Shift Work and Father Care Among DualEarner Couples

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Shift Work and Father Care Among Dual-Earner
Couples

• Jennifer Glass
• Dept. of Sociology
• University of Iowa

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Central Questions
How many couples choose separate work shifts to
avoid paid child care for their infants and
toddlers? What are the unintended consequences
of such arrangements for families?
How successful are such arrangements in involvin
g fathers in child care?
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Early Research
Harriet Presser first documented growth
in shift work arrangements during the 1980s.
About 25 of all two-earner couples were
working separate or mostly non-overlapping
work shifts by 1990.
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Shift Work and Child Care
Fathers were most likely to provide care
for children and do housework when
mothers rather than fathers worked the
afternoon or evening shift. (Presser, 1994 Bra
yfield, 1995)
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Shift Work and Divorce

• Scholars also discovered that couples working
  non-overlapping shifts reported lower marital
  quality and had a higher risk of divorce
  (Presser, 2000 White and Keith, 1990)

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Shift Work and Job Turnover

• Wives who worked while their husbands provided
  child care also quit their jobs sooner than
  similar women using paid child care (Maume and
  Mullin, 1993).

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Goals of this Study
(a) To determine whether couples working separate
shifts avoid using substitute care for their
young children (b) To determine whether couple
s working separate shifts save significantl
y on child care expenses. (c) To determine whet
her couples working separate shifts
are more satisfied with the care their
children receive (d) To find out if father care
during infancy creates more involved fath
ers later in life.
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Sample

• 309 women from northern Indiana and southwestern
  Michigan.
  
• All were employed at least 20 hours per week when
  they found out they were pregnant in 1991 or
  1992
  
• Contacted via hospital admission records during
  the last trimester of pregnancy
  

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Sample Characteristics

• Similar to nationally representative sample of
  mothers giving birth in 1992 in occupation, work
  hours, marital status, income, age, and number of
  prior children.
• Sample is mostly white and middle-class due to
  sampling criteria (employed at least 20 hrs/wk
  prior to pregnancy)

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Study Design
4 waves of data collection

• Prenatal interview
• 6 month follow-up postpartum
• 12 month follow-up postpartum
• 7 year follow-up in 1999 (N196)

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Definitions

• Shift Work- either father or mother in household
  (not both) works a night or evening shift
  
• Father care father cares for their infant at
  least one hour per week while the mother is at
  work
  

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Definitions

• Warmth and responsiveness degree of physical
  affection and avoidance of harsh discipline at
  age 7
  
• Activities with child intensity of activities
  with child at age 7 over the past year
  (frequency of reading books, helping with
  homework, visiting family or friends, seeing
  movies or playing sports, private talks, etc.)

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How many couples report shift work?

• At 6 months postpartum, 110 out of 253
  dual-earner couples (43) had one spouse on an
  evening or night shift.
  
• By 7 years postpartum, only 32.7 had one spouse
  on an evening or night shift.

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Shift work seems to be a common
strategy for parents of newborns
when both partners stay in the
labor force.
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How prevalent is father care?
At 6 and 12 months postpartum, 36 of dual-
earner couples were using at least some father
care while the mother was at work.
However, only 7 of couples used father care ex
clusively while the mother was at work, and
half of those mothers only worked part-time
(less than per week).
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How prevalent is father care?
- Among families using father care, fathers on
average covered 59 of mothers work hours.
- Fathers covered significantly more of mothers
work hours when mothers were employed part-
time (72) rather than full-time (49)
- Only 30 fathers (12 of total sample) provided
more than 20 hours of child care per week.
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How prevalent is father care?
Out of the 110 couples on separate work
shifts, only 52 (47) used father care to
cover ANY of the mothers work hours.
Only 18 (16) used father care to cover all th
e mothers work hours.
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Thus, most parents on separate
work shifts use some form of substitute child car
e, along with
parental child care.
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What kind of substitute care is used along with
father care?
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Couples using some father care
are much less likely to use day
care centers for their infants than
couples using no father care.
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How Stable is Father Care?

• Only 65 of the families using father care at 6
  months were still using any father care at 12
  months postpartum.
  
• Only half of those those couples exclusively
  using father care at 6 months were still
  exclusively using father care at 12 months.

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What produces change in father care?
Change is patterned - When mothers incr
ease their work hours, father care declines.
- When mothers decrease their work hours,
father care increases.
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How much do families save by using father care?
Families save roughly half their weekly
child care costs compared to families
not using any father care 33 versus
60 per week
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Are families using father care more
satisfied? mother reports only

• Surprisingly, no. While not significant, mothers
  on average rate their child care satisfaction a
  bit LOWER if fathers provide care.
  
• Mothers also report equal levels of difficulty in
  arranging child care when fathers provide care.
  

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Why Not?

• Some fathers are reluctant providers of care
• Some mothers would have preferred another source
  of care
  
• Stress of arranging work schedules to accommodate
  care
  
• Stress of arranging multiple sources of child care

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Reluctant Providers
Whenever my husband is late coming home,
Im late getting out the door to work.
Sometimes I think he does that on purpose, becau
se he really doesnt want me to work.
-nurse on evening shift
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Skeptical mothers
Once I came home and all the kids had eaten for
dinner was popcorn. The house is always a mess
when hes in charge. I plan to go fro
m full-time to part-time status next year.
Its too difficult for my husband to take care
of two children on his own.
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Stress of shift work
Life in general is pretty stressful. My husband
and I have no time for each other and are
not getting along. Right now I feel tor
n between a rock and a hard place my husband a
nd I work opposite shifts so we do not have to p
ut our children in day care. Now, however, my h
usband claims the opposite shifts are putting a
real strain on our marriage.
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Stress of arranging multiple care providers
I am very fortunate to have my mother and
husband to take care of my son for a good portio
n of the work week, but..coordinating three indi
viduals per week can be maddening at timesOf co
urse, these arrangements fall onto me and not m
y husband.
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Long term Consequences of Father care?
Compared to fathers who provided no infant care
while mothers were at work, fathers providing
some care showed NO significant difference in
activities with their child at 7 years old
NO significant difference in warmth and responsi
veness to their child at 7 years old
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Long term Consequences of Father care?
Compared to fathers who provided less than 20
hours per week of infant care while mothers were
at work, fathers providing 20 hours of care or
more showed MORE activities with their child a
t 7 years old MORE warmth and responsiveness to
their child at 7 years old
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Summary

• Fathers rarely provide all or even the bulk of
  child care
  
• needed while mothers are employed, even when
  their work schedules permit them to do so.
  
• Father care showed substantial instability over
  time, tending to end when mothers work hours
  increased, and begin when mothers work hours
  decreased.
• Families saved roughly 25 per week on average by
  using father care, almost half of the average
  weekly cost.
  

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Summary

• Mothers did not rate their child care
  satisfaction or their ease of arranging child
  care any higher when fathers provided care, even
  when fathers provided the vast majority of care
  (over 20 hours per week).
• Only fathers who provided a substantial amount of
  infant care (over 20 hours/wk) had closer and
  more involved relationships with their child 7
  years later.