Occupational characteristics and parents' childcare time

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveThis study examines how occupational resources and demands are associated with parents' childcare time.BackgroundScholars recognize parental employment as important for understanding parental time use. Yet, given data limitations, we know relatively little about how strain‐based demands (demands that can produce negative psychological states) are associated with parent's time with children.MethodOccupational‐level data in the O*NET Database are linked to the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2011–2019 (n = 10,274 workday diaries from employed parents in 427 occupations). Ordinary Least Squares regression (OLS) is used to examine how occupational resources and demands are associated with parents' time with children and in childcare on workdays.ResultsMothers in occupations with greater strain‐based demands—competitive pressure, aggression‐conflict, monotony, and physicality‐hazards—spend less time with their children and less time on physical childcare activities. For fathers, associations are weaker with monotonous jobs also associated with less time with children. Workplace conditions, however, are weakly or even positively associated with parents' time on nonworkdays, suggesting that the daily experience of work affects parents' time use at home. Autonomy, an occupational resource, is positively associated with fathers' time with children and with mothers' time in interactive care.ConclusionResources and strain‐based demands—measured at the occupational‐level—are associated with parents' time use. The O*NET Database can be linked to the ATUS to better understand families' time use.