Parental Nonstandard Work Schedules and Family Well-Being

Abstract

The United States and countries around the world have shifted to a 24/7 economy, which means increasing numbers of adults are working nonstandard hours. Nonstandard work schedules are generally defined in the literature as work that occurs outside of the traditional daytime and weekly Monday to Friday 9am–5pm schedule. This paper defines and discusses the prevalence of nonstandard work, focusing in on the populations and characteristics of workers and their families. Next, we examine the knowledge base regarding the relation between nonstandard work schedules and family well-being, defined broadly in terms of health, economic security, relationships, and access to community supports for childrearing. Our review reveals a range of impacts across the developmental periods of early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Many families experience relationship stress associated with nonstandard work hours, while others do not. Nonstandard work schedules have been shown to disrupt family routines, create relationship conflict, and create obstacles for families seeking community resources including high quality, center-based child care. Some families do find benefits from nonstandard work, such as parents who have complementary work schedules which afford stability in routines and appropriate supervision for children in the home. We conclude with some policy and practice recommendations for assisting families, especially lower-wage earners, with management of nonstandard work schedules. Overall, health care and education systems could be more responsive to and aware of the needs of families with parents working nonstandard work schedules, and gaps in the literature around differential impacts for fathers and mothers with nonstandard work schedules on child outcomes and the specific needs of culturally and linguistically diverse populations could be addressed with future research.