Mothers' Work Schedule Inflexibility and Children's Behavior Problems.

Flexibility in work schedules is key to helping parents with young children balance work and caregiving responsibilities. Prior research shows that work schedule inflexibility is associated with greater parenting stress and work-family conflict. Through these negative implications for parental wellbeing, work schedule inflexibility may also adversely influence children's socioemotional development.

Nonstandard Work Schedules and Father Involvement Among Resident and Nonresident Fathers.

Objective: We examined associations between resident and nonresident fathers' nonstandard work schedules, work hours, and their level of involvement with their young children in the United States.

Background: Nonstandard work schedules may negatively impact father involvement either directly by reducing fathers' availability or indirectly by taking a toll on their wellbeing. Prior research on nonstandard schedules and father involvement has focused on two-parent households, yet nonstandard schedules may pose similar or greater challenges to nonresident fathers.

Child-Care Instability and Behavior Problems: Does Parenting Stress Mediate the Relationship?

Child care instability is associated with more behavior problems in young children, but the mechanisms of this relationship are not well understood. Theoretically, this relationship is likely to emerge, at least in part, because care instability leads to increased parenting stress. Moreover, low socioeconomic status and single-mother families may be more vulnerable to the effects of instability.

Unstable and Multiple Child Care Arrangements and Young Children's Behavior.

Growing evidence suggests that child care instability is associated with child behavior problems, but existing studies confound different types of instability; use small, convenience samples; and/or control insufficiently for selection into child care arrangements. This study uses survey and calendar data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to estimate the associations between three different types of child care instability-long-term instability, multiplicity, and the use of back-up arrangements-and children's internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behaviors at age 3, controlling for a large number of child and family background characteristics. Long-term instability between birth and age 3, as measured in both the survey and calendar data, is associated with higher levels of externalizing behavior problems.