Mothers' Nonstandard Work Schedules and Children's Behavior Problems: The Moderating Role of Social Support

Background: Mothers’ nonstandard work schedules (defined as evenings, nights, weekends, or variable hours) are associated with children’s adverse developmental outcomes. Research revealed that young children with mothers who work outside of standard daytime hours are more vulnerable to emotional and behavioral problems and delayed cognitive development compared to those whose mothers worked standard daytime hours. However, it is understudied how access to supportive resources could moderate the association between mothers’ nonstandard work schedules and children’s developmental outcomes. In order to address such critical gaps in the literature, this study investigates how access to diverse forms of social support (i.e., private safety net, work schedule flexibility, and child care assistance) could mitigate the internalizing and externalizing behavior problems of children with nonstandard-hours working mothers.

Methods: Using longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), this study conducts a lagged dependent variable (LDV), ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The dependent variable is the children’s externalizing and internalizing behavior problems at age 5, which is kindergarten age. To be conservative and to minimize the effect of children’s previous behavior problems on the association between mothers’ nonstandard work schedules and children’s behavior problems at Year 5, I controlled for child behavior problems at Year 3. I began by conducting a regular LDV OLS with mothers’ nonstandard work schedules and children’s externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, along with control variables. I also conducted LDV OLS regressions including four types of nonstandard work schedules. I then ran LDV OLS regressions with interaction terms for private safety net, work schedule flexibility, and child care assistance receipt to investigate how social support can mitigate the behavior problems of children with nonstandard-hours working mothers.

Results: Unlike most of the previous literature, preliminary findings suggest that mothers merely working nonstandard hours might not be harmful to children’s behavior problems. Instead, mothers’ variable work schedules were associated with children’s adverse externalizing behavior problems. Furthermore, mothers’ night work schedules were associated with children’s adverse internalizing behavior problems. By evaluating the role of social support for children with mothers who have nonstandard work schedules, I found that having a full private safety net might buffer children with mothers who have night work schedules from adverse externalizing behavior problems. Also, having a high work schedule flexibility might buffer children with mothers who have evening work schedules from adverse externalizing behavior problems. Child care assistance did not show any significant buffering effect.

Conclusions and Implications: Preliminary findings raise questions about the true association between mothers’ nonstandard work schedules and children’s behavior problems. My results suggest that mothers’ variable schedules or night shifts might be causing children’s adverse behavioral outcomes. It should be further investigated how mothers’ various nonstandard work schedules impact children’s externalizing and internalizing behavior problems differently. This study also raises the need for policies that could strengthen the private safety net and promote work schedule flexibility for mothers with nonstandard work schedules, especially to buffer children’s externalizing problems.