Longitudinal Employment Patterns and Parental Health: A Cross-Country Look

• In Event: Determinants and Consequences of Work Schedule Quality for Child and Family Well-Being

Abstract

Study Aims: Using a cross-country lens, we investigate the links between longitudinal work trajectories and health among parents with children under age 18.

Background: Employment serves as a valuable resource, affording us a decent standard of living. The rising dominance of digital and technology, together with the service economy since the 1980s, has transformed the utility of employment from a resource to a vulnerability, subjecting more families to uncertain, unstable, and insecure work. Nonstandard work schedules or shiftwork, which often fall outside regular 9-to-5 daytime hours and can be unpredictable, carry potential health consequences.

Methods: Using the longitudinal data from Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), the UK (UKHLS), and the US (NLSY79), we use sequence analysis to first chart parental work schedule patterns between three stages of the life course, 25-34, 35-44, and 45-54, to show the changes and transitions in work patterns. We then conduct multivariate regression analysis to examine how variations in parental work patterns may shape individual health (i.e., physical and mental health) at ages 35/40, 45/50, and 55/60 while controlling for a rich set of sociodemographic characteristics.

Results: Our sequence analyses uncover roughly 4-6 work patterns during those three periods, revealing the heterogeneities of parental work trajectories that might correspond to childrearing demands and their sociodemographic backgrounds. We find that across all four countries and all age groups, roughly 40% to 50% of the workforce has a work pattern of “Mainly Standard (ST) hours,” while roughly 15-25% of parents have volatile work patterns where they switch between work schedules, and this is particularly true for the US. We also find that mainly not-working pattern or volatile work arrangements (e.g., switching between daytime and non-daytime hours) are associated with significantly poorer physical and mental health; however, the persistence and magnitude of these associations varied by country.

Conclusions: This study advances our understanding of the critical role of employment in our health from a cross-country perspective and bears important implications for the intergenerational transmission of employment and health vulnerabilities. The persistent adverse health consequences of volatility in Australia, the UK, and the US, versus a buffer effect in Germany due to its protective labor market and social protection provisions, further attest that institutional policies matter.

Author

• Wen-Jui Han, New York University
  Presenting Author