24-Hour Economy Is Redefining Families and Social Policies, and Research Should Follow Suit

COLLEGE PARK, Md. The latest survey figures on U.S. workers confirm that the movement toward a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week economy is well underway and is affecting American families in many ways, writes University of Maryland sociologist Harriet Presser in the Policy Forum section of the June 11th issue of Science magazine. However, she says, research on the American family and U.S. social policies for families aren't keeping pace with the changing nature of work.

The trend toward a round-the-clock economy and the resulting impacts on American families will continue into the next century, according to Presser. Data also suggest that the increase in non-standard work schedules will be experienced disproportionally by women and blacks.

"These changes in work schedules and the resultant alterations of at-home time, need to be reflected in our conception of families and in social policies that seek to ease the economic and social tensions that often result from the dual demands of work and family," says Presser.

Using data from the May 1997 Current U.S. Population Survey, Presser found that as of 1997, less than a third of all employed Americans aged 18 and over worked a standard work week, defined as daytime employment, 35 to 40 hours a week, Monday through Friday. Only 54 percent, a bare majority, regularly work a fixed weekday, daytime schedule of any number of hours. Among families with two wage earners the prevalence of non-standard work schedules is especially high, because either the husband or wife may be working evenings, nights or weekends. In a majority of two-earner couples, one spouse works either evenings, nights, or weekends. This also holds true for two-earner couples with children, among whom 57 percent have at least one spouse working evenings, nights, or weekends.

The physical consequences of working nonstandard hours, such as sleep disturbances and gastrointestinal disorders, have been well-documented, but the social consequences of such employment have garnered less attention even though non-standard schedules may be significantly altering the structure and stability of family life, Presser writes.

Split-shift working/parenting schedules may have a positive effect in so far as they result in fathers who are more involved with their children. However, the long-term cost to marriages may offset this benefit. New research shows that when men work nights and are married less than five years, the chance of separation or divorce five years later is six times that of men who work days. For women who work nights and are married more than five years, the chance of separation or divorce is three times as high.

According to Presser, policymakers and researchers must take a more realistic view of the increasingly complex ways work and home time is structured among American families. For example, she said, efforts to move women from welfare to work must seek to improve the fit between available child care and working mothers schedules. Expanding daycare alone will not be enough.

"Whether the reasons for working nonstandard schedules are family or job related, virtually all adults, and the children they may have, are experiencing a home life that is very different from our traditional conceptions," says Presser. "This ongoing complexity in work schedule behavior could have profound implications not only for the health of individuals and the stability of families, but also for the way we juggle employment with the care of children, the elderly and the disabled."

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