New Occasional Paper released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies – No. 48 Parental joblessness, financial disadvantage and the wellbeing of parents and children
This report uses data from the first four waves of data from the longitudinal study of australian Children (lsaC) to analyse the links between joblessness/short part-time hours of employment and the wellbeing of parents and their children.
Key findings include:
- Families working short part-time hours had a socioeconomic status somewhere between that of jobless families and those working full-time/long part-time hours.
- Single-parent families had on average lower levels of educational attainment and were less likely to come from a non–english speaking background than couple-parent families.
- A strong relationship between parental employment and financial wellbeing.
- The biggest reduction in hardship came from families moving from part-time employment into full-time employment.
- Strong social capital is increasingly recognised as an important indicator of wellbeing in the context of socioeconomic advantage or disadvantage.
- Parents working part-time experienced higher levels of psychological distress than those working full-time.
- Moving into and out of single parenthood affected mental health levels.
- Children living in a jobless family had poorer cognitive and social–emotional outcomes compared to children in families working full-time/long part-time hours.
To read the paper, click here.