Parental Exposure to Work Schedule Instability and Child Sleep Quality

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Public Health
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Recent scholarship highlights the adverse effects of unstable work schedules on worker health.
• However, the intergenerational impacts of work schedule instability remain under-researched.
• This study addresses the gap by examining how parental work schedule instability affects children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between parental exposure to unstable and unpredictable work schedules and child sleep quality.
• To identify specific types of work scheduling practices that impact children's sleep.
• To explore mediating factors in the relationship between parental work schedules and child sleep.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the association between parental exposure to five types of unstable work scheduling practices and child sleep quality.
• Assessment of child sleep duration, variability, and daytime sleepiness.
• Mediation analysis using measures of work-life conflict, parental stress, well-being, material hardship, and child behavior.

Main Results:

• Significant and substantial associations were found between parental exposure to various unstable work scheduling practices and adverse child sleep quality.
• Child sleep duration, sleep variability, and daytime sleepiness were all negatively affected.
• Work-life conflict, parental stress, material hardship, and child behavior mediated 35-50% of the observed relationship.

Conclusions:

• The temporal aspects of job quality have consequences that extend beyond the individual worker to their children.
• Parental work schedule instability contributes to child sleep problems, potentially perpetuating social inequalities.
• Findings have implications for social policies aimed at regulating precarious employment and mitigating its effects on families.