Children’s healthy development comes with intensive parental commitment of time and energy. Juggling a job with parenthood is challenging. Yet, the rise of precarious employment has imposed further challenges on working parents. The economic aspect of precarity has been extensively investigated, however, the temporal aspect has received limited attention. This study aims to understand the implications of parents working precarious schedules on children's development. Semi-structured interviews were carried out among 15 children aged between 10 and 15 years from Greater Bay cities in mainland China. A reflexive thematic analysis was performed in search of overarching patterns within the data.

Four themes were identified from the analysis, each with four sub-themes. The first theme was constructed as invasion of work into family life with four sub-themes: (a) blurring boundary between workplace and home, (b) parents' anger outburst, (c) distracted parenting, and (d) disrupted family time. The second theme was referred to as deprivation of bonding opportunities with the following sub-themes: (a) parent burnout after work, (b) diminished family routines, (c) communication breakdown, and (d) dismissal of children's emotional needs. The third theme was identified as remote parenting via ICT, with the following sub-themes: (a) monitoring using home camera systems, (b) communication through virtual platforms, (c) online homework help, and (d) control over access to digital devices. The final theme was formulated as children's adjustments, with the following sub-themes: (a) craving for parents' company, (b) understanding of parents' work obligations, (c) undertaking domestic duties, and (d) social withdrawal from parents.

Authors:
Si Man Lam, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Si Man Lam is a University Doctoral Student at The University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

Bookmark