Mark Tausig

Unbinding Time: Alternate Work Schedules and Work-Life Balance

We examine the possibility that alternate work schedules affect perceived work-life imbalance—the “time bind.” The results show that alternate schedules per se do not “unbind” time. However, perceived control of work schedules increases work-life balance net of family and work characteristics. The most consistent family characteristic predicting imbalance is being a parent. The most consistent work characteristic predicting imbalance is hours worked. Once we control for hours worked, women and part-timers are shown to perceive more imbalance. Younger and better educated persons also perceive more work-life imbalance. However, they also report higher levels of schedule control and since schedule control improves work-life balance, it may be more important for unbinding time than schedule alternatives.

Scheduling Stress Family and Health Outcomes of Shift Work and Schedule Control

The effects of shift work and job schedule control on the family life and health of American workers are analyzed. Using data from the 1992 National Study on the Changing Workforce ( N = 2,905), this article tests whether negative family and health outcomes associated with nonstandard job schedules result from (a) problems of adjusting to the times of nonstandard shifts and/or (b) the lack of scheduling control and (c) whether schedule control mediates the effects of nonstandard shifts. Multivariate results indicate that although nonstandard shifts have few effects, lack of scheduling control has strong negative effects on six of the eight family and health outcomes. There is no evidence that control mediates the effects of schedule times, nor that these effects vary by gender or family status. Implications of these results are discussed.= 2,905), this article tests whether negative family and health outcomes associated withnonstandard job schedules result from (a) problems of adjusting to the times of nonstandardshiftsand/or(b)thelackofschedulingcontroland(c)whetherschedulecontrolmediatestheeffects of nonstandard shifts. Multivariate results indicate that although nonstandard shiftshavefeweffects,lackofschedulingcontrolhasstrongnegativeeffectsonsixoftheeightfam-ily and health outcomes. There is no evidence that control mediates the effects of scheduletimes, nor that these effects vary by gender or family status. Implications of these results arediscussed.

The macroeconomic context of job stress.

Using data from the 1973-1977 Quality of Employment Panel Study, we test a model that conceptually links research on macroeconomic causes of stress with research on job structure causes of stress among employed workers. Results from LISREL 7 (Jöreskog and Sörbom 1989) indicate that, while both macroeconomic and job structure variables have significant cross-sectional and longitudinal effects on stress, the macroeconomic effects are almost entirely indirect in their effect on job structures. In particular, higher occupational unemployment rates increased stress and lowered life satisfaction indirectly through reduced decision latitude and increased job demands. Overall, results suggest that macroeconomic changes, such as recessions, can affect individual stress because they lead to changes in routine job structures that represent increased and continued exposure to stressful conditions.

Recession and well-being.

In this paper we address two related questions: how much do economic recessions affect the aggregate well-being of a population, and by what means? Using data from the 1973-77 Quality of Employment Panel of full-time workers who experienced the 1974-75 recession (N = 830), we answer these questions by using an analytic procedure that allows us to determine the percentage of total aggregate (mean) change in well-being attributable to various changes in sociodemographic statuses, labor market positions, and job characteristics. Results from this procedure showed significant increases in the mean levels of distress and dissatisfaction for this sample and that the largest percentages of change were accounted for by changes in job characteristics: about 20 percent of the total change in distress and 47 percent of the total change for dissatisfaction. In particular, increased job demands and increasingly inadequate pay made substantial contributions, with the latter alone accounting for a quarter of the total change in dissatisfaction. Unemployment experiences also contributed substantial, but smaller, percentages to the change in distress (10 percent).

Work and Mental Health

Work1 is a central activity and a principal source of identity for most adults. As such, the relationship between work and mental and emotional well-being is of substantial interest. The effects of work on well-being, however, cannot be effectively understood simply by examining individual experiences in particular work settings. Rather, work-related wellbeing is linked to macroeconomic and labor market structures that define opportunities for employment (and probabilities for unemployment), to characteristics of jobs, to workers’ positions in other social stratification systems, and to the intersection of work roles and other major roles, especially marital and parental roles.

Network range in personal networks

Abstract This study used the social network data from the 1985 General Social Survey to replicate Campbell et al.s (1986) findings concerning the dimensions of network range and their relationship to socio-economic status (SES) variables. Despite differences in name generators and limitations on the number of named alters, the general factor structure found by Campbell et al. was reproduced. Relationships with SES variables also appear to be similar.

Informal systems of care for the chronically mentally ill.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure and functioning of informal caregiving systems of community-based chronically mentally ill individuals. From a sample of 409 family member reports, 150 caregiving systems are described in terms of size, composition and division of caregiving labor. Results show that these systems are about as large as those found for elder caregiving systems, that women and relatives predominate as caregivers, that there is considerable diversity in the types of caregivers and that size and composition are related to the division of labor observed in these systems.

Caregiver network structure, support and caregiver distress

Examined the relationship between the structure of caregiver personal networks, support, and perceived distress. It is argued that network structure should have little direct effect on distress but should have indirect effects via support. Data from 83 family caregivers to chronically mentally ill family members living at home in Summit County, Ohio, are used to test these assertions. The results provide mixed support for the general hypothesis. Most of the effects of network proportion of kin are indirect via support. Network size shows a similar pattern. The effects of network density on distress are mostly direct.

The Sociology of Work and Well-Being

Work is a central activity and a principal source of identity for most adults, but it is also a frequent source of distress. In this chapter, I show that job-related distress – or its opposite, well-being – might be best understood by considering the way that several economic and social structures affect exposure and vulnerability to work stressors. The state of the economy, the way workers are linked to jobs, the nature of those jobs, the structures of social inequality, and the intersection of work with other social institutions, especially the family, affect job conditions including those that make jobs stressful. These job-related economic and social structures routinely and normatively affect well-being and thus illustrate how social conditions account for psychological outcomes.

Work and Mental Health in Social Context

In this chapter, we summarize our sociological model for understanding the work–job stress relationship. Moreover, we want to show how this model makes contributions to the way we can understand the sociology of labor markets and economic attainment, the social determinants of health (health disparities), and the sociological stress process. We are interested in creating opportunities for sociologists and organizational psychologists who often study topics within narrow bounds to recognize the broader application of the knowledge they generate and the possibilities for informing the work of one another (Fenwick and Tausig 2007). We think we have shown that the sociological study of economic attainment is the study of health attainment and that the sociological study of health is the study of economic attainment.