Irregular work schedules may work for parents who are married but they appear harmful for cohabiting parents, U.S. researchers say.
Study leader Hui Liu of Michigan State University, colleague Barbara Schneider, and former education graduate students Qiu Wang and Vanessa Keesler say working nights, weekends and other non-standard schedules is increasingly common as the United States moves toward a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week economy.
The researchers analyzed the data of more than 2,300 people in the National Study of the Changing Workforce. The study found married parents working
irregular shifts may benefit because those who share parenting duties gain an option for one of them to be available for child care during the day.
"This, in turn, may enhance well-being for these married parents," Liu says in a statement.
However, the estimated 2.5 million cohabiting couples who work non-standard shifts tend to experience more conflict between work and family life and feel more depressed and less successful as parents and workers than do their peers who work standard shifts, the study says.
Cohabiting parents are less likely than their married counterparts to take care of their partners' children, pool their income and receive child-care help from family members -- making it harder for them to balance work and family if they work nonstandard schedules, the study says.