Working Nonstandard Schedules and Variable Shifts in Low-Income Families: Associations With Parental Psychological Well-Being, Family Functioning

Longitudinal data from the New Hope Project—an experimental evaluation of a work-based antipoverty program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—was used to explore concurrent and lagged associations of non-standard schedules and variable shifts with parental psychological well-being, regularity of family mealtimes, and child well-being among low-income families. Working a combination of variable shifts and nonstandard hours was associated concurrently with lower teacher-reported school performance and engagement and higher levels of externalizing behavior problems. Fixed nonstandard schedules were associated with lagged decreases in parent-reported school performance, whereas working variable shifts was associated with lagged increases in parent-reported school performance