The role of parental work schedule in CPS involvement

Highlights

• We examine the relationship between maternal work schedules and child maltreatment.

• Maternal shiftwork is associated with more CPS involvement and child neglect.

• Economic and hardship factors explain some of the significant associations.

• Association is stronger for single mothers, HS graduates, and low-income families.

Abstract

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2904), we investigated whether maternal work schedules were associated with Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and child maltreatment indicators during the first five years of a child's life. We further examined if this association could be explained by demographic characteristics, child care arrangements, maternal health and social supports, economic and hardship characteristics, and parenting practices. Finally, we examined if this association differed by context (i.e., maternal marital status, maternal education, and family income-to-needs ratio). Our regression results indicate significant associations between maternal shift work and mother-reported CPS involvement and mother-reported psychological aggression behaviors. Economic and hardship characteristics explained some of the significant association between maternal shift work and CPS involvement. Economic and hardship characteristics and parenting practices also explained some of the significant association between maternal shift work and psychological aggression behaviors. The obtained significant associations were more pronounced for mothers who were not married, who were high school graduates, and whose family income was either below or near poverty. We discuss the broader social factors associated with employment demands and childcare arrangements.

Introduction

Approximately 18% of the labor force, or 22 million workers, engaged in shift work in the United States in 2004 (the most recent national data point) (McMenamin, 2007). The nonstandard work schedule (or shift work), defined as work outside the normative hours of Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., is prevalent in many industrialized countries (Presser, Gornick, & Parashar, 2008). A large body of research has indicated that working non-day and weekend shifts can have largely negative effects on an individual's physical, emotional, and even social health (Costa, 1996, Jamal, 2004, Presser, 2003). Research has also found that low-income parents disproportionately fill the demand for non-day and weekend work hours (Presser, 2003). As such, the adverse consequences of these schedules have generated an extensive literature examining the potential links between parental work schedules and child well-being, including the association between parent shift work and cognitive development (Han, 2005), academic achievement (Han & Fox, 2011), socioemotional health (Han, 2008, Han and Miller, 2009, Joshi and Bogen, 2007, Strazdins et al., 2006, Strazdins et al., 2004), and weight gain (Miller and Han, 2008, Morrissey et al., 2011). To date, however, no studies have examined the role of a nonstandard work schedule in child maltreatment. In this paper, we thus ask whether it is the maternal work schedule per se that is associated with Child Protection Services (CPS) involvement in a family and/or child maltreatment incidents, or whether it has something to do with the economic disadvantages and hardships these mothers experience that tends to alert CPS and lead to involvement.

Presser's (2003) research on work–family issues has consistently revealed that individuals who are African American, less educated, and/or low skilled are more likely than others to work nonstandard shifts. Moreover, single mothers and parents in families with children under age 6 are also more likely to work shift schedules (Presser, 2003). Further research indicates that limited educational backgrounds and skill deficits are strongly linked to poverty, which is also associated with a greater risk of child maltreatment (Slack et al., 2004, Slack et al., 2011). Qualitative studies have vividly portrayed the challenges facing parents working nonstandard schedules who must also care for school-age and/or young children. Parents have reported that affordable, quality childcare is often unavailable, particularly during nonstandard hours (Heymann, 2000). Parents who cannot find adequate childcare may be forced to rely on other children in the house to provide caregiving or even to leave children unattended for certain time periods, which can result in CPS involvement.

This paper therefore fills the gap in knowledge about how maternal work schedules are linked to child maltreatment. We approach this issue with the assumption that such a link might be driven by not just the micro-environment, but also by macro-environmental factors. Specifically, for low-income families, for those headed by single parents, and/or for those in which the parents have low levels of education, working nonstandard hours tends to be dictated by the larger environment (the labor market)—available jobs may demand evening and weekend schedules, forcing parents to work these hours. In the hope of reshaping the current policy response that largely attributes child outcomes to individual and parental characteristics (Heymann, 2000), this paper approaches the link between parental work schedules and child maltreatment with the resource constraints of the larger environment in mind (e.g., involuntary work schedules).