When parents have unstable work conditions, kids are more likely to visit the ER for asthma

Many working parents in the United States face challenging job conditions—they are paid low wages, given few benefits, and face unstable, unpredictable work schedules. Researchers have found that these conditions are harmful not just to workers, but to their families. 

Daniel Schneider, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, together with co-authors Kelly Quinn (Berkeley) and Katerine Perez (Columbia), recently published research in BMC Public Health that explored the link between parents’ unstable schedules and children’s asthma symptoms. 

Why did researchers explore asthma and unstable working conditions? 

Five million children in the United States have asthma, and a disproportionate number of them experience poverty. Parents play an important role in managing the condition, especially when children are very young and cannot recognize their own wheezing or easily use inhalers. Schneider and his co-authors explored the connection between parents having unstable work hours and children experiencing asthma symptoms. 

The researchers surveyed parents who do retail or service work—industries that represent 20% of the labor force, and which often have unpredictable scheduling. They focused on parents with children under 10 years old and asked about how often their children experienced symptoms of asthma, like wheezing, and how often those symptoms required emergency room attention. 

The researchers controlled for a number of factors, like parents’ age, race, ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, marital status, and household income, as well as whether they were a manager or union member. They also controlled for the age, gender, and number or children in a given household. 

Are parents’ unstable work hours linked to children’s asthma symptoms? 

Schneider and his co-authors found that when parents must work unstable and unpredictable hours, it heightens the likelihood that their child will have to go to the ER for asthma or wheezing, and how often they have to go. The researchers also found an association (though a more modest one) between parents having an unstable schedule and their children having episodes of wheezing at all. 

The researchers found that the stress of an unpredictable work schedule may make it hard for parents to control their children’s asthma symptoms; when parents’ own well-being is under threat due to their work conditions, it’s harder to support the well-being of their children. 

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