Degree of Contribution

Lead

Document Type

Article

Keywords

development, dual-earner, fathers, maternal employment, parental investment/involvement, paternal employment

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Developmental Psychology | Family, Life Course, and Society | Work, Economy and Organizations

Abstract

The present study investigates whether the effect of fathers’ positive engagement on young children’s cognitive development is accentuated when one or both dual-earner parents is employed during non-standard hours. Longitudinal regression models are fitted to three waves of nationally-representative data from the Early Child Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Father engagement when children are nine months old has an especially positive effect on children’s cognitive ability at age two when the father works during the day and the mother has a fixed evening or night shift. There are no interactions between shift work and engagement at age two in the whole sample, but subgroup analyses show that engagement has an especially strong effect on children who have a non-parent caregiver if both parents are shift workers. The results highlight the important role fathers play in couples with a shift worker, and provide a rationale for efforts to encourage and support their involvement.

Publication Title

Community, Work and Family

Volume

21

Issue

2

Article Number

1019

Publication Date

2018

First Page

133

Last Page

150

DOI of Published Version

10.1080/13668803.2018.1428171

Language

English

Peer Reviewed

1

Version

Post-publication

Content Type

Text

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