Were Parents Synchronizing Their Home-Based Working Arrangements During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Ilyar Heydari Barardehi () and Anna Kurowska ()
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Ilyar Heydari Barardehi: University of Warsaw
Anna Kurowska: University of Warsaw

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2024, vol. 173, issue 3, No 2, 569-588

Abstract: Abstract Little research has been done on parents’ coordination of their work arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Synchronized work arrangements (e.g., both parents work from home) could enable working parents to maximize their togetherness, whereas desynchronized working arrangements could enable them to address some pandemic-induced challenges, such as an increased need for child care and distance education. We draw upon the Familydemic Harmonized Dataset a cross-county study offering data on work and family outcomes collected in Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the US. Using a sample of dual-earner heterosexual parents, this study examines whether working parents harmonized their transitions between home-based work and the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores factors that potentially contributed to this coordination process. The findings reveal that working couples’ transitions to home-based work from the workplace were synchronized. Parents with similar educational attainment were more likely to experience such coordination than couples with different levels of education. Cohabiting couples in married/registered unions were more likely to transition to home-based work simultaneously than non-registered cohabiting couples. The duration of synchronized home-based work episodes decreased with the number of children, and the length of synchronized workplace attendance increased with the age of the children.

Keywords: Dual earners; COVID-19; Synchronization; Working arrangement; Work from home (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-024-03360-5

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