The researchers write that children suffer when their parents cannot decide the timing of their work, losing consistent daily routines and time with their parents, with both parties becoming more stressed. The study found that parents' unstable schedules are associated with an increase in behavioral problems for their children, school absences, sleep problems, and even worse health.
Last minute changes to a shift mean that parents can't ensure their kids get to school on time, for instance, and children sleep less due to the economic and psychological stressors that unstable schedule put on their homes. 41% of children whose parents had the greatest schedule instability did not get adequate sleep each night compared to the children of parents with stable and predictable schedules .
"Children thrive in contexts of stability and of warm and engaged parenting," Daniel Schneider, a Harvard sociologist who worked on the study with Kristen Harknett, a sociologist at UCSF, told Insider."Parental exposure to schedule instability and unpredictability undermines household economic security, increases parental stress, and wreaks havoc on the routines of childcare, meals, and bedtimes.
Service workers don't have stable schedules, and people of color have even less stability than their white counterparts