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Title: Non-Standard Work Hours and the Relationship Quality of Dual-Earner Parents
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Jekielek, Susan Marie |
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Non-Standard Work Hours and the Relationship Quality of Dual-Earner Parents Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2003. DAI-A 64/06, p. 2272, Dec 2003. Also: http://www.ohiolink.edu.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi/Jekielek%20Susan%20Marie.pdf?acc_num=osu1048796449 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, The Ohio State University Keyword(s): Marital Satisfaction/Quality; Marital Stability; Parenthood; Part-Time Work; Shift Workers; Work Hours/Schedule Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this research, I explore the association between non-standard work hours and marital quality for dual-earner couples with children. I focus on one main question: Do the non-standard work hours of one spouse increase relationship conflict and decrease positive relationship interaction? I examine this question critically by addressing a number of additional questions: (1) Do specific types of non-standard work hours make couples more vulnerable? (2) Do non-standard work schedules cause specific types of conflict? (3) Does the presence of more and younger children cause the influence of nonstandard schedules to be more negative? I additionally address alternative explanations for the observed associations between non-standard work schedules, on the one hand, and relationship quality, on the other hand. To address my research questions I analyze a sample of 1,016 employed respondents from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cohort (NLSY79) who were living with children 18 or younger at the time of the 1996 survey round. All respondents were married or cohabiting with partners employed at least 30 hours a week. Overall, non-standard work schedules are associated with higher levels of conflict and lower levels of positive interaction. I do not find significant differences in relationship quality for those who work evening compared to night shifts, or regular compared to irregular shifts. There is more support for the possibility that nonstandard work schedules hurt couples more than they help couples. While they do not argue significantly more about children, split-shift couples do argue significantly more about both chores and affection compared to couples that both work day shifts, suggesting that gains in regards to split-shift schedules as a childcare option may be diminished by the effect of these schedules on the quality of couples' relationships. In fact, the association between split-shift schedules and arguments about chores and responsibilities is quite dynamic. Finally, it appears that nonstandard work schedules are associated with deterioration in relationship quality over time. It also appears that some couples are more amenable to working opposing schedules because their relationships were lower in quality to start out with, and yet they continue to experience deterioration in their relationship quality. |
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Bibliography Citation
Jekielek, Susan Marie. Non-Standard Work Hours and the Relationship Quality of Dual-Earner Parents. Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2003. DAI-A 64/06, p. 2272, Dec 2003.. |