Asian Scientist (Aug. 26, 2013) – Researchers studying a population of 1,400 children in Western Australia have found that fathers’ extremely long working hours can be detrimental to their sons’ well-being.
The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, found that around 19 percent of Western Australian fathers work 55 or more hours per week when their children are 5 years of age. This figure increased to almost 20 percent when their children are 8 years old.
According to the researchers, boys whose fathers worked 55 or more hours per week later exhibited more delinquent and aggressive behaviors than boys whose fathers worked fewer hours.
Their fathers’ long work hours did not appear to affect girls’ behaviors and their mothers’ work hours did not seem to matter as well. However, few Australian mothers worked long hours and therefore the researchers believe no firm conclusions can be drawn from this comparison.
The article can be found at: Johnson et al. (2013) Mothers’ And Fathers’ Work Hours, Child Gender And Behavior in Middle Childhood.
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Source: WZB; Photo: AngelsWings/Flickr/CC.
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