title: Parents' daily time with their children: a workplace intervention.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In the context of a group randomized field trial, we evaluated whether parents who participated in a workplace intervention, designed to increase supervisor support for personal and family life and schedule control, reported significantly more daily time with their children at the 12-month follow-up compared with parents assigned to the Usual Practice group. We also tested whether the intervention effect was moderated by parent gender, child gender, or child age.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Support-Transform-Achieve-Results Intervention was delivered in an information technology division of a US Fortune 500 company. Participants included 93 parents (45% mothers) of a randomly selected focal child aged 9 to 17 years (49% daughters) who completed daily telephone diaries at baseline and 12 months after intervention. During evening telephone calls on 8 consecutive days, parents reported how much time they spent with their child that day.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parents in the intervention group exhibited a significant increase in parent-child shared time, 39 minutes per day on average, between baseline and the 12-month follow-up. By contrast, parents in the Usual Practice group averaged 24 fewer minutes with their child per day at the 12-month follow-up. Intervention effects were evident for mothers but not for fathers and for daughters but not sons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The hypothesis that the intervention would improve parents' daily time with their children was supported. Future studies should examine how redesigning work can change the quality of parent-child interactions and activities known to be important for youth health and development.
authors: Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, and kdavis@psu.edu.
authors: Kelly D
authors: KD
authors: Davis
authors: Department of Psychological Science, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana;
authors: Katie M
authors: KM
authors: Lawson
authors: Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania;
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Almeida
authors: Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; kdavis@psu.edu.
authors: Erin L
authors: EL
authors: Kelly
authors: Population Dynamics Branch, The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, Bethesda, Maryland;
authors: Rosalind B
authors: RB
authors: King
authors: Department of Psychology, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon;
authors: Leslie
authors: L
authors: Hammer
authors: Department of Sociology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California;
authors: Lynne M
authors: LM
authors: Casper
authors: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; and.
authors: Cassandra A
authors: CA
authors: Okechukwu
authors: Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon.
authors: Ginger
authors: G
authors: Hanson
authors: Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania;
authors: Susan M
authors: SM
authors: McHale
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D013997:Time Factors; D017132:Workplace
keywords: parent-child time; parental employment; work and family