Using data from the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Surveys, this article examines nonstandard work hours and their relationship to parents' family, leisure and personal care time -informing the discussion of the costs and benefits of working nonstandard hours. The results suggest that parents who work nonstandard evening hours spend less time in some child-related activities than their counterparts who work standard daytime hours, but spend more time and more time alone with children. Married parents who work nonstandard hours spend less time with a spouse, and all parents with nonstandard hours get less sleep and watch less television than parents with standard work days.Changes in the economic landscape, demographic shifts and advances in technology have reshaped when work takes place (Presser 2003). Within the past 40 years, the United States has experienced a tremendous growth in the service sector (Presser 2003). This expansion is partly fueled by the increased labor force participation of mothers, whose work in the home is replaced by a greater demand for homemaking services after standard work hours. Furthermore, delays in the timing of marriage and first birth means an increasing number of younger adults seek recreation and entertainment opportunities later in the evening and at night. Finally, advances in technology such as computers, faxes and Blackberries not only facilitate the ability to spread work across 24 hours each day and seven days a week, but increase the need to do so (Presser 2003).This trend toward a 24-7 service economy and the diffusion of work hours outside a standard work day has implications for families -particularly those with children. The lack of quality childcare during non-daytime hours and the rigidity of children's school schedules typically impose a daily rhythm to parents' activities that largely requires adherence to a daytime schedule. The spreading of paid work into the evening and night hours

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The association among mothers’, fathers’, and infants’ risk and cognitive and social behaviors at 24 months was examined using SEM and data on 4,178 on toddlers and their parents from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. There were 3 main findings. First, for cognitive outcomes, maternal risk was directly and indirectly linked to it through maternal sensitivity whereas paternal risk was only indirectly related through maternal sensitivity. Second, for social behaviors, maternal and paternal risks were indirectly linked through maternal sensitivity and father engagement. Third, maternal and paternal levels of risk were linked to maternal supportiveness whereas mothers’ and children’s risk were linked to paternal cognitive stimulation. Implications are that policy makers must take into account effects of mothers’, children’s, and fathers’ risk on young children’s functioning.

This paper examines the association between poverty and food insecurity among children, using two different definitions of poverty—the official poverty measure (OPM) and the new supplemental poverty measure (SPM) of the Census Bureau, which is based on a more inclusive definition of family resources and needs. Our analysis is based on data from the 2001–11 Current Population Survey and shows that food insecurity and very low food security among children decline as income-to-needs ratio increases. The point estimates show that the associations are stronger as measured by the new supplemental measure of income-to-needs ratio than when estimated through the official measure. Statistical tests reject the hypothesis that poor households’ odds of experiencing low food security are the same whether the SPM or OPM measure is used; but the tests do not reject the hypothesis when very low food security is the outcome.

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Using a national sample of 12,424 partnered women and 10,721 partnered men from the 2003–2006 American Time Use Survey, this article examines racial/ethnic variation in women’s and men’s housework time and its covariates. The ratio of women’s to men’s housework hours is greatest for Hispanics and Asians and smallest for Whites and Blacks. White and Hispanic women’s housework hours are associated with household composition and employment suggesting that the time availability perspective is a good predictor for these women, but may have less explanatory power for other race/ ethnic groups of women. Relative resources also have explanatory power for White women’s housework time but are weak predictors for women of Other race/ethnicities. Time availability and relative resource measures show some association with White men’s housework time but are generally poor predictors among other race/ethnic groups of men, suggesting that traditional models of housework allocation do not “fit” all groups equally.

We study the factors associated with food insecurity and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Mexican immigrant families in the US. Estimates from analyses that control for a rich set of economic, demographic, and geographic variables show that children in Mexican immigrant families are more likely to be food insecure than children in native families, but are less likely to participate in SNAP. Further, more vulnerable groups such as the first-generation Mexican immigrant families, families in the US for less than 5 years, and families with non-citizen children – that are at a higher risk of food insecurity are the least likely to participate in SNAP. Our analysis suggests that the US Department of Agriculture outreach initiative and SNAP expansion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased SNAP participation of the mixed-status Mexican families. We do not find any evidence that the outreach and ARRA expansion increased SNAP receipt among Mexican immigrant families with only non-citizen members who are likely to be undocumented.

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