Paid work is central to both people’s lives and how society functions. While it generally has positive effects for individuals in terms of their economic and social resources and their health and wellbeing, not all employment is equal; and not all workers in the workplace are equally free (or unconstrained) to reap the benefits from being employed. The focus of the current thesis draws together a specific employment condition (shift work) and a specific constrained population of workers (parents), to examine how parents’ wellbeing might be affected by working non-standard hours. The overarching goal of the research studies in this thesis is to clarify to what extent shift work impacts parental wellbeing, focusing on the challenges shift work might bring to successfully negotiating both work and family responsibilities.

The current thesis uses data from general population samples, to examine the association between shift work and parental wellbeing (e.g. psychological distress, work-family conflict and relationship quality), on a national level. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal methodological designs have been adopted in the research. The thesis uses cross-sectional data to examine the concurrent association between different types of shift work schedules and mental health, and whether this association might be mediated by work-family conflict (study 1). Longitudinal data are then used to explore more causative research questions including the extent to which changes in shift work schedules are associated with changes in parental wellbeing over time (study 2), and the extent to which health selection might play a role in any association – i.e. how changes in parental wellbeing might lead to transitions into and out of shift work over time (study 3). By testing the causal associations in different directions, the research aims to gain insight into the casual relationship between shift work and parental wellbeing.

The findings of this research thesis highlight the complex interplay between shift work and the wellbeing indicators examined, and the differences between genders. In general, there is evidence to suggest that shift work has a detrimental effect on parental wellbeing, but the effect varies across types of work schedules, different wellbeing indicators, and between mothers and fathers.

About Yixuan

Yixuan commenced her PhD in 2016 here at the Research School of Population Health, the Australian National University. Prior to undertaking her PhD, Yixuan completed a Bachelor of Science (Psychology) and a Master of Applied Psychology in universities in China (Fujian Normal University and Tianjin Normal University). Combining her experience of working as a research assistant on research projects related to aged workers’ mental health, and practical experience working in a human resources department, she developed an interest in studying the workplace determinants of mental health. Her PhD research is focused on shift work –more specifically, how shift working parents balance their work and family responsibilities and how this relates to their mental health and wellbeing.