The impact of long and unsocial hours on family life has been a focus of significant research in the high income world in the last 10-15 years. The Relationships Foundation has had a strong interest in this area for some while and has previously commissioned two studies with the National Centre for Social Research:
- Keep Time for Children: The incidence of weekend working (Barnes and Bryson, 2004) – which used Labour Force Survey data to investigate the extent of parental working at weekends.
- Working Atypical Hours: What happens to family life? (Barnes, Bryson and Smith, 2006). This work used data from the Time Use Survey to look at how parents and children used their time, with a particular focus on unsocial hours working.
The new report takes this research area considerably further. It is an international literature survey focusing on the impact of long and atypical hours on family life, particularly on couple relationships and the wellbeing of children.