This article questions existing findings and provides new evidence about the consequences of nonstandard work schedules on partnership quality. Using quantitative couple data from The Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) (N = 3,016) and semistructured qualitative interviews (N = 34), we found that, for women, schedules with varying hours resulted in greater relationship dissatisfaction than for men. Men with young children who worked varying hours had less relationship conflict and spent more time with children. Parents used nonstandard schedules for tag-team parenting or to maintain perceptions of full-time motherhood. The lack of negative effects, particularly for night shifts, suggests that previous findings-largely U.S. ones-are not universal and may be attributed to wider cultural, industrial relations, and economic contexts.The diffusion of nonstandard work schedules in industrialized countries has brought diverse challenges to family relationships (Presser,

Labor market insecurities have been growing in Europe and previous research has illustrated that unemployment and insecure jobs negatively affect individuals' wellbeing and health. Although empirical evidence suggests that these effects vary substantially across different welfare states, we still know little about the moderating role of specific labor market policies. Taking a cross-national comparative perspective, this article investigates how passive and active labor market policies (PLMP, ALMP) as well as employment protection legislation (EPL) shape the experience of unemployment and insecure jobs. We complement micro data of round 1-6 (2002-2012) of the European Social Survey with time-varying macro indicators of PLMP, ALMP, and EPL. The data include about 89,000 individuals nested in 112 country-rounds and 26 countries respectively. We apply three-level random intercept models as well as pooled linear regression models including country fixed effects. The results show that labor market policies are important in shaping the experience of unemployment, but are less relevant for workers in insecure jobs. Specifically, higher unemployment benefit generosity buffers the negative effects of unemployment on well-being but not health. Moreover, we discuss different interpretations for the finding that higher ALMP expenditures are associated with more negative effects of unemployment on well-being and health. With respect to EPL it is found that in countries with high insider protection, deregulating the restrictions on the use of temporary employment increases the negative effects of unemployment on well-being and health.

Many children live in households where either one or both parents work nonstandard schedules in the evening, night, or weekend. This study tests two competing hypotheses of whether nonstandard schedules result in lower levels of parent-child interaction or in more time with children. Using the first wave of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study of 1,266 couples with young children and data from semistructured individual (N = 27) qualitative interviews of respondents with children, the authors engage in a series of ordered logit regression models and qualitative correspondence and narrative analysis. The central finding is that nonstandard schedules are significantly related to an increase in joint activities of parents and children and caregiving for fathers. Qualitative interviews reveal strategies families develop to maintain alternative times and types of contact. Couples use nonstandard schedules to desynchronize schedules to avoid formalized child care and engage in "tag-team parenting" to ensure that one parent is always present.

No abstract

No abstract