Time or money: impact of parental employment on time that 4 to 5 year olds spend in language building activities

Early childhood is a critical time for establishing the communication and literacy skills that shape children’s subsequent academic, social and employment opportunities. Debates around the family environments that support children’s optimal development, have focused on mothers’ workforce participation, neglecting the effects fathers’ working hours, and socioeconomic differences. This study examined time use diary data collected for a large sample of Australian four to five year-old children. It considered the relationships between parental employment and the amount of daily time that children spent in language-related activities by income group. For low and middle income families the combined effect of fathers working long hours and mothers working, resulted in children spending significantly less time in language-related activities. In contrast, for high income families, parental employment hours had no impact on children’s time use. These findings suggest that for children at greatest risk of poor developmental outcomes, developmental opportunities may be enhanced by strategies that reduce levels of long work hours by fathers.