolescent children. The study is based on data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, with a focus on adolescents of 16/17 years. Multivariate linear and non-linear models are used to estimate the effect of parents’ nonstandard hours on the social and emotional wellbeing (mental health and behaviour) of adolescents. Reports from both parents and adolescents on the Child Behavioural Check List (CBCL) developed by Achenbach were used to measure the social and emotional wellbeing of adolescents. Based on the CBCL, three outcome variables are examined: total behavioural problems, internalising problems, and externalising behaviours. In all analyses family socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are adjusted, including family income, family structure, mother’s and father’s education, their occupational status, the number of siblings and the gender of the adolescent. Preliminary results so far have shown that in dependent of family socioeconomic status, parents’ nonstandard schedules are associated with an increased risk of behavioural problems in adolescents. Further analysis will examine possible interactions between parental nonstandard work schedules and child gender, family income, parents’ education, and family structure

Nonstandard working time has in earlier studies linked to precarious work conditions in terms of low salary, atypical work and insecurity. In this paper I present results of a qualitative study of disadvantaged families living in poverty in Germany. I focus on personal perspectives and experiences of mothers and fathers as experts. Up to now, political debates and practical recommendations have hardly ever taken the experiences and perceptions of the families into account, even though they are the only true experts on their situation. The study explores whether public support measures in Germany actually reach socially disadvantaged families in the intended way by focusing particularly on the conditions for success and failure revealed in the interaction processes between deprived families and professionals. To understand why support measures fail, we conducted qualitative interviews with professionals and deprived families. Parents outline their struggles with bureaucratic obstacles, constantly changing contact persons, and the barely penetrable jungle of information on the public support system. The results create an awareness for the host of problems that deprived families often have to handle simultaneously. When sickness, unemployment, lack of appreciation, and constant repetition of telling one’s life story accumulate, families feel tired and powerless. Very important is the issue of time as a question of participating in labor market and a value of being a “good” parent.

For parents working nonstandard schedules, it is difficult to find high quality childcare. Public day and night care, providing childcare and early childhood education for families working nonstandard hours, is a Finnish innovation. Although the need for childcare during nonstandard hours has increased internationally, research is lacking on the availability and quality of such childcare. In particular, little research exists on flexible childcare from the standpoint of young children’s daily lives and wellbeing. This study, as part of the larger Families 24/7 study, explores the daily rhythms of emotional wellbeing among young children in daycare. A specific aim was to compare children who attend daycare during regular daytime hours with children who, owing to parent’s nonstandard work schedules, attend daycare outside office hours. Participants were 32 children, aged 4 to 7, and their care providers. Parents and day care center personnel evaluated children’s moods three times per day for one week with a mobile diary application. The results showed not only differences in daily rhythms between the two groups of children, but also gender differences. The children in day and night care, with highly individual care times, had more individual and irregular mood rhythms. The 24-h society and parental nonstandard working hours affect children individually: for some the effects may be beneficial but for others it may be upsetting and a burden.