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Chapter 11 For Better or For Worse: Nonstandard Work Schedules and Self-Rated Health across Marital Status
Abstract
Nonstandard work schedules are increasingly common in today’s economy, and work during these nonstandard hours has a negative impact on health. Scholars investigating work schedules have yet to explore how marital status, which is linked with better health, may protect the health of US workers with nonstandard schedules. This study uses binomial logistic regression models to analyze pooled data from the National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 6,376). Interaction terms are utilized to test if marital status variations occur in the relationship between work schedule and health for men and women.
The results demonstrate that while working a nonstandard schedule puts men and women at a lower odds of reporting good health compared to those who work a standard schedule, there is no difference in this relationship across marital status for men. However, nonstandard schedules are worse for the health of cohabiting and divorced, separated, or widowed women than for married women. The results indicate a significant interaction between work schedule and marital status exists for female workers and should be considered when examining the health of the population with nonstandard work schedules.
... Although married parents experience higher levels of well-being when working nonstandard work schedules, cohabiting parents working the same schedules experience lower levels of well-being and higher levels of work-family conflict (Liu et al. 2011). Cohabiting mothers working nonstandard schedules also report worse health than married mothers (Shen 2018). This may be because cohabiting parents are less likely to care for their partners' children, receive childcare help from family members, and have fewer economic resources at their disposal (Abroms and Goldscheider 2002;Liu et al. 2011). ...
Against the backdrop of dramatic changes in work and family life, this article draws on survey data from 2,971 mothers working in the service sector to examine how unpredictable schedules are associated with three dimensions of parenting: difficulty arranging childcare, work-life conflict, and parenting stress. Results demonstrate that on-call shifts, shift timing changes, work hour volatility, and short advance notice of work schedules are positively associated with difficulty arranging childcare and work-life conflict. Mothers working these schedules are more likely to miss work. We consider how family structure and race moderate the relationship between schedule instability and these dimensions of parenting. Unstable work schedules, we argue, have important consequences for mothers working in the service industry.
The transition to parenthood is a watershed moment for most parents, introducing the possibility of intra-individual and interpersonal growth or decline. Given the increasing number of dual-earner couples in the United States, new parents’ attitudes towards employment (as well as the ways in which they balance employment and personal demands) may have an impact on their overall well-being. Based on anecdotal accounts, guilt about the conflict between employment and family (termed work-family guilt) appears particularly pervasive among U.S. mothers of young children; specifically, mothers, but not fathers, express high levels of a subtype of work-family guilt, that pertains to the negative impact their work has on their families (termed work-interfering-with-family guilt). However, little research within psychology has explicitly examined this phenomenon, and to our knowledge, no quantitative study has investigated gender differences in work-family guilt among U.S. parents of young children. In a cross-sectional, correlational study involving 255 parents of toddlers from the greater Southern California area, we coded parents’ narrative responses to a series of open-ended questions regarding employment and family for the presence of work-family guilt and work-interfering-with-family guilt (in the form of guilt about the negative impact of employment on children). Mothers had significantly higher work-family guilt and work-interfering-with-family guilt relative to fathers. We discuss our findings in terms of theory on gender roles, as well as the questions they generate for future areas of investigation.
This study tests a central theoretical assumption of stress process and job strain models, namely that increases in employees’ control and support at work should promote well-being. To do so, we use a group-randomized field trial with longitudinal data from 867 information technology (IT) workers to investigate the well-being effects of STAR, an organizational intervention designed to promote greater employee control over work time and greater supervisor support for workers’ personal lives. We also offer a unique analysis of an unexpected field effect—a company merger—among workers surveyed earlier versus later in the study period, before or after the merger announcement. We find few STAR effects for the latter group, but over 12 months, STAR reduced burnout, perceived stress, and psychological distress, and increased job satisfaction, for the early survey group. STAR effects are partially mediated by increases in schedule control and declines in family-to-work conflict and burnout (an outcome and mediator) by six months. Moderating effects show that STAR benefits women in reducing psychological distress and perceived stress, and increases non-supervisory employees’ job satisfaction. This study demonstrates, with a rigorous design, that organizational-level initiatives can promote employee well-being.
Prior research has demonstrated the benefits of family-supportive organization perceptions (FSOP) for reducing stress, increasing satisfaction, and increasing worker commitment; however, less research has studied health outcomes or possible differences in the effects of FSOP based on worker characteristics. The present study examined relationships between FSOP and health outcomes, as well as how those relationships may depend on work schedule and family differences. Using a sample of 330 acute care nurses, the findings indicated that FSOP predicted several health and well-being outcomes obtained 9 months later. Further, the relationships between FSOP and the outcome variables depended on some work schedule and family differences. In terms of family differences, FSOP was most strongly related to life satisfaction for those who cared for dependent adults. The relationship between FSOP and health outcomes of depression, musculoskeletal pain, and physical health symptoms were generally significant for workers with dependent children, but not significant for workers with no children. Regarding schedule differences, the relationship between FSOP and life satisfaction was significant for those on nonstandard (evening/night) shifts but not significant for standard day shift workers; however, there were no differences in FSOP relationships by number of hours worked per week. The findings demonstrate that FSOP may benefit some employees more than others. Such differences need to be incorporated into both future work-family theory development and into efforts to document the effectiveness of family-supportive policies, programs, and practices. (PsycINFO Database Record
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This article introduces the concepts of the ‘gendered life course’ and ‘life-course fit’ in order to provide a broader, dynamic, and contextual perspective on the match or mismatch characterizing the social environments confronting workers, their families, and their communities. It summarizes five challenges confronting scholars of community, work, family, and policy: (1) updating outdated concepts and categories; (2) incorporating the gendered life course and family strategies to improve fit; (3) recognizing social change; (4) seeking work–time policy transformation, not simply assimilation or accommodation; and (5) focusing on prevention. In doing so, it provides a very brief history of the work–family intersection from a US vantage point, along with an overview of organizational response by employers to the ‘work–family’ conundrum. There is a growing recognition that a sense of fit or misfit in terms of rising temporal demands, limited temporal resources and outdated work–hour constraints on workers and families is increasingly a public health issue. The next step is for employers and policy-makers to break open the time clocks around paid work – the tacit, taken-for-granted beliefs, rules, and regulations about the time and timing of work days, work weeks, work years, and work lives.
Many European families are affected by the 24/7 economy, but relatively little is known about how working parents experience nonstandard hours. The aim of this study was to analyze the possible associations of dual earners’ work schedules and other work-related factors with their experience of time- and strain-based work-family conflict. These phenomena were examined among dual earners living in Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, countries that differ in working time practices and policies. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to analyze cross-cultural data on dual earners with children aged 0 to 12 years (N = 1,000). The results showed that working nonstandard schedules was associated with increased time-based work-family conflict, but only among Finnish and British parents. Poorer financial situation, working longer hours, more time spent working at very high speed, and lower work satisfaction were associated with both types of work-family conflict in all countries.
The effects of shift work and job schedule control on the family life and health of American workers are analyzed. Using data from the 1992 National Study on the Changing Workforce ( N = 2,905), this article tests whether negative family and health outcomes associated with nonstandard job schedules result from (a) problems of adjusting to the times of nonstandard shifts and/or (b) the lack of scheduling control and (c) whether schedule control mediates the effects of nonstandard shifts. Multivariate results indicate that although nonstandard shifts have few effects, lack of scheduling control has strong negative effects on six of the eight family and health outcomes. There is no evidence that control mediates the effects of schedule times, nor that these effects vary by gender or family status. Implications of these results are discussed.
Drawing on 5 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we examine the influence of the marital life course on the prevalence and incidence of cardiovascular disease among 9,434 middle-aged individuals. Results show that compared to continuously married persons, both men and women with a marital loss have significantly higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Men and women, however, differ in the effects of marital loss on the incidence of cardiovascular disease over the course of the study. Women with a marital loss have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in late midlife compared to continuously married women, whereas marital loss is not associated with men’s risk of cardiovascular disease. Emotional distress and socioeconomic status account for the higher risk of cardiovascular disease among divorced women.
The paper gives an overview of the problems to be tackled nowadays by occupational health with regards to shift work as well as the main guidelines at organizational and medical levels on how to protect workers' health and well-being. Working time organization is becoming a key factor on account of new technologies, market globalization, economic competition, and extension of social services to general populations, all of which involve more and more people in continuous assistance and control of work processes over the 24 hours in a day. The large increase of epidemiological and clinical studies on this issue document the severity of this risk factor on human health and well being, at both social and psychophysical levels, starting from a disruption of biological circadian rhythms and sleep/wake cycle and ending in several psychosomatic troubles and disorders, likely also including cancer, and extending to impairment of performance efficiency as well as family and social life. Appropriate interventions on the organization of shift schedules according to ergonomic criteria and careful health surveillance and social support for shift workers are important preventive and corrective measures that allow people to keep working without significant health impairment.
The majority of young married Americans lived with their spouses before the wedding, and many cohabited with partners they did not wed. Yet little is known about how cohabitating relationships progress or the role gender norms play in this process. This article explores how cohabiting partners negotiate relationship progression, focusing on several stages where couples enact gender. Data are from in-depth interviews with 30 working-class couples (n = 60). The women in this sample often challenged conventional gender norms by suggesting that couples move in together or raising the issue of marriage. Men played dominant roles in initiating whether couples became romantically involved and progressed to a more formal status. Although women and men contest how gender is performed, cohabiting men remain privileged in the arena of relationship progression. The findings suggest that adherence to conventional gender practices even among those residing in informal unions perpetuates women's secondary position in intimate relationships.
Although a growing number of American parents work non-standard schedules, evidence on the consequences of such working patterns is inconsistent and limited to married samples. This study highlights the importance of considering potential differences between cohabiting and married parents in terms of the relationship between non-standard work schedules and parental well-being. Based on pooled data from the 1997 and 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n = 2346), we find that in contrast to married parents who experience some positive associations of non-standard schedules and parental well-being, cohabiting parents are more likely to experience a negative relationship between non-standard work schedules and parental well-being. Additionally, for cohabiting parents (but not married), non-standard work schedules are related to increased work–family conflict, which is in turn associated with lower levels of parental well-being.
This article develops a series of hypotheses about the long-term effects of one's history of marriage, divorce, and widowhood on health, and it tests those hypotheses using data from the Health and Retirement Study. We examine four dimensions of health at mid-life: chronic conditions, mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms. We find that the experience of marital disruption damages health, with the effects still evident years later; among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions. Both the divorced and widowed who do not remarry show worse health than the currently married on all dimensions. Dimensions of health that seem to develop slowly, such as chronic conditions and mobility limitations, show strong effects of past marital disruption, whereas others, such as depressive symptoms, seem more sensitive to current marital status. Those who spent more years divorced or widowed show more chronic conditions and mobility limitations.
Data from two studies assessed the effects of nonstandard work schedules on perceived family well-being and daily stressors. Study 1, using a sample of employed, married adults aged 25 - 74 (n = 1,166) from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States, showed that night work was associated with perceptions of greater marital instability, negative family-work, and work-family spillover than weekend or daytime work. In Study 2, with a subsample of adults (n = 458) who participated in the National Study of Daily Experiences, weekend workers reported more daily work stressors than weekday workers. Several sociodemographic variables were tested as moderators. Both studies demonstrated that nonstandard work schedules place a strain on working, married adults at the global and daily level.
Although the meanings and rates of being married, divorced, separated, never-married, and widowed have changed significantly over the past several decades, we know very little about historical trends in the relationship between marital status and health. Our analysis of pooled data from the National Health Interview Survey from 1972 to 2003 shows that the self-rated health of the never-married has improved over the past three decades. Moreover, the gap between the married and the never married has steadily converged over time for men but not for women. In contrast, the self-rated health of the widowed, divorced, and separated worsened over time relative to the married, and the adverse effects of marital dissolution have increased more for women than for men. Our findings highlight the importance of social change in shaping the impact of marital status on self-reported health and challenge long-held assumptions about gender, marital status, and health.
The majority of women today simultaneously occupy demanding work and family roles. In 1980, 60 percent of women between 16 and 64 years of age were employed (76). Yet women continue to shoulder the main responsibilty for household tasks and childcare. It is often suggested that women's multiple responsibilities and attendant role conflicts will have negative consequences for their health. Despite the rising concern and considerable speculation surrounding this subject, little is known about the implications of women's rising employment for changes in women's physical and mental well-being. In this article, we describe the main theoretical models and pertinent research about work and health among women. It is likely that all of the models contain some truth and that no single model can encompass the ways employment affects women's health. The scientific task therefore is to identify the job conditions and role configurations that lead to positive, or negative, health consequences and then to distill the many empirical results.
Data from the National Center for Health Statistics National Survey of Personal Health Practices and Consequences were analyzed to determine the impact of variable shift schedules on health-related behaviors of persons in the United States labor force. Twenty-six per cent of men and 18 per cent of women in the US labor force reported working a variable shift in Spring 1980. As compared to men working non-variable work schedules, those working variable shifts exhibited higher rates of heavy drinking, job stress, and emotional problems. Female variable shift workers reported higher rates of sleeping pill, tranquilizer, and alcohol use, as well as lower social network scores, more job stress, and more emotional problems.
Employment correlates positively with health, but is employment cause or consequence? The social causation hypothesis says that employment improves the health of men and women. The selection hypothesis says that healthy people get and keep jobs more than unhealthy people do. We test both hypotheses using longitudinal data from a national probability sample (N = 2,436 interviewed in both years). In the equations representing social causation, full-time employment predicts slower declines in perceived health and in physical functioning for both men and women. Full-time employment has the same effect for both sexes. Among women, it also has the same effect for White and non-White, and for married and nonmarried. In the equations representing social selection, physical functioning increases the odds of getting or keeping a full-time job for both sexes. Perceived health increases the odds for women but not for men. In regard to homemaking among women, homemaking predicts significantly greater declines in health, but health has no effect on the odds of becoming or staying a homemaker.
When politicians point to the high social costs and taxpayer burden imposed by disintegrating `family values they overlook the fact that individuals do not simply make the decisions that lead to unwed parenthood marriage or divorce on the basis of what is good for society. They weigh the costs and benefits of each of these choices to themselves--and sometimes their children. But how much do individuals know about these costs and benefits? I think that we as demographers have something to contribute here. As individual researchers we investigate the relationship between marriage and longevity wealth earnings or childrens achievements but we rarely try to pull all this evidence together. I would like to argue that we have an opportunity and an obligation to do that and to tell people what their decisions about marriage and family potentially mean for them as individuals. That is my objective here. (EXCERPT)
Previous studies have established a relationship between low levels of social networks and total mortality, but few have examined cause specific mortality or disease incidence. This study aimed to examine prospectively the relationships between social networks and total and cause specific mortality, as well as cardiovascular disease incidence.
This was a four year follow up study in an ongoing cohort of men, for whom information on social networks was collected at baseline. The main outcome measures were total mortality, further categorised into deaths from cardiovascular disease (stroke and coronary heart disease), total cancer, accidents/suicides, and all other causes; as well as stroke and coronary heart disease incidence.
Altogether 32,624 US male health professionals aged 42 to 77 years in 1988, who were free of coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer at baseline.
A total of 511 deaths occurred during 122,911 person years of follow up. Compared with men with the highest level of social networks, socially isolated men (not married, fewer than six friends or relatives, no membership in church or community groups) were at increased risk for cardiovascular disease mortality (age adjusted relative risk, 1.90; 95% CI 1.07, 3.37) and deaths from accidents and suicides (age adjusted relative risk 2.22; 95% CI 0.76, 6.47). No excess risks were found for other causes of death. Socially isolated men were also at increased risk of stroke incidence (relative risk, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.12, 4.35), but not incidence of non-fatal myocardial infarction.
Social networks were associated with lower total mortality by reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease and accidents/suicides. Strong social networks were associated with reduced incidence of stroke, though not of coronary heart disease. However, social networks may assist in prolonging the survival of men with established coronary heart disease.
This study examined the relationship between nonstandard work schedules, work-to-family conflict, and health status in the USA adult population. Based on pooled data from the 2006, 2010, and 2014 General Social Survey (N = 4,108), this study found that nonstandard work schedules were associated with poor self-rated health and increased days of poor physical and mental health. Also, results from the causal mediation analysis indicated that the relationship between nonstandard work schedules and health status was significantly mediated by work-to-family conflict. These findings suggest that work-to-family conflict may be an important mechanism through which nonstandard work schedules affect workers' health status.
Although the implications of nonstandard work schedules (work outside of the typical 9 – 5, Monday – Friday schedule) for individuals and families are increasingly well understood, it is unclear how such schedules are associated with perceived social support for working mothers. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and a variety of methodological approaches, we found mixed evidence for this relationship. Results from ordinary least squares and propensity-weighted models suggest that working a nonstandard schedule is associated with weaker perceived support, particularly among those who are Black and less educated, and those who exclusively work such a schedule. Conversely, results from fixed-effects models suggest that changing from a standard to a nonstandard schedule is associated with modest increases in perceived social support. These results add nuance to our understanding of the implications of nonstandard work schedules for families.
Are there racial/ethnic differences in work–family conflict? Using a nationally representative survey of Americans, we analyze differences in work–family conflict among Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics and then utilize an intersectional approach, disaggregating men and women within each racial/ethnic group. Using structural equation modeling, we find that the usual predictors of conflict – family and work characteristics – have varied effects on work–family conflict among men and women of different racial/ethnic groups. Nonstandard schedules were uniformly linked to increased work-to-family conflict among all respondents, regardless of subgroup. Our findings reveal the merits of intersectional approaches, and suggest the need for theoretical models of the work–family interface that better reflect the experiences of men and women of color.
Adverse work schedules increase the risk of accidents, injuries, acute illness and chronically impaired health for workers. As society moves toward providing many services 24 h per day and 7 day per week, the need is increasing for work schedules characterized by shift work, rotating shifts, and early start times. According to the 2004 Current Population Survey, 18 % of full-time workers in the USA spend some portion of their work schedule outside of a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. time frame (McMenamin, 2007). Extended work hours (more than 8 h per day, or more than 40 h per week) also are increasing steadily (Caruso, Hitchcock, Dick, Russo, & Schmidt, 2004) for a variety of reasons. Some workers elect to take secondary employment to boost their earnings, particularly those with low wages or whose household income has decreased because of a partner’s unemployment. Others choose, or are required to, work extended hours because of shift design (for example, 12-h shifts as a norm). Since the economic downturn that began in late 2008, there has been a trend for employers to use overtime to manage excess demand, which allows them to maintain productivity without hiring new workers (Maher & Aeppel, 2009). In the USA and Canada, employees work 200–300 h more per year than in France, Germany, or Sweden because of an absence of legal minimums for paid vacation days or holidays (Yelin, 2009).
Although past research suggests that nonstandard parental work arrangements have negative implications for children, researchers typically assess the effects of maternal and paternal work schedules independently, and studies among older adolescents are rare. Combining insights from family sociology and criminology, we evaluate the effects of household work arrangements on family processes and delinquency among a national sample of 10- to 17-year-old children. We find that children from households where both parents work nonstandard hours report weaker levels of family bonding, which in turn is associated with greater delinquency. Children from single-mother households in which the mother works evening or night shifts report weaker levels of parent-child closeness and family bonding, which fully mediate the association with greater delinquency. We also find that select maternal nonstandard schedules in conjunction with paternal standard schedules are associated with lower delinquency among children. We derive implications for parental work schedules in households with adolescents.
We examined work-family conflict (WFC) and work-family enrichment (WFE) by comparing Finnish nurses, working dayshifts (non-shiftworkers, n = 874) and non-dayshifts. The non-dayshift employees worked either two different dayshifts (2-shiftworkers, n = 490) or three different shifts including nightshifts (3-shiftworkers, n = 270). Specifically, we investigated whether different resources, i.e. job control, managers' work-family support, co-workers' work-family support, control at home, personal coping strategies, and schedule satisfaction, predicted differently WFC and WFE in these three groups. Results showed that lower managers' work-family support predicted higher WFC only among 3-shiftworkers, whereas lower co-workers' support associated with increased WFC only in non-shiftworkers. In addition, shiftworkers reported higher WFC than non-shiftworkers. However, the level of WFE did not vary by schedule types. Moreover, the predictors of WFE varied only very little across schedule types. Shiftwork organizations should pay more attention to family-friendly management in order to reduce WFC among shiftworkers.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.
The prevalence of nonstandard jobs is a matter of concern if, as many assume, such jobs are bad. We examine the relationship between nonstandard employment (on-call work and day labor, temporary-help agency employment, employment with contract companies, independent contracting, other self-employment, and part-time employment in "conventional" jobs) and exposure to "bad" job characteristics, using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey. Of workers age 18 and over, 31 percent are in some type of nonstandard employment. To assess the link between type of employment and bad jobs, we conceptualize "bad jobs" as those with low pay and without access to health insurance and pension benefits. About one in seven jobs in the United States is bad on these three dimensions. Nonstandard employment strongly increases workers' exposure to bad job characteristics, net of controls for workers' personal characteristics, family status, occupation, and industry.
Surveys differ in the measurement of nonstandard work, such that some surveys require respondents to indicate whether they work either a standard or a nonstandard schedule, whereas others allow respondents to indicate that they work both types of schedules. We test whether these measurement decisions influence the estimated prevalence of maternal nonstandard work, using data from two sources: the Current Population Survey (N = 1,430) and the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,524). Using propensity score techniques, we find that giving respondents the option of reporting work at more than one type of schedule doubles the prevalence of nonstandard work, compared to allowing respondents to indicate only one type of schedule. Our results suggest that many mothers of young children regularly work at both standard and nonstandard times and that mutually exclusive conceptualizations of standard and nonstandard work schedules do not fully capture their experiences.
This article, based on the May 1997 Current Population Survey, presents a detailed analysis of the extent to which employed American men and women of various race-ethnic groups work non-standard work hours—namely, evenings, nights, and rotating or highly variable work shifts— and the reasons they report for doing so. Differences in occupational structure among race-ethnic groups largely explain their differences in the prevalence of nonstandard work shifts. Yet even when standardizing for occupation, both male and female non-Hispanic Blacks have higher levels working nonstandard shifts than their Hispanic or White counterparts. Moreover, the relatively low pay of such jobs and the large proportions of those working nonstandard hours who give job-constraining reasons for doing so support the contention that late and rotating work schedules are an important dimension of labor force disadvantage, especially among men. Furthermore, the literature indicates greater health risks and social costs for working such hours. Differences in weekend employment by race-ethnicity are small. Based on job growth projections, it is speculated that over the next decade, nonstandard work schedules will disproportionately involve more women, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics.
How does the family affect the health of its adult members? It is in the family that the macro-level social and economic order affects individual physical and emotional well-being. This review presents a general model of understanding family and health that describes patterns of well-being, and then asks, "what explains these patterns?" Explanations are found in causal chains, conditional effects, and "structural amplification." The review summarizes and synthesizes ideas and findings about four factors: marriage and parenthood (which define the family), and the wife's or mother's employment and the family's social status (which connect it to the larger social order). Overall, the married are in better health than the nonmarried, but parents are not better off than nonparents. Women's employment and high family socioeconomic status tend to be associated with good physical and psychological health. Under what circumstances are these basic patterns found, and what explains these patterns—what links structure to individual health? Economic well-being and social support are considered as the basic explanations. Concluding comments point to the need for more studies of the impact of family on the sense of control, which could be an important link to health.
This research analyzes data from the National Survey of Families and Households to compare marriages and cohabiting relationships. It reveals several broad differences in the nature of the two types of relationships. Specifically, cohabitors were found to express lower levels of commitment to their relationships, to report lower levels of happiness with their relationships, and to have poorer relationships with parents than comparable married individuals. The poorer quality of cohabiting relationships is argued to stem largely from the lack of institutionalization of the practice.
Although the economic effects of divorce have been well studied, a similar exploration of cohabitation has not been conducted. For this analysis, we use a sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,372) documenting changes in economic well-being at the end of a cohabiting relationship and comparing these results to a sample of divorced respondents. After dissolution, formerly cohabiting men's economic standing declines moderately, whereas formerly cohabiting women's declines much more precipitously, leaving a substantial proportion of women in poverty. This effect is particularly pronounced for African American and Hispanic women. Though the end of the relationship does reinforce gender stratification, it is also an “equalizer” between married and cohabiting women, leaving them in strikingly similar economic positions.
This article assesses the health implications of emerging patterns in the organization of work time. Using data from the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we examine general mental and physical health (SF-12 scores), psychological distress (CESD
score), clinical levels of obesity, and the presence of medical conditions, at age 40. Overall, we find that health varies
more across work hours than across types of shifts, and part-time workers report worse physical and emotional health than
full-time workers. However, controlling for individual, family and job characteristics explains the poorer health observed
among part-time workers. Those who are satisfied with their jobs, have more education, or have an employed spouse, report
better health, while women and those with a prior health limitation report worse health. After taking these factors into account,
we find a curvilinear relationship between work hours and health, with those working between 40 and 59 hours per week reporting
worse mental and physical health than those working 40 hours per week. We also find that obesity differs from current health
problems in its relationship to work time. Those who work part-time or fixed-hour schedules are less likely to be obese, suggesting
that long-term health risks operating through obesity, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, are affected by time availability.
This paper examines the relationship between nonmarital cohabitation and routine exchanges of support between American adults aged 19–30 (N = 3,809) and their aging parents, using data drawn from the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households. Cohabiting young adults were found to be significantly less likely to be exchanging support with their parents than their married or single, noncohabiting counterparts. Cohabiting young adults were also significantly less likely than married young adults to nominate their parents as persons to turn to in an emergency. Analysis of variability in exchanges of support with parents among cohabiting young adults revealed that the quality of the relationship with the parent to be the most potent predictor of exchanges.
Two-fifths of all employed Americans work mostly during the evenings or nights, on rotating shifts, or on weekends. This article
discusses why the widespread prevalence of nonstandard schedules has come about, predicts further growth in the near future,
and argues that the movement toward a 24-hour economy is significantly altering the nature and stability of family life. The
need for policymakers and scholars to take a more realistic view of the temporal nature of family life is stressed, citing
as an example the incongruent fit between the hours of child care availablility and the hours of employment among less-educated
mothers.
Cohabitation has risen dramatically in the United States in a very short time. So, too, has the amount of sociological research devoted to the topic. In the span of a bit more than a decade, family sociologists and demographers have produced a large and rich body of research, ranging from documentation of cohabitation to assessment of its various consequences and implications. I first review basic descriptive findings about cohabitation as well as common explanations for its striking increase over recent decades. I next identify the central questions motivating most of the extant research and provide an assessment of past research as a whole. Finally, I speculate about themes that will be central to future research on cohabitation and consider the implications of cohabitation for gender equality in the United States and social science research on families.
This research used a nationally representative sample of women and men in dual-earner families with children from the 1998 and 2005 time-use cycles of Statistics Canada's General Social Survey. The work extends knowledge on the effect of the use of three work arrangements: flexible schedules, shift work and self-employment, on respondents' reported satisfaction with their work-family balance. Results of regression analysis indicated that work arrangements strongly affected work-family balance and did so differently for women and men. For women, some control over the work schedule significantly improved the perception of balance. For men, both self-employment and shift work were negatively related to reported work-family balance. The results support a flexible approach by policy-makers and employers in formulating workplace policies that assist employees in achieving satisfaction with the balance between their family and work responsibilities.
Using data from the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Surveys, this article examines nonstandard work hours and their relationship to parents' family, leisure and personal care time – informing the discussion of the costs and benefits of working nonstandard hours. The results suggest that parents who work nonstandard evening hours spend less time in some child-related activities than their counterparts who work standard daytime hours, but spend more time and more time alone with children. Married parents who work nonstandard hours spend less time with a spouse, and all parents with nonstandard hours get less sleep and watch less television than parents with standard work days.
Purpose
The current study examines emotional exhaustion and its predictors among employees without social or client contact on multiple nonstandard shifts.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained through surveys from U.S. Postal Service employees at three mail processing centers (N = 353).
Findings
While we hypothesized that the day, evening, and night shift employees would differ significantly on emotional exhaustion, we found that the day and evening shifts differed significantly from the night shift. Hierarchical moderated regressions revealed that shift moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and job demands and work–family conflict, but not job resources.
Implications
Understanding how working on nonstandard shifts relates to emotional exhaustion aids in our theoretical understanding of the process of emotional exhaustion and the effects of nonstandard work schedules. We provide evidence that the negative consequences associated with nonstandard schedules (role conflict, role ambiguity, unfavorable working conditions, less positive perceptions of supervision, and work–family conflict) differentially predict emotional exhaustion. Management can apply this information to help reduce the impact of these consequences on employees, lessening their likelihood of burnout, lowered performance, and turnover.
Originality/value
Although research has investigated emotional exhaustion in nonstandard shifts, we extend the literature by investigating multiple, nonstandard shifts, as opposed to standard versus nonstandard. While researchers have recognized that emotional exhaustion need not occur only in human service professions, much of the research continues to focus on professions with high customer or interpersonal contact. Therefore, we extend the literature by examining emotional exhaustion in mail processors, a profession with absolutely no customer contact.
This article addresses open questions about the nature and meaning of the positive association between marriage and well-being, namely, the extent to which it is causal, shared with cohabitation, and stable over time. We relied on data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 2,737) and a modeling approach that controls for fixed differences between individuals by relating union transitions to changes in well-being. This study is unique in examining the persistence of changes in well-being as marriages and cohabitations progress (and potentially dissolve) over time. The effects of marriage and cohabitation are found to be similar across a range of measures tapping psychological well-being, health, and social ties. Where there are statistically significant differences, marriage is not always more advantageous. Overall, differences tend to be small and appear to dissipate over time, even when the greater instability of cohabitation is taken into account.
Shift work, in particular night work, can have a negative impact on health and well-being of workers as it can cause: (a) disturbances of the normal circadian rhythms of the psychophysiological functions, beginning with the sleep/wake cycle; (b) interferences with work performance and efficiency over the 24 hour span, with consequent errors and accidents; (c) difficulties in maintaining the usual relationships both at family and social level, with consequent negative influences on marital relations, care of children and social contacts; (d) deterioration of health that can be manifested in disturbances of sleeping and eating habits and, in the long run, in more severe disorders that deal prevalently with the gastrointestinal (colitis, gastroduodenitis and peptic ulcer), neuro-psychic (chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression) and, probably, cardiovascular (hypertension, ischemic heart diseases) functions. Besides, shift and night work may have more specific adverse effects on women's health both in relation to their particular hormonal and reproductive function, and their family roles. It has been estimated that about 20% of all workers have to leave shift work in a very short time because of serious disturbances; those remaining in shift work show different levels of (mal)adaptation and (in)tolerance, that can become more or less manifest in different times, and with different intensity. In fact, the effects of such stress condition can vary widely among the shift workers in relation to many ‘intervening variables’ concerning both individual factors (e.g. age, personality traits, physiological characteristics), as well as working situations (e.g. work loads, shift schedules) and social conditions (e.g. number and age of children, housing, commuting).
Demographic trends in the 2000s showed the continuing separation of family and household due to factors such as childbearing among single parents, the dissolution of cohabiting unions, divorce, repartnering, and remarriage. The transnational families of many immigrants also displayed this separation, as families extended across borders. In addition, demographers demonstrated during the decade that trends such as marriage and divorce were diverging according to education. Moreover, demographic trends in the age structure of the population showed that a large increase in the elderly population will occur in the 2010s. Overall, demographic trends produced an increased complexity of family life and a more ambiguous and fluid set of categories than demographers are accustomed to measuring.
Jet lag sleep disorder and shift work sleep disorder are the result of dyssynchrony between the internal clock and the external light-dark cycle, brought on by rapid travel across time zones or by working a nonstandard schedule. Symptoms can be minimized by optimizing the sleep environment, by strategic avoidance of and exposure to light, and also with drug and behavioral therapies.
This article reviews recent research (1999 - 2009) on the effects of parenthood on wellbeing. We use a life course framework to consider how parenting and childlessness influence well-being throughout the adult life course. We place particular emphasis on social contexts and how the impact of parenthood on well-being depends on marital status, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. We also consider how recent demographic shifts lead to new family arrangements that have implications for parenthood and well-being. These include stepparenting, parenting of grandchildren, and childlessness across the life course.
To assess the effect of armodafinil, 150 mg, on the physiologic propensity for sleep and cognitive performance during usual night shift hours in patients with excessive sleepiness associated with chronic (> or =3 months) shift work disorder (SWD) of moderate or greater severity.
This 12-week, randomized controlled study was conducted at 42 sleep research facilities in North America from April 2 through December 23, 2004, and enrolled 254 permanent or rotating night shift workers with SWD. Entry criteria included excessive sleepiness during usual night shifts for 3 months or longer (corroborated by mean sleep latency of < or =6 minutes on a Multiple Sleep Latency Test), insomnia (sleep efficiency < or =87.5% during daytime sleep), and SWD that was judged clinically to be of moderate or greater severity. Patients received armodafinil, 150 mg, or placebo 30 to 60 minutes before each night shift. Physiologic sleep propensity during night shift hours, clinical impression of severity, patient-reported sleepiness, and cognitive function were assessed during laboratory night shifts at weeks 4, 8, and 12.
Armodafinil significantly improved mean (SD) sleep latency from 2.3 (1.6) minutes at baseline to 5.3 (5.0) minutes at final visit, compared with a change from 2.4 (1.6) minutes to 2.8 (2.9) minutes in the placebo group (P<.001). Clinical condition ratings improved in more patients receiving armodafinil (79%) vs placebo (59%) (P=.001). As reported by patients' diaries, armodafinil significantly reduced sleepiness during laboratory nights (P<.001), night shifts at work (P<.001), and the commute home (P=.003). Armodafinil improved performance on standardized memory (P<.001) and attention (power, P=.001; continuity, P<.001) tests compared with placebo. Armodafinil was well tolerated and did not affect daytime sleep, as measured by polysomnography.
In patients with excessive sleepiness associated with chronic SWD of moderate or greater severity, armodafinil significantly improved wakefulness during scheduled night work, raising mean nighttime sleep latency above the level considered to indicate severe sleepiness during the daytime. Armodafinil also significantly improved measures of overall clinical condition, long-term memory, and attention.
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00080288.
Shift work has been reported to predict health problems, and a possible explanation is that shift work may lead to poorer health habits, thereby increasing a person's vulnerability to illness. This study examined the association between shift work and health habits, as indicated by smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and by being overweight. A questionnaire was sent to all 2795 female nurses working in the 10 hospitals of two Finnish health care districts. From the 2299 respondents, we selected those 506 shift workers who reported having always done shift work and those 183 day workers who had never done shift work. Shift workers were found to smoke more and to be overweight more often than day workers. These differences gradually increased in each successive age group, being 1.94 pack-years in smoking and 0.9 kg m-2 in body mass index among nurses over 45 years of age. Shift work was not associated with alcohol intake or sedentary lifestyle. This evidence is compatible with the possibility that shift work in nurses increases smoking and being overweight to a degree that contributes to health problems, including coronary heart disease.
Women constitute about half the work force, and women shift workers warrant special attention given the different physiological needs of women, their reproductive status, and the added burden of family responsibilities. There is increasing evidence that women have greater difficulty adjusting to shift work compared to their male counterparts and that sleep problems may in large part account for this difficulty. The purpose of this article is to review the existing literature to highlight the differential negative impact of shift work on sleep and other health issues in women and as part of a needs assessment to promote research in female shift workers by developing and prioritizing research questions in this field. The literature suggests that women shift workers report poor sleep quality and experience reproductive disturbances, an increased risk of breast cancer, and a greater risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disorders.
Mortality rates are lower for married individuals than they are for unmarried individuals, and marriage seems to be even more beneficial to men than women in this regard. A theoretical model of social integration and social control is developed to explain why this may occur. Drawing from this model, I hypothesize that marriage may be beneficial to health because many spouses monitor and attempt to control their spouse's health behaviors. Furthermore, the provision, receipt, and consequences of these social control efforts may vary for men and women. These hypotheses are considered with analysis of a national panel survey conducted in 1986 (N = 3617) and 1989 (N = 2867). Results show that: (1) marriage is associated with receipt of substantially more efforts to control health for men than women, (2) those who attempt to control the health of others are more likely to be female than male, (3) there is some support for the social control and health behavior hypothesis among the married, and (4) the transition from married to unmarried status is associated with an increase in negative health behavior while the transition from unmarried to married status seems to have little effect on health behavior. A theoretical explanation is developed to explain these marital status differences.
Age-adjusted mortality rates are higher for the unmarried and nonparents than for the married and parents. The effects of marital and parental status on mortality are usually attributed to the positive effects of social integration or social support. The mechanisms by which social support or integration is linked to health outcomes, however, remain largely unexplored. One mechanism may involve health behaviors; the family relationships of marriage and parenting may provide external regulation and facilitate self-regulation of health behaviors which can affect health. The present study employs a national sample to examine the relationships of marital and parenting status to a variety of health behaviors. Results indicate that marriage and presence of children in the home have a deterrent effect on negative health behaviors. It is suggested, within the theoretical framework of social integration, that family roles promote social control of health behaviors which affect subsequent mortality.
This study provides the most recent national estimates of the prevalence of employment during nonstandard hours (evenings, nights, or rotating hours) and on weekends. It also examines in a multivariate context the relevance of job and family characteristics as determinants of such employment, separately for men and for women. The findings support the contention that the demand for employment during nonstandard hours and weekends is pervasive throughout the occupational hierarchy, but particularly in service occupations and in personal service industries and for both men and women. Gender differences exist, however, in the relevance of family factors. Being married reduces women's but not men's likelihood of employment during nonstandard hours, and the presence of children affects women's but not men's hours and days of employment. (The direction of the effect for women depends on the children's age.) Implications of these findings are discussed.