Panel Paper:
Maternal Nonstandard Work and Children's Health Across the Early Life Course
Monday, June 13, 2016
:
10:05 AM
Clement House, 2nd Floor, Room 05 (London School of Economics)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
A burgeoning line of research has focused on the implications of maternal employment for children’s development. Above and beyond maternal labor force participation, mothers’ nonstandard work (i.e. schedules outside the traditional 9-5 weekday schedule) may have important implications for children’s health.
Recent census data finds that 18% of all workers have work shifts that fell at least partially outside the traditional 9-5 Monday through Friday schedule. Other research finds that nearly 12% of employed mothers have nonstandard schedules. Working nonstandard hours may complicate work and family life, and may constrain time with children that relates to their physical health. For example, nonstandard schedules may hinder a mother’s ability to plan and supervise family routines and physical activities. Nonstandard work times may make it difficult for mothers to arrange doctor’s appointments. In addition, these work schedules may impact maternal physical and mental health. Emotional stress, fatigue, and depression that may accompany these work schedules may prevent mothers from noticing their children’s health problems or hinder their ability to engage in preventive care or treatment regimens or other similar material health inputs that are important in promoting children’s physical health.
Despite potential linkages between maternal nonstandard employment and early child health, little empirical research examines this association, particularly during the early years of a child’s life, and potential mediating factors that explain any significant associations we may observe. Children’s health plays an important role in the intra-generational process of stratification and is a significant predictor of adult health and wellbeing.
The present paper makes several innovations to the existing research linking maternal nonstandard employment and children’s health. This paper uses the first 5 waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. These data are ideal for understanding the relationship between mother’s nonstandard work and children’s health, because these data have a large sample of low-income and less-educated individuals for whom nonstandard work is more common. In order to evaluate the link between maternal work schedules and children’s health, I adjust for time-varying and time invariant characteristics measuring mother’s and father’s characteristics, household composition, and child factors. I examine the mechanisms mediating the relationship between nonstandard work and children’s health. Lastly I consider two indicators of children’s health: accidents and injuries and emergency room visits resulting from injuries.
I find evidence of modest positive associations between mother’s night and evening shifts and children’s risk of accident or injury in pooled analyses, after adjusting for time invariant and time varying characteristics. Nonstandard work schedules were not linked to ER visits resulting from child injury in the pooled analyses. Evening schedules are salient to accidents/injuries at age 1, but not when children are older. There was no evidence that household income, maternal depression, maternal anxiety, parenting stress, and social support mediated significant associations.
Recent census data finds that 18% of all workers have work shifts that fell at least partially outside the traditional 9-5 Monday through Friday schedule. Other research finds that nearly 12% of employed mothers have nonstandard schedules. Working nonstandard hours may complicate work and family life, and may constrain time with children that relates to their physical health. For example, nonstandard schedules may hinder a mother’s ability to plan and supervise family routines and physical activities. Nonstandard work times may make it difficult for mothers to arrange doctor’s appointments. In addition, these work schedules may impact maternal physical and mental health. Emotional stress, fatigue, and depression that may accompany these work schedules may prevent mothers from noticing their children’s health problems or hinder their ability to engage in preventive care or treatment regimens or other similar material health inputs that are important in promoting children’s physical health.
Despite potential linkages between maternal nonstandard employment and early child health, little empirical research examines this association, particularly during the early years of a child’s life, and potential mediating factors that explain any significant associations we may observe. Children’s health plays an important role in the intra-generational process of stratification and is a significant predictor of adult health and wellbeing.
The present paper makes several innovations to the existing research linking maternal nonstandard employment and children’s health. This paper uses the first 5 waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. These data are ideal for understanding the relationship between mother’s nonstandard work and children’s health, because these data have a large sample of low-income and less-educated individuals for whom nonstandard work is more common. In order to evaluate the link between maternal work schedules and children’s health, I adjust for time-varying and time invariant characteristics measuring mother’s and father’s characteristics, household composition, and child factors. I examine the mechanisms mediating the relationship between nonstandard work and children’s health. Lastly I consider two indicators of children’s health: accidents and injuries and emergency room visits resulting from injuries.
I find evidence of modest positive associations between mother’s night and evening shifts and children’s risk of accident or injury in pooled analyses, after adjusting for time invariant and time varying characteristics. Nonstandard work schedules were not linked to ER visits resulting from child injury in the pooled analyses. Evening schedules are salient to accidents/injuries at age 1, but not when children are older. There was no evidence that household income, maternal depression, maternal anxiety, parenting stress, and social support mediated significant associations.
