High stress levels among workers with children

Almost half of all Danish families with children find their working life stressful, while one in four families think the same about their family life. In particular, parents’ weekly working hours and working schedule have crucial implications for the way Danish families reconcile work and family life, according to a recent study by the Danish National Research Institute and the government’s Family and Working Life Commission.

Stressful working life

Danish parents often struggle to combine work with childcare responsibilities. Almost half of all Danish families with children suffer from stress, and one in five families are both stressed and unhappy about their current work arrangements. These are the results of a new study by the Danish National Research Institute (Socialforskningsinstituttet, SFI) and the government’s Commission for Family and Working Life (Familie- og Arbejdslivskommissionen). One of the Commission’s Senior Research Associates, Mette Deding, presented the preliminary research findings (in Danish, MS PowerPoint file) of this study on the work-life balance of Danish families with children at a conference organised by the Commission for Family and Working Life.

Ms Deding reported that the organisation of working hours rather than parents’ family life has a crucial impact on their experience of stress and perception of their work–life balance. Long working hours often cause stress and dissatisfaction among Danish families with children. As many as 31% of Danish mothers and 18% of Danish fathers said they wished to reduce their weekly working hours. Moreover, parents – particularly fathers – whose employer was able to change their daily working hours with short notice were also more likely to be dissatisfied with their current job situation. However, irregular working hours have, generally speaking, a limited impact on Danish parents’ stress levels and perception of their work arrangement.

Flexible working hours and working from home

The study also shows that Danish families’ ability to organise their weekly working hours has a positive effect on their work–life balance. Parents with flexible working hours are often satisfied with their current work and care arrangement. Likewise, the possibility to work from home when necessary also increases the likelihood of parents being satisfied with their current job situation. Indeed, parents who are able to work from home several hours a week are more often satisfied with their working life than families without such an option.

Although flexible working hours and the ability to work from home have a positive impact on Danish parents’ perception of their work–life balance, many families continue to find it difficult to juggle work and childcare responsibilities. Fathers in particular suffered from high stress levels even when they were able to work from home and had flexible working hours. The high stress level among fathers is, according to Ms Deding, due to the fact that many fathers often work overtime when they work from home.

Educational and sectoral influences

Working hours are not the only factors influencing parents’ work–life balance. Educational attainment also affects parents’ perception of their work and care arrangement. Low-skilled fathers are often less stressed and more satisfied with their current work–life balance than men with high educational qualifications. Likewise, highly educated mothers often find it difficult to balance paid work with care, while less educated mothers often report that they are happy with their current situation.

Working within the public sector has hardly any effect on parents’ perception of their work and care arrangement. Almost the same proportion of parents employed in the public or private sectors indicated that they felt stressed and unhappy about their current work situation, according to the study.

Reaction from the social partners

The social partners have expressed mixed views to the study on Danish families’ work–life balance. The Confederation of Danish Employers (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) criticised the study for mainly concentrating on those families finding it difficult to balance work and childcare responsibilities. Hardly anything is mentioned about the large proportion of Danish families who are satisfied with their current situation. Indeed, DA called for a more nuanced perspective on parent’s work–life balance, which would include factors such as childcare infrastructure, transport issues and other welfare related aspects.

The Confederation of Salaried Employees and Civil Servants in Denmark (Funktionærernes og Tjenestemændenes Fællesråd, FTF) calls for action to address the problems that families face when trying to reconcile work and family life. It argues that work–life balance problems are a social rather than an individual problem, which society as a whole needs to address. In a recent study (in Danish, 1Mb PDF) by FTF on work–life balance, the confederation concluded that families’ working life is the main cause for stress among their members, including those without childcare responsibilities. Accordingly, FTF has proposed a series of recommendations to ease families’ work–life balance, including the following measures:

• family-friendly policies in every workplace;

• guidelines for handling work-related stress;

• policies for older workers;

• flexible opening hours within the day-care system.

The Danish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO) has not yet published a response to the study by SFI and the Commission for Family and Working Life.

Commentary

Work–life balance problems are not only a Danish phenomenon. Families across Europe often struggle to combine paid work with care duties. A recent European project, SOCCARE, showed that Portuguese, Finnish, Italian, French and British families with children often feel stressed, tied down and guilty for not spending enough time with their partner and children due to the demands of paid work and care.

In contrast to the Danish study by SFI and the Commission for Families and Working Life, the SOCCARE project also looked at families caring for a dependent older person. This group of carers often found it more difficult to balance work with care demands than did working parents, due to the lack of available care services and workplace policies. The Danish study only concentrates on families with children, more specifically dual-earners, rather than lone parents, carers for older people and families providing care for children and an older person. These groups of families often find it even more difficult to balance work and care than dual-earners do.

In addition, much contemporary research also shows that parents’ working hours is only one among several factors affecting parents’ perception of their work–life balance. Earnings, educational attainment, the age and number of the children, gender roles, attitudes towards paid work and care as well as welfare services, particularly the national childcare infrastructure, also have crucial implications for the way many parents reconcile work and family life.

Further information

For more information at European level, see the EWCO topic report, Combining family and full-time work (TN0510TR02).

Trine Larsen, FAOS, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen