The Time Squeeze: Parental Statuses and Feelings About Time With Children

Milkie, Melissa A.; Mattingly, Marybeth J.; Nomaguchi, Kei; Bianchi, Suzanne M.; Robinson, John P.

doi:10.1111/j.0022-2445.2004.00050.x

Cited by 207 publications

(224 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Long work hours have become much more common over time (Jacobs and Gerson, 2004) and the expectation and reality of long work hours is institutionalized in many highly paid managerial and professional occupations (Clarkberg and Moen, 2001;Sharone, 2004;Cha and Weeden, 2014). These work time dynamics accord with the idea of high-SES families increasingly experiencing a subjective sense of "time squeeze" (Schulte, 2014), particularly around the interaction of work hours and time with children (Milkie et al, 2004). If income inequality is in part the result of higher income rank households working more, those households may spend more dollars on investment in children, but may necessarily spend fewer minutes in child care themselves.…”

Section: The Scarcity Of Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments

2018

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Historic increases in income inequality have coincided with widening class divides in parental investments of money and time in children. These widening class gaps are significant because parental investment is one pathway by which advantage is transmitted across generations. Using over three decades of micro-data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the American Heritage Time Use Survey linked to state-year measures of income inequality, we test the relationship between income inequality and class gaps in parental investment. We find robust evidence of wider class gaps in parental financial investments in children—but not parental time investments in children—when state-level income inequality is higher. We explore mechanisms that may drive the relationship between rising income inequality and widening class gaps in parental financial investments in children. This relationship is partially explained by the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution in state-years with higher inequality, which gives higher-earning households more money to spend on financial investments in children. In addition, we find evidence for contextual effects of higher income inequality that reshape parental preferences toward financial investment in children differentially by class.

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Section: The Scarcity Of Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments

2018

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“…12 Parents' time at work necessarily limits time to invest in children, and today's US working parents often report feeling the time squeeze, that is, insufficient time to fulfill responsibilities for both work and family. 13 Cultural standards set a high bar for what constitutes sufficient time with children and can place a strain on parents, increasing their feelings of workfamily conflict and time inadequacy. 14 Yet, public and workplace policies are limited and mismatched in meeting the needs of working parents, needs that ultimately affect the welfare of children.…”

Section: What This Study Addsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ Daily Time With Their Children: A Workplace Intervention

et al. 2015

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In the context of a group randomized field trial, we evaluated whether parents who participated in a workplace intervention, designed to increase supervisor support for personal and family life and schedule control, reported significantly more daily time with their children at the 12-month follow-up compared with parents assigned to the Usual Practice group. We also tested whether the intervention effect was moderated by parent gender, child gender, or child age. METHODS:The Support-Transform-Achieve-Results Intervention was delivered in an information technology division of a US Fortune 500 company. Participants included 93 parents (45% mothers) of a randomly selected focal child aged 9 to 17 years (49% daughters) who completed daily telephone diaries at baseline and 12 months after intervention. During evening telephone calls on 8 consecutive days, parents reported how much time they spent with their child that day.RESULTS: Parents in the intervention group exhibited a significant increase in parent-child shared time, 39 minutes per day on average, between baseline and the 12-month follow-up. By contrast, parents in the Usual Practice group averaged 24 fewer minutes with their child per day at the 12-month follow-up. Intervention effects were evident for mothers but not for fathers and for daughters but not sons. CONCLUSIONS:The hypothesis that the intervention would improve parents' daily time with their children was supported. Future studies should examine how redesigning work can change the quality of parent-child interactions and activities known to be important for youth health and development.WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Children' s time with parents is critical for healthy development. Lack of control over parents' schedules and limited supervisor support for personal and family life can interfere with parents' family time. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:This is the first group randomized controlled field trial demonstrating effects of a workplace intervention, designed to increase schedule control and supervisor support, on working parents' time with their children, as assessed by using longitudinal daily telephone interviews. Dr Davis contributed to the conceptualization and design of the diary component of the Work, Family, and Health Study (WFHS), conceptualized the current study, planned the analysis steps, and wrote most of this manuscript; Dr Lawson conducted the analyses for the paper, wrote the Results section, created the tables and figures, and reviewed, revised, and approved this manuscript; Dr Almeida led the conceptualization and design of the telephone interview diary component of the WFHS, consulted on the analytic approach, and reviewed, revised, and approved this manuscript; Dr Kelly was involved in the design of the WFHS, including the development and implementation of the workplace intervention, and reviewed, revised, and approved this manuscript; Dr King contributed to the conception, design, and interpretation of the data, revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content...

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“…Even though fathers have traditionally spent less time parenting their children compared to mothers, they now undertake an increasing range of childcare tasks (Gregory & Milner, 2008;Hook & Wolfe, 2011) with changing employment patterns and social attitudes (Gerson, 2002;Milkie, Mattingly, Nomaguchi, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004). In Norway, there has been a notable change in the responsibilities of mothers and fathers of preschool children, with a threefold increase in fathers' time commitment on household chores and caregiving between 1980 and 2010.…”

Section: Mothers and Fathers Attending Icdpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mothers and Fathers Attending the International Child Development Programme in Norway

et al. 2014

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Fathers are understudied in parent training studies. This study investigates whether mothers and fathers benefit equally from participating in the International Child Development Programme (ICDP) implemented as a community-wide programme in Norway in their parenting behaviour, perceived child difficulties and their psychosocial health. The questionnaire study used a pre-post design comparing 105 mothers and 36 fathers who attended a regular ICDP course. Results showed that the mothers and fathers differed on parenting behaviours prior to the course but showed similar changes, including on emotional and regulative aspects of parenting and autonomy supportive behaviours. However, only the mothers perceived a decrease in their child's difficulties after the course while the fathers showed a greater increase in behaviours assumed to support the child's meaning-making and in self-efficacy, and a greater decrease in anxiety after the course. ICDP courses appear to be a useful tool for supporting both mothers and fathers in their parenting role.Keywords: Fathers, mothers, parenting, psychosocial well-being, ICDP MOTHERS AND FATHERS ATTENDING ICDP 3Even though fathers have traditionally spent less time parenting their children compared to mothers, they now undertake an increasing range of childcare tasks (Gregory & Milner, 2008;Hook & Wolfe, 2011) with changing employment patterns and social attitudes (Gerson, 2002;Milkie, Mattingly, Nomaguchi, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004). In Norway, there has been a notable change in the responsibilities of mothers and fathers of preschool children, with a threefold increase in fathers' time commitment on household chores and caregiving between 1980 and 2010. Correspondingly, women spent less time on chores and more on employment (Kitterød, 2012). The equalization of caring responsibilities is supported by Norwegian family policy (Lappegard, 2008), and generous paternity leave of 12 weeks which 64.6 per cent of Norwegian fathers took in 2010 (Bringedal & Lappegård, 2012; Statistics Norway, 2013).Fathers' involvement in parenting may contribute to better social competence, cognition and language, psychological adjustment, emotional regulation and peer relationships, and fewer conduct problems in children (e.g. Amato & Rivera, 1999;Parke et al., 2002;Cabrera, Shannon & Tamis-LeMonda, 2007). A review of more than 100 studies found that loving and nurturing parenting from both mothers and fathers was important for child happiness, well-being, and social and academic success (Rohner & Venziano, 2001).These positive effects may be partly due to the presence of two committed parents rather than the gender of the parent (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010).Research has documented differences in parenting styles between mothers and fathers.Mothers are more involved with their children than fathers, regardless of child age (Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004), and parenting studies have found that mothers generally score higher on parenting measures than fathers, display more affection and warmth and engag...

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The Time Squeeze: Parental Statuses and Feelings About Time With Children

Cited by 207 publications

References 26 publications

Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments

Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments

Parents’ Daily Time With Their Children: A Workplace Intervention

Mothers and Fathers Attending the International Child Development Programme in Norway

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