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Author: Joshi, Pamela Kumari
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Joshi, Pamela Kumari
Flexibility for Whom? The Effects of Nontraditional Work Arrangements on Parental Involvement with Children
Ph.D. Dissertation, Brandeis University, The Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare, 2001. DAI, 62, no. 05A
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Child Care; Family Studies; Modeling, Mixed Effects; Modeling, Multilevel; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Part-Time Work; Shift Workers; Welfare; Work Hours/Schedule

Working families lead incredibly complex lives with few options that allow parents to feel successful in their careers and at home. One proposed solution is nontraditional work, which includes part-time, part-year, flextime, flexplace, irregular shifts, temporary assignments and independent contracting. These work arrangements can introduce flexibility in hours, schedules, locations or work assignments that may increase parental time with children, or synchronize parents' work schedules with children's schedules. While many scholars advocate these work arrangements as beneficial, others raise questions about their flexibility, job quality, and accessibility for single parents.

This dissertation investigates the economic benefits and costs of available nontraditional work options and their effects on parental involvement with children. Using a sample of mothers and children between the ages of 10 and 14 from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth panel study for the years 1994 and 1996, this study tests cross-sectional and lagged models of the determinants of parenting.

The resulting descriptive analyses show that, with the exception of flextime, nontraditional work arrangements carry serious economic consequences. Multivariate models demonstrate that the only work arrangement that consistently increases parental involvement is mothers' part-time work, though positive effects partly depend on the presence of a spouse. On the other hand, fathers' part-time work has both positive and negative effects. "Family friendly" policies, such as flextime, do not significantly impact parenting, while flexplace produces mixed effects. Shift work, despite being a reasonable child care strategy, negatively affects parent-child relationships. Mothers' temporary work, if hired by a company directly, negatively influences time and activities with children, while temporary agency work and contracting have mixed effects.

Given the economic costs and the mixed effects on parenting, nontraditional work, in its current form, is a risky solution for parents. Reducing work time is a strategy that helps some parents who can afford the economic tradeoffs. Developing an effective solution for all workers will require workplaces and government policies to go beyond "family friendly" and rethink the organization of work and how working time can be altered to incorporate the dual needs of business and families.

Bibliography Citation
Joshi, Pamela Kumari. Flexibility for Whom? The Effects of Nontraditional Work Arrangements on Parental Involvement with Children. Ph.D. Dissertation, Brandeis University, The Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare, 2001. DAI, 62, no. 05A.
2. Joshi, Pamela Kumari
Mothers and Nonstandard Work: Effects on Children's Home Environments
Presented: San Francisco, CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, August 1998
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Bias Decomposition; Divorce; Family Formation; Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Labor Market Segmentation; Mothers; Part-Time Work; Unions; Work Hours/Schedule; Working Conditions

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Changing employer practices leading to the development & increasing use of new work arrangements, eg, temporary, part-time, contract, & on-call work, have been well documented. As mothers' labor force participation increases, both men & women are experiencing growing dissatisfaction with their ability to integrate their work & family lives. Some argue that nonstandard work arrangements help families by improving flexibility in schedules that allow parents more time to meet their children's needs. Others argue that nonstandard work arrangements are substandard jobs that may alleviate work & family conflicts, but to the detriment of mother's careers. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth mother-child sample for 1994 are used to estimate a model of children's home environments, showing that nonstandard work arrangement as a general category positively influences children's home environments, controlling for family & work characteristics. Individual categories of nonstandard work (temp agency, temp direct hire, contractor, consultant, involuntary part-time) are not significant predictors of children's home environments. Running the models separately by mothers' education shows that specific categories of nonstandard work also positively impact children's lives. It should be noted that these nonstandard work arrangements are significant only when wages, job tenure, & workplace benefits are held constant. Thus, nonstandard work arrangements by themselves will not improve children's home environments; a variety of other workplace policies need to be in place.
Bibliography Citation
Joshi, Pamela Kumari. "Mothers and Nonstandard Work: Effects on Children's Home Environments." Presented: San Francisco, CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, August 1998.