The work-family interface is in constant flux and faced with numerous future challenges. Yet much work-family scholarship problematizes current work-family issues or analyses past experiences with little detailed consideration of the risks and opportunities individuals are likely to encounter in the future. This perspective is needed to challenge and extend current work-family scholarship to how external developments are likely to affect the ways in which workers will combine work and family life in the future. We contribute to extant work-family scholarship by exploring this future work-family perspective in 2040. We do this by considering crucial demographic, technological and climate developments and relating these developments to potential future work-family scenarios. Respondents participating in a scenario workshop were asked to consider: What might work-family futures look like depending upon societies' orientation to 'more' or 'enough' in life against the extent of individualism versus social solidarity? We study the feasibility of the resulting work-family scenarios and consider potential work-family policy responses that make certain scenarios more or less possible. We argue that "future proof" policy needs to address (i) work-family policy accessibility; (ii) policy fragmentation; and (iii) the increasing complexity of work-family demands. We conclude with a research agenda on what is needed to translate future visions into effective support for optimally combining work and family life in the future.

Research on cooperation and care has largely overlooked the informal care for adults.Informal care is the care for those who experience (mental or physical) health issues.In this contribution we aim to explain the provision of informal care from a transaction cost approach.We do so by investigating the role of coordination problems and trust problems in the supply of informal care from the perspective of the care giver.We also investigate the role of the social embeddedness of the relationship between the care giver and receiver.Using information from 7,166 care givers and non-care givers collected by the Dutch Institute for Social Research and the Central Bureau of Statistics, multivariate analyses are used to test our hypotheses.Results show that less hours of informal care are provided when the complexity of needs is higher.However, unexpectedly, those with more general skills spend less rather than more time of informal care.Our results also suggest that care givers prefer to give informal care to the ones they know and have a close relationship with.Although the findings are mixed, we conclude that informal care provided by the care giver can be viewed upon as a transaction, and give suggestions for further research.

ObjectiveTo examine the association between child mental health and (a) the amount of parent–child interaction and (b) the amount of interference in that interaction due to paid work.BackgroundAlthough some research findings suggest children do not always benefit from being with their parents full‐time, other studies suggest it is important for children to have their parents' undivided attention.MethodAnalyses are based on the 2013 New Families in the Netherlands dataset (639 fathers and 849 mothers of school‐aged children). Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we analyzed how child well‐being varied with the frequency of parent–child activities and the amount of interference due to paid work.ResultsChildren demonstrated better mental health when the frequency of father–child activities was higher and the amount of interference due to work was lower. We found no effects for mothers. Moreover, the association between the frequency of parent–child activities and child mental health was not moderated by the amount of interference due to paid work (neither for fathers nor mothers).ConclusionThe findings suggest that children attach great importance to the psychological availability of their fathers. We speculate that children respond more strongly to their fathers because their attention and involvement is less taken for granted than that of mothers.ImplicationsGiven the intrusive nature of smartphones and laptops in daily life, it is crucial that parents, employers, and family life educators understand how distractions during parent–child time due to paid work can affect children. With this knowledge, strategies to minimize unintended detrimental consequences for children can be developed.

De publicatie Een week in kaart uit 2017 is enigszins aangepast. Door de publicatie aan te passen sluit deze beter aan op het onderzoek naar tijdsbesteding Alle ballen in de lucht, dat eind 2018 verscheen. Het gaat dan om aanpassingen zoals de indeling van de activiteiten waaraan mensen hun tijd besteden en de indeling in verschillende levensfasen. De cijfers wijken daarmee enigszins af van de vorige versie; de conclusies en inzichten zijn niet veranderd. Over de publicatie In Een week in kaart staat het Tijdsbestedingsonderzoek (TBO) uit 2016 centraal: bijna 1900 Nederlanders hielden gedurende een week in een dagboek hun activiteiten bij. Op basis van deze gegevens schetsten de onderzoekers de tijdsbesteding van Nederlanders in het algemeen, voor verschillende groepen en levensfasen en ontwikkelingen in het afgelopen decennium. Een week in kaart is een digitale publicatie (‘card stack’), opgebouwd uit diverse op zichzelf staande kaarten die steeds een aspect van onze tijdsbesteding beschrijven.

Considerable work-family research has investigated the gendered division of work and care. Gender differences in leisure time have received much less attention from work-family scholars, despite the potential importance of such inequalities for women's quality of life. Combining key insights from the substantial gendered leisure studies literature with work-family scholarship, the current study examines cross-national variation in gender differences in leisure quality. Using data on 23 countries from the 2007 International Social Survey Program, we expected that women's leisure quality would be lower than men's, but the gender gap would be smaller in countries with more gender egalitarian attitudes and divisions of care (via de-familialisation and paternity leave) and where women have more bargaining power. Our results show that these country characteristics moderate the association between gender and the extent to which free time is used to relax and recover. In countries with conservative gender norms, low levels of childcare coverage, limited paternity leave and lower political power for women, women's leisure quality is lower than men's. In more egalitarian countries, the gender gap in leisure quality is lower and in some cases, reversed. These results are in line with findings from cross-national research on the gendered division of labor and offer an important contribution to understanding gender differences in leisure quality across countries.

Abstract:The reduction of working hours can help avoid work–family conflict, yet many people who would like to scale back do not actually do so. This vignette-experiment examines which considerations are most important in men and women's decision-making whether to scale back following childbirth. About 2,464 vignettes were conducted in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Results indicate that men find the income of their partner and career consequences most important, while women focus mainly on partner income and collegial support. Swedes, however, differ from their Dutch and British counterparts, and express more counter-gender-normative behavior.

Original title: op kinderopvang The Kijk op kinderopvang (A look at childcare. How parents think about the affordability, accessibility and quality of childcare) study explores parents’ perspectives on formal child care, their experiences and the decisions with regard to paid work and care. What are their views on the affordability, the accessibility, and the quality of childcare? And how do their perceptions and experiences relate to the ways in which parents combine work and childcare? The report is based on population statistics and newly collected data on more than 1,800 parents of babies and toddlers. The study was conducted by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (known by its Dutch initials: SCP) at the request of the Childcare Directorate within the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. The collection of data for the survey has been financed by the Childcare Directorate.

Als elektronische publicatie verkrijgbaar; niet in druk. Het onderzoek Kijk op brengt in kaart hoe ouders van nu over de kinderopvang denken, wat hun ervaringen zijn en welke keuzes zij maken. Hoe denken zij over de betaalbaarheid, toegankelijkheid en kwaliteit van kinderopvang? En hoe hangen hun denkbeelden en ervaringen samen met de manier waarop zij arbeid en zorg combineren? Het rapport baseert zich op informatie over recente ontwikkelingen in de kinderopvang en een vragenlijstonderzoek onder ruim 1.800 ouders van baby's en kleuters. Het Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau heeft dit onderzoek verricht op verzoek van de directie Kinderopvang van het ministerie van SZW. De dataverzameling is gefinancierd door de directie kinderopvang.

Continuity and change in Dutch family life. Family types, maternal employment and parent-child time This article analyses continuity and change in family life in the Netherlands over the last decades. The authors consider three characteristics of families: (1) family types, (2) maternal employment, and (3) parent-child time. Analyses are based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Dutch Time Use Study. The results indicate that there is both continuity and change. Although two married individuals giving care to their children is still the most common family type, alternative family forms have become more popular, including unmarried cohabiting parents and single-parent families. Furthermore, the division of labor is still strongly gendered: Dutch mothers’ participation on the labor market is limited and they still hold the main responsibility for children. Moreover, children are still most likely to grow up in a household with both a father and mother. There are also indicators of change. Maternal employment is much more prevalent than in the 1970s and fathers’ involvement with children increases.

This study contributes to our knowledge on the association between parenthood and psychological well-being by examining whether pre-parenthood lifestyles (leisure and paid work) moderate the transition to parenthood. We expected that people with less active lifestyles would find it easier to adapt to the demands of parenthood. Using eleven waves of the Swiss Household Panel (N = 1332 men and 1272 women; 1999-2008, 2010), fixed effects models are estimated for men and women separately. Results show that-on average-parenthood was not associated with well-being for men, whereas it increased well-being for women. As expected, the well-being premium/cost to parenthood was contingent upon individuals' lifestyle before the transition to parenthood. For men, parenthood reduced well-being, but only if they frequently participated in leisure before the birth of the child. For women, motherhood had a beneficial effect on well-being but this effect was weaker for women who combined leisure with working long hours before motherhood.

This study examined the association between parental work schedules and non-parental childcare arrangements among dual-earner families in Finland, the Netherlands and the UK. Data from the 'Families 24/ 7' web survey were used, including 937 parents with children aged 0-12 years. Results showed a negative association between non-standard work and formal childcare across all countries. A similar association was found for using a combination of formal and informal childcare, whereas solely using informal childcare was not associated with work characteristics. Country differences showed that, compared with Finland, the probability of using formal childcare was lower in the Netherlands, whereas the probability of using informal childcare was higher in the UK. Interaction effects showed that the negative association between non-standard work and formal childcare was stronger in the Netherlands, compared with Finland. Also, the positive association between working hours and formal childcare was weaker for Dutch and British parents. This study identified the challenges that parents face when arranging childcare outside of office hours. Although the supply of formal childcare seems to be insufficient, using informal childcare introduces other potential problems. Because a considerable proportion of employees work non-standard hours, governments should help these parents in meeting their need for high quality childcare.

This study used data from the 'Well Being Module' of the 2010 American Time Use Survey (N = 1699) to analyze how parents experience child care time in terms of meaning and stress levels. Multivariate multilevel regressions showed clear differences by gender and the circumstances of child care activities. Mothers experienced child care time as more stressful than fathers, and fathers as slightly more meaningful. Interactive child care was experienced as more meaningful and less stressful than routine child care, whereas these differences were stronger among fathers than among mothers. Mothers experienced child care with a minor child as highly meaningful, and with an adolescent as particularly stressful. Fathers experienced child care with an infant as highly stressful, and with an offspring in middle childhood as disproportionally meaningful. The spouse's presence was moderately associated with higher senses of meaning and lower levels of stress during child care, but these differences were modest, and only visible among fathers. Paid work hours increased mothers' stress levels during child care activities, but reduced fathers' stress levels. Meanwhile, nonemployed fathers reported child care time as less meaningful than non-employed mothers. Overall, this study has important scientific and practical implications for `understanding the gendered nature of parents' child care time and well-being.

Alleen als pdf te downloaden van de SCP-site; niet verkrijgbaar in gedrukte versie. De overheid streeft naar een kinderopvangsysteem dat toegankelijk is voor iedereen. Er wordt echter ook geconstateerd dat de deelname aan kinderopvang onder lage inkomens verder terugloopt. Dit onderzoek bestudeert de achtergronden van dit beperkte gebruik. Willen of kunnen ouders met lagere inkomens geen gebruik maken van kinderopvang? Hoe is hun eigen bijdrage aan opvang de laatste jaren ontwikkeld? En welke opvattingen over de betaalbaarheid en kwaliteit van opvang hebben zij? In het onderzoek wordt dus niet alleen naar de kosten van opvang gekeken; ook opvattingen en alternatieven van ouders komen aan bod.

Busyness on the eve of the participation society. Social differences and trends in total time spent on paid and unpaid work in the Netherlands. Busyness on the eve of the participation society. Social differences and trends in total time spent on paid and unpaid work in the Netherlands. The Dutch government asks citizens to be involved in multiple domains in society, such as the labor market, in the care for others and in voluntary work. This often has to be combined with domestic labor and the care for children. In this study, we look at social differences and trends in the 'total workload', the sum of paid and unpaid work, including informal care for others and volunteering. Based on multivariate OLS models on the Dutch Time Use Surveys (1980-2011) we find that men have a higher total workload than women, especially in families with young children. The gap between men and women has increased since 1980. Moreover, we find that the highly educated have a higher workload than the lower educated since 1990-1995, whereas this was the other way around in the 80's.

This study examines the association between parental working times and parent-child time. We not only distinguish between parents’ working hours and working schedules but also between parent-child time in the afternoon and evening. The hypotheses center on the role of the availability of children and parents. Our analyses are based on 694 parents with young children from the Dutch Time Use Survey of 2006 and 2011. Results show that parent-child time in the afternoon is associated with parents’ working hours, whereas time spent with children in the evening is correlated with working schedules. We provide multiple recommendations for future research, such as a distinction between week and weekend days and a focus on the quality of the time parents and children spend together.

Various aspects of parental work schedules affect the opportunities and constraints that parents encounter when arranging care for their children. This study examined the extent to which the combination of couples’ work schedules was associated with their use of different types of child care, focusing on parental, formal, and informal child care. We considered multiple dimensions of couples’ work schedules, namely, the timing of work, schedule flexibility, and home-based telework. Data from a recent Dutch survey were used, including information about 1599 dual-earner couples with children aged 0–6 years. The results indicated that paid work during nonstandard hours increased the amount of parental child care that was provided by one parent while the other parent was working, whereas work during evenings, nights, and weekends decreased the likelihood of using both formal and informal child care. Results further revealed gender differences for nonstandard hours and schedule flexibility. We found stronger effects of mothers’ work schedules, indicating that a gender-neutral approach to parental work is not justified. These results indicate that the timing of parental work is important to consider when examining not only parental child care but also formal and informal child-care use. We provide recommendations for future research, specifically regarding the possible consequences for parental well-being.

The current study analysed trends in the time spent preparing and consuming food and the frequency of outsourcing (going out for dinner and take-out) in the Netherlands from 1975 to 2005. We investigated differences between trends on week and weekend days and for different socio-demographic groups. Analyses using pooled data from the Dutch Time Use Survey (N=13,421) revealed a downward trend in minutes preparing and consuming food and an increase in outsourcing. This overall downward trend could not be accounted for by controlling for structural changes (e.g. increased labour force participation). Moreover, we found that the decrease in time was stronger for days during the week than during the weekend. And we found that the trends differed by household type and sex: e.g. for food preparation there is an overall decrease, except for men with a partner; they showed an increase in time spent preparing food.

Whereas prior research focused on the beneficial effects of time spent with others, this study investigated the association between solitary time and mental health by hypothesizing about the possible detriments as well as benefits. Additionally, we studied whether the association between solitary time and mental health was nonlinear and moderated by gender and life stage. We hypothesized that whereas solitary time limits individuals' access to social resources and support (decreasing mental health), it also helps individuals to recharge (enhancing mental health). We used the Dutch Time Use Survey from 2006 (N = 1,487). Results of Tobit models indicated that more solitary time in leisure (but not household labor) was associated with a reduction in mental health. For men, we did find a negative association between alone time in household labor and mental health. There was no evidence for a curvilinear relationship between time alone and mental health, nor did life course stage appeared to moderate this association.