Consequences of nonstandard work for parent and child wellbeing: A cross-country study (NONWELL)

The emergence of service economies and the ongoing technological and digital revolution have changed the way we work. In particular, nonstandard work schedules (e.g., evenings, nights, weekends, irregular and rotating shifts) have become increasingly prevalent in recent decades. This trend has dramatically challenged family processes and interactions. Nonstandard work schedules (NSWS) can compromise parents’ mental health and increase conflicts with family time, thus affecting fathers’ and mothers’ parenting capacities as well as parent-child relationships. These implications of NSWS can, in turn, negatively affect the health and wellbeing of children whose parents work NSWS.

The proposed project will examine the impact of NSWS on mental health and wellbeing in  children and parents, using representative large-scale longitudinal data from Germany, Australia, UK, and the US. A central aim of this project is to understand the moderating and mediating factors in the association between NSWS and child and parent health and wellbeing, and whether these relationships vary across countries with different family policies and working time regimes.

The project will advance our knowledge by:

1. Examining the consequences of NSWS for parents’ psychological wellbeing.

2. Estimating the potential effects of NSWS on child health outcomes and factors that moderate and mediate these effects.

3. Analyzing differences in the associations between NSWS and child health outcomes across Germany, Australia, the U.K., and the US.