Kadri Täht

Nonstandard Work Schedules, Couple Desynchronization,and Parent–Child Interaction: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

Many children live in households where either one or both parents work nonstandard schedules in the evening, night, or weekend. This study tests two competing hypotheses of whether nonstandard schedules result in lower levels of parent–child interaction or in more time with children. Using the first wave of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study of 1,266 couples with young children and data from semistructured individual (N = 27) qualitative interviews of respondents with children, the authors engage in a series of ordered logit regression models and qualitative correspondence and narrative analysis. The central finding is that nonstandard schedules are significantly related to an increase in joint activities of parents and children and caregiving for fathers. Qualitative interviews reveal strategies families develop to maintain alternative times and types of contact. Couples use nonstandard schedules to desynchronize schedules to avoid formalized child care and engage in “tag-team parenting” to ensure that one parent is always present.

What is the role of education in the recruitment process? Employers’ practices and experiences of graduates from tertiary educational institutions in Estonia

Since the 1980s, growing globalisation and economic restructuring coupled with expansion of tertiary education contributed to tremendous change in the labour market entry process in Europe. Most previous studies have been quantitative, concentrated on the supply aspect and analysed the role of education as the explanatory variable of youth labour market outcome equations. By contrast, the demand aspect has gained less attention. In this paper, using Estonia as a case study in both perspectives – employers’ practices and graduates’ experiences – are combined to answer the question: how employers use information provided by tertiary education credentials in the recruitment process. Semi-structured interviews with the 15 biggest employers and focus groups consisting of 63 recent graduates comprise the base data of our study. The results reveal that it is useful to examine the mechanisms why education affects recruitment processes separately among service providers and goods producers as well as in different stages of recruitment (pre-selection, getting a job offer). In all sectors, the educational credentials were used in the pre-selection process as a screening device. However, in a job offer, service providers emphasised the role of credentials as signals of trainability while for goods producers credentials informed employers about their job-specific skills.

Youth Labour Market in Central and Eastern Europe

Youth first footsteps at the labour market (LM) affect the further career and also relate to other life domains. The trajectories depend not only on the personal characteristic of the young person but also on the institutional settings, especially on educational system, labour market regulations, employment policies and overall economic climate. Therefore, the labour market transition sequences could take different paths in different countries.

Nonstandard Work Schedules and Partnership QualityPartnership Quality

This chapter questions existing findings and provides new evidence about the consequences of nonstandard work schedules on partnership quality. Using quantitative couple data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) (N = 3,016) and semi-structured qualitative interviews (N = 34), we found that, for women, evening schedules and schedules with varying hours resulted in lower relationship quality than for men. Men with young children who worked in the weekends had less relationship conflict and spent more time with children. Parents used nonstandard schedules for tag-team parenting or to maintain perceptions of full-time motherhood. The lack of negative effects, particularly for night shifts, suggests that previous findings—largely U.S. ones—are not universal and may be attributed to wider cultural, industrial relations, and economic contexts.

Nonstandard Work Schedules and Partnership Dissolution

This chapter examines the impact of nonstandard working schedules on partnership dissolution risk. Using panel data from the Netherlands (NKPS, N = 2,982) and the U.S. (NSFH, N = 4,919), the results shows that having at least one nonstandard schedule worker in the household increases the risk that a partnership might dissolve over time. The negative impact of employment in nonstandard schedules on partnership stability is the strongest in households where nonstandard schedules are worked in a ‘desynchronized ‘manner, when one partner is employed in a nonstandard and the other in a standard schedule. These types of ‘desynchronized’ schedules are furthermore prevalent for households with young children. Employment in nonstandard schedules increases partnership dissolution in both countries, with a weaker effect in The Netherlands, which is likely attributed to stricter working time regulations and protection against the ‘unhealthy’ effect of these schedules.

Maternity Leave — Once a Bargain, Always a Bargain? Impact of Care Breaks on Mothers’ Occupational Mobility: The Case of Estonia

There is ample scientific evidence that work and care are gendered, but societies seem to remain blind to this. As Ridgeway and Correll (2004) put it, hegemonic cultural beliefs about gender act as the rules of the gender system, and these beliefs have self-fulfilling effects on perceptions and behaviours that give them a remarkable ability to persist in the face of social change that might undermine them.

Nonstandard Work Schedules and Parent-Child Interaction

Many children live in households where either one or both parents work nonstandard schedules in the evening, night or weekend. In this chapter we tests two competing hypotheses of whether nonstandard schedules result in lower levels of parent-child interaction or in more time with children . Using the NKPS data of couples with young children (N = 1,266) and data from semi-structured individual qualitative interviews of respondents with children (N = 27), we engage in a series of ordered logit regression models and qualitative correspondence and narrative analysis. The central finding is that nonstandard schedules are significantly related to an increase in joint activities of parents and children and care-giving for fathers . Qualitative interviews reveal strategies families develop to maintain alternative times and types of contact. Couples use nonstandard schedules to desynchronize schedules to avoid formalized childcare and engage in ‘tag-team parenting ’ to ensure that one parent is always present.

Conclusions: The Impact of Nonstandard Employment Schedules on Family Cohesion

In this book we asked the overarching question: What is the impact of nonstandard employment schedules on family cohesion? Throughout the various chapters within this book, we then attempted to address the various aspects of both nonstandard schedules, but also different sides of family cohesion. We started by reflecting on how the various aspects of the labor market, households and national institutions might shape this process. In the subsequent chapters we shed light on the association between nonstandard employment schedules and family cohesion by analyzing where nonstandard schedules are located, who works these schedules from both the labor market and household perspective, and how it impacts family cohesion in terms of partnership quality and stability and parent-child interaction. In the current chapter, we summarize our main finding, point out some policy implications, and conclude with a reflection of some of the limitations of this study and promising directions for new research.

Where are Nonstandard Schedules Located and Who Works in them? The Role of Occupational, Household and Institutional Factors

Despite the arguments that the 24-hour-economy is on a ubiquitous and universal rise, the location of nonstandard schedules in the labor market and households is likely highly targeted. This chapter asks where this work is located and who is working in those shifts and days. Using the NKPS data for the Netherlands and the NSFH data for the United States, the findings show that nonstandard schedules often remain concentrated in specific occupations, suggesting that it is in fact largely occupational aspects underlying the main reasons for working these schedules. From the perspective of the household, the partner’s schedule and the presence and age of children also determine the prevalence of individuals who work nonstandard schedules in the household. The effect of household aspects is highly filtered by country-specific institutional context, a vital yet often ignored contextual factor that shapes the prevalence, location and practice of nonstandard schedules.

Flessibilità del mercato del lavoro e giovani in Estonia

L’articolo fornisce un quadro relativo all’ingresso nel mercato del lavoro da parte dei giovani in Estonia.: transizione scuola-lavoro, prima parte della carriera, formazione di una famiglia. Lo scritto compara le coorti di coloro che sono diventati adulti durante il periodo di stabilita sovietico (anni ’80), il turbolento periodo di transizione (anni ’90), e la fase di stabilizzaizone (anni 2000). La principale fonte di dati e l’Estonian Social Survey (2004). Coloro che hanno lasciato la scuola a partire dagli anni ’90, se confrontati a coloro che hanno vissuto questo passaggio durante gli anni ’80, hanno avuto maggiori opportunita di carriera ma anche hanno visto crescere l’instabilita del lavoro. Quest’ultima condizione si e riflessa anche nelle decisioni a proposito della formazione di una famiglia dal momento che negli anni ’80 la transizione all’eta adulta si concentrava in un breve intervallo di tempo, mentre per le coorti piu giovani sia l’ingresso nel mercato del lavoro, sia la formazione di una famiglia avvengono piu tardi.