"I raised my kids on the bus" Transit shift workers' coping strategies for parenting

"I raised my kids on the bus"

Transit shift workers' coping strategies for parenting

Grosswald

Blanche

Grosswald, Blanche

Author

University of California, Berkeley

Center for Working Families

University of California, Berkeley. Center for Working Families

Sponsor

text

working paper

Berkeley, CA Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley 1999 1999 monographic

Berkeley, CA

Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley

1999

monographic

English eng

English

eng

electronic application/pdf 26 p. born digital

electronic

application/pdf

26 p.

born digital

The study investigated the coping strategies for parenting of transit shift workers, an urban, blue-collar, primarily ethnic minority population. It involved a qualitative, grounded theory approach, using individual interviews with 30 San Francisco bus drivers.

The principal aspect of the job impacting transit workers in their relationships with their children was the lack of time they had to spend together. Coping strategies for care fell into categories of physical maintenance and expressions of caring. Physical maintenance included taking children on the bus, working shifts complementary to those of spouses, leaving children with extended family, using siblings as surrogate parents, placing children in formal child care, and leaving children home alone. Expressions of caring involved job timing, contact while at work, material gifts, job pride, role models, and separation of work from family.

Research and policy implications follow. Regarding research, shift work cannot simply be grouped as one composite. Shift-working doctors and nurses may not formulate the same parental caring strategies as bus drivers. One policy suggestion is for shorter shifts: 6 hours per day rather than the current 12 hours per day average.

Blanche Grosswald is a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Working Families and a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper No. 10

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper

No. 10

Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States" (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/)

wfn_bwpaper_23.pdf

MChB English eng

MChB

English eng

English

eng