Parental Work Characteristics and Children’s Insufficient Sleep

Insufficient sleep for children is an understudied risk factor for health issues and poor educational outcomes. We argue that research has paid scant attention to upstream factors, such as parental employment, that may impact family processes and children’s sleep outcomes. This study examines how parental work characteristics, including both mothers’ and fathers’ work hours per week and occupation type, associate with children’s insufficient sleep among a national sample of dual-earning couples and their fifth grade children in the ECLS-K:2010–2011 kindergarten cohort (n = 4000). We use logistic regression models to predict insufficient sleep (less than 9 h of sleep per night) after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics related to child sleep. Among our sample, a substantial portion of fifth graders, 32%, had insufficient sleep. We also find that both parents’ work characteristics mattered for children’s insufficient sleep but in different ways. The risk of insufficient sleep for children was higher when mothers (but not fathers) worked 35 h or more per week, net of paternal work hours and covariates. We found a similar pattern using a combined measure of mother–father work hours. Additionally, the risk of insufficient sleep for children was higher when fathers worked in construction and production occupations. Our findings contribute to research on the social determinants of sleep and demonstrate the importance of considering parental work characteristics for children’s sleep outcomes.