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Children's wellbeing and chain of care in a 24h
economyAnna Rönkä and Eija Sevón,
Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
ISCAR | The 4th Congress of the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research, 30.9.2014
24h economy, families and children
• Society where services are open all around the clock, and employees have to work increasingly evenings, weekends or nights (Presser, 2003)
• Many of employees working nonstandard hours have children
• Services and policies are not in line with these new realities in work
• Lack of research approaching 24h economy from the perspective of children and families; gap in knowledge about European families
MACRO CONTEXT24h economy in three countries with different work and family policies, cultural norms,
service availability
Working time patterns• Amount and
timing of working hours
• Predictability, control
Family processes• Work-family conflict • Positive parenting,
parenting stress• Family time, family
routines
Moderators• Family type; income• Parent’s gender, education• Child’s age, gender, temperament
Child care • Length of periods in
care• Monthly hours• Night care• Changes in care
schedules • Parent-caregiver
relationship
Risks and opportunities
Children’s well-being, agency and
sense of belonging
Day-and-night care: case Finland
Children have a law-based, subjective right for child-care– High public expenditure– Early education free of charge for pre-school aged chidren– Day-and-night care for children whose both parents or the
only parent work nonstandard hours
Day-and-night care given in early mornings, evenings, nights and weekends– Centre-based– Educated personnel: kindergarten teachers, practical
nurses
7% of all children in muncipal child-care in day-and-night care (Säkkinen, 2010)
Research questions
I International perspective: Are working time patterns related to children’s well-
being? Are the links similar in the three countries, Fi, NL and UK?
II Finnish perspective: What are the links between parental working time patterns, child-care arrangements and children’s
wellbeing in terms of daily moods, rhythms and chains of care?
Families 24/7: Research design and participants
I Parental web-survey
• Finland, the Netherlands and United Kingdom
• N = 1,294 (483/Fi, 374/NL and 437/ UK)
• 80.6% mothers, 19.4% fathers• 66.6% in spousal relationship,
18.5% cohabitating, 7% divorced, 5% single
• Mean age of the respondents: 37.81(SD = 6.04)
• Mean age of the children: 5.42 (SD = 2.48)
II Children’s mobile diary “You got a message from Illi” • One week diary study in
Finland• N = 15 children from day-care,
17 children from day-and-night care
• 53.1% girls, 46.9% boys• 56.3% nuclear families, 21.9%
step-families, 18.8% single-parent families
• Children’s age range: from 5 to 7 years
I Parental survey: An international perspective on 24h economy
Variables and statistical analyses
MAIN VARIABLES
Working time pattern (dichotomized): nonstandard, standard
Children’s socio-emotional well-being:
SDQ (Strengths and difficulties questionnaire; Goodman, 1997); 20 items concerning problem behaviour
STATISTICAL PROCEDURE
Hierarcical regression analyses
Regression analyses
Nonstandard work schedule
Working fulltime (35+ hours)
Working overtime
Changes to work schedule
Child problem behaviour (SDQ)
B = 2.54**, β = 0.23B = 0.42, β = 0.04
B = 1.34**, β = 0.12
B = -0.24, β = -0.02
Moderating effect of country:- NL: B = -3.21**, β = -0.14- FI: B = -1.13, β = -0.09
Control variables:- Child gender: B = 1.00*, β = 0,09- Parental income: B = -1.42**, β = -0.13- Partner: B = -1.48*, β = -0.09
Model’s R² = .10* = p <.05. ** = p <.01.
Results: International perspective
• Finland and UK: parental non-standard work associated with higher levels of children's socio-emotional problems, especially when linked with lower income and lone parenting
• NL: parental nonstandard work associated with lower levels of children’s socio-emotional problems
II Children’s Illi diary and the chains of care in 24h economy:
A Finnish perspective
”I’m often away from children in the evenings, and me and children - we
miss each other all the time.” (parent)
”There are fewer children in the group in evenings, weekends and nights than during day
time. That is why each child gets more attention.” (day care worker)
After an angry morning it was lovely to come home to happy
kids (mother, evening)
Me and dad went to have ice cream together. I was
at day care today and tomorrow we’ll go to
grandma’s place. (Jimi, evening)
Method: ”Illi” mobile diary
A mobile diary application developed for collecting data from children under seven years old and from their caretakers
A fairy-tale character “Illi” helps the child to report daily moods and activities– answering possible both at home and in day care– questions both for adults and children– answering three times a day
Illi- story, stickers and song orientating and motivating the child
Illi’s story as a frame for the diary
Children’s self-reported tiredness
in two day-care contexts
Chains of care: Children’s perspective
Children in day-and-night care
Less hours in day care, more unhurried time at home, more time with relatives
Irregularity and individual variation in daily stucture and programme
Large variation in daily and weekly care times
No differences between weekdays and weekend in moods
Children in day-care
More hours in day care
More regularity in daily structure and programme
Children’s care times almost similar every day
Similar weekday/weekend rhythm in moods
Rönkä, A. & Sevon, E. (manuscript). Mobile diary in researching children’s daily experiences in day care and night and day care
Nicest: to watch
children’s programsWorst: to sleep (Jimi,
morning)
Conclusions
The effects of nonstandard working time on children depend on
Fit or misfit between NS-working time patterns and prevailing work and family policies, cultural norms and availability of care (the combination of these)
The quality of work and other work related factors: predictability, autonomy, income
Existence of chains of care: tools to maintain regularity, continuity and sense of belonging within irregularity
ReferencesBarnett, R. & Gareis, K. (2007). Shift work, parenting behaviors and child socio-emotional wellbeing: a within family study. Journal of Family Issues, 28.
Gassman-Pines, A. (2011). Low-Income Mothers´ Nighttime and Weekend Work: Daily Associations With Child Behavior, Mother-Child Interactions, and Mood. Family Relations, (February 2011), 15-29.
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Hsueh, J.A.& Yoshikawa, H. (2007). Working nonstandard schedules and variable shifts in low-income families: Associations with parental psychological well-being, family functioning, and child well-being. Developmental Psychology, 43 (3).
Li, J. & Johnson, S., Han, W-J., Andrews, S., Kendall, G., Strazdins, L., & Dockery, A. (2013). Parents’ nonstandard work schedules and child well-being: A critical review of the literature. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 1-21
Mills, M. & Täht, k. (2010). Non-standard work schedules and partnership quality: quantitative and qualitative findings. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 72, 860-875.
Strazdins, L., Clements, M. S., Korda, R. J., Broom, D. H., & D’Souza, R. M. (2006). Unsociable work? Nonstandard work schedules, family relationships, and children’s well-being. Journal of Marriage
and Family, 68, 394-410.
Our research teamLeader of the research project:
Anna Rönkä & co-leader: Marja-Leena Laakso
Senior and post-doctoral researchers:
Vanessa May (University of Manchester),
Tanja van der Lippe & Anne Roeter (University of Utrecht)
Eija Sevon, Mia Tammelin, Kaisa Malinen, Marjatta
Kekkonen, Pirjo-Liisa Poikonen, Riitta-Leena
Metsäpelto, Leena Turja, Johanna Mykkänen, Minna
Murtorinne-Lahtinen, Timo Hintikka & Ulla Teppo
Doctoral students:
Melissa Verhoef (University of Utrecht)
Eija Salonen, Sanna Moilanen,
Pia Manninen & Kaisu Peltoperä
Eija Sevón [email protected] Anna Rönkä [email protected]
http://www.jamk.fi/families24
Thank you for your attention!
Questions and comments, please.
