When Mothers' Work Matters for Youths' Daily Time Use: Implications of Evening and Weekend Shifts

The role of work-family conflict and job role identification in moderated mediating the relationship between perceived supervisor support and employee proactive behaviors

In recent years, the outbreak and persistence of COVID-19 has greatly changed the way people work, and encouraging employees to work online from home has become a new form of work for organizations responding to the epidemic. Based on the W-HR model, this paper explored supervisor support as a situational resource in the context of online office, aiming to verify the changes in work-family status caused by individuals facing the background of supervisor support, and then relate employees’ proactive behavior. Meanwhile, the predicted moderating effect of job role identification on supervisor support and work-family conflict was verified by considering the role identification generated in the positive interaction between employees and supervisors as individual resources. In this study, 555 employees from enterprises in the provinces of Jiangsu and Guangdong were selected as the research participants, and data were recovered at two time nodes. The results show that: (1) Perceived supervisor support significantly relates employee proactive behavior. (2) Work-family conflict mediates the relationship between perceived supervisor support and employee proactive behavior. (3) Job role identification has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived supervisor support and work-family conflict, and high level of job role identification moderated the mediating effect of work-family conflict on perceived supervisor support and employee proactive behavior significantly. This paper expands the research perspective of employee proactive behavior. It can be used as a reference for enterprises to formulate strategies to improve employee proactive behavior in the process of digital reform.

Parenting in a 24/7 Economy: Mothers’ Non-standard Work Schedules and Involvement in Children’s Education

Evidence suggests that parental involvement in children’s education has a positive impact on children’s educational achievements and wellbeing outcomes. The trend toward 24/7 economies has obliged many mothers to work non-standard schedules (i.e., schedules outside traditional daytime, Monday–Friday work schedules). This has raised concerns over how non-standard work schedules affect parenting behaviors, including paternal involvement in children’s education. Using data from mothers of young children (age 5–6) in Hong Kong (N = 433), this study examined the association between maternal work schedules and involvement in children’s home and school activities. The results of structural equation modeling found that weekend work was associated with lower levels of home-based involvement. By contrast, working non-standard hours was linked with higher levels of school-based involvement. This pattern suggested that non-standard work schedules could make it either easier or harder for mothers to balance work and family responsibilities, depending on the circumstances (i.e., whether they work non-standard hours or weekends). These findings, indicating that the effects of non-standard work schedules are not uniformly negative or positive, warrant sophisticated policy efforts to address the potential adverse effects of non-standard work schedules and avoid undermining their potential to be used as a family-friendly option.

Work Schedule Unpredictability: Daily Occurrence and Effects on Working Parents' Well-Being

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the pervasiveness and frequency of work schedule unpredictability among workers in low-wage hourly jobs and the effects of work schedule unpredictability on worker and family well-being.

BACKGROUND

Family science has long considered the ways in which parents' experiences in the workplace can affect families. Although unpredictability in work schedules has increased over time, especially for low-wage workers, the effects of schedule unpredictability on worker and family well-being have been understudied.

METHOD

Ninety-two workers with children aged 2-7, recruited using a new venue-time sampling technique, were asked to complete once-a-day surveys for 30 consecutive days (N = 2,221 person-days for analysis). Descriptive analyses and regression models with family fixed effects were utilized.

RESULTS

Work schedule unpredictability was common in the context of families' lives: over the 30 days, parents experienced an unanticipated work schedule change on 13.3% of days, and 87% of parents experienced at least one unanticipated work schedule change. Within families, unpredictable work schedule changes on a given day were associated with worse outcomes that day for parents, including increased negative mood and decreased perceived sleep quality.

CONCLUSION

Work schedule unpredictability is ubiquitous in the lives of low-wage hourly workers and is negatively related to working parents' well-being.

IMPLICATIONS

These results provide evidence that unscheduled and canceled shifts typical of low-wage service jobs may harm parents' well-being, which could ultimately affect their children's development and well-being.

Crossover of Resources and Well-Being within Employee-Partner Dyads: Through Increased Schedule Control

This study examined whether one partner's additional resources obtained from a workplace intervention influence the other partner's perception of having those resources at home (crossover of resources). We also examined whether one partner's decreased stress by increased work resources crosses over to the other partner's stress levels (crossover of well-being). Longitudinal data came from IT employees and their married/cohabiting partners in midlife (N=327). A randomized workplace intervention significantly increased employee-reported schedule control at the 6-month follow-up, which, in turn, increased partner-reported employees' work schedule flexibility to handle family responsibilities at the 12-month follow-up. The intervention also decreased partners' perceived stress at the 12-month follow-up through the processes by which increases in schedule control predicted decreases in employees' perceived stress, which further predicted decreased levels of partners' perceived stress. Notably, crossover of resources and well-being were found in couples who lived with children in the household, but not in couples without children. Our findings suggest that benefits of workplace support can permeate into the family domain, by increasing partner-perceived family resources and well-being.

Better previous night sleep is associated with less next day work-to-family conflict mediated by higher work performance among female nursing home workers

OBJECTIVES

Cross-sectional research has found that shorter and poorer sleep are associated with lower work performance and greater work-to-family conflict (WTFC). However, we know little about daily mechanisms linking sleep, work performance, and WTFC. This study tested whether previous nights' sleep was linked to next day WTFC, mediated by work performance.

DESIGN

Daily interview methodology.

SETTING

US extended-care workplaces.

PARTICIPANTS

One hundred seventy-one female employees with children aged 9 to 17 years.

MEASUREMENTS

In telephone interviews on 8 consecutive evenings, participants reported their daily work performance (work productivity, work quality), WTFC (e.g., "how much did things you wanted to do at home not get done because of the demands your job put on you?"), and previous nights' sleep duration (in hours) and sleep quality (1 = very badly, 4 = very well).

RESULTS

Multilevel models revealed a significant association between previous night's sleep with next-day work performance. More specifically, on days following better sleep quality than usual, participants reported better work productivity than usual. Moreover, higher work productivity was associated with less WTFC on that day. A mediation test revealed that poorer previous night's sleep quality predicted less work productivity the next day, which, in turn, predicted more WTFC on the same day.

CONCLUSION

Results provide evidence for the downward spiral of resource losses starting from poor sleep. Better quality sleep, as a replenished resource, may promote next-day productivity at work, which may bring less interference from work to the home.