Family and Work: The Family's Perspective

2 Methodology

2.1 Sample Description
2.2 Family Structure and Employment Patterns
2.3 Ages of Children
2.4 Education and Occupation
2.5 Income
2.6 Interview schedules

2.1 Sample Description

The project was conducted in Melbourne.

Every effort was made within the short timeframe available to make the sample as diverse as possible. To this end, participants were recruited through a range of organisations:

• primary and secondary schools in inner, northern, and eastern Melbourne
• workplaces, including a state government department, a large city legal firm, and two large public hospitals
• the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union; and the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Workers' Union
• a community legal service

All families participating were encouraged to invite any friends or acquaintances to take part in the study. In this way a non-random sample of 47 families was recruited. From those 47 families 69 parents and 71 children were interviewed. In most cases both parents agreed to take part in the study. In most cases any children aged over 8 in the family took part in the study. While some of the families in the sample had younger children, the research focuses necessarily on the experience of family life for children aged from the middle primary school years to adulthood.

Families were paid $50 for their participation.

Despite the breadth of the final sample, research such as this does not claim to representatively sample from the population.

2.2 Family Structure and Employment Patterns

In order to allow an accurate description of the sample, all participants were asked to complete a "Participants' Questionnaire" (Appendix B).

There were 18 single parent families, and 29 two-parent families. Of the single-parent families, 8 of the parents were in full-time employment, 7 were in part-time employment and 3 had no regular paid work. Of the two-parent families, 8 were families with both parents in full-time work, 16 had one parent in full-time work and the other in part-time work. In the remaining families, both parents worked part-time, or one had no regular paid employment. These classifications represent the families' current employment patterns. In reality, most of the families have had different work patterns across the lives of the children, so current patterns of employment do not necessarily reflect the children's experiences for their whole lives, or even the greater part of their lives.

Table 1: Family structure, employment patterns and ages of children

Family structure	Single Parent			Two-parent
Parents' Employment Status	F/T	P/T	NW	2 x F/T	1 x F/T 1 x P/T	Both P/T	1 x NW 1 x F/T or P/T
Number of families	8	7	3	8	16	2	3
Children's age group
Primary	5	8	2	9	14	2	1
Secondary	7		2	4	9	1	4
Post-secondary	1	1	1	1

Part-time work as defined by the respondents ranged from 5 hours per week to a 5-day fortnight, through to a 30 hour week and 9-day fortnight.
Full-time – as defined by respondent.
Two-parent families with one parent in no regular paid employment – other parent's employment status: 2xF/T, 1xP/T).
NW = No regular work

Most of the parents interviewed in the study were born in Australia (n= 55), with the remaining 14 born in South Africa, Italy, Fiji, England, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Egypt, Uganda, Vietnam and the Philippines. Only one interview was conducted with the assistance of an interpreter.

2.3 Ages of Children

Parents ranged in age from 31 to 58, while children interviewed ranged in age from 8 to 21. 40 of the children were male, 31 were female.

Table 2: Age and Gender Distribution of Children Interviewed

Age	Male	Female
8	4	6
9	2	1
10	9	5
11	8	5
12	2	6
13	2
14	2	2
15	4	1
16	3	1
17	2	1
18		1
19		1
20	2
21		1

2.4 Education and Occupation

The educational background and range of occupations of parents reflected the breadth of the sampling procedure. While half the sample had either degree or post-graduate qualifications, 16 parents had completed Year 12 or lower, and 14 had trade, certificate or diploma qualifications.

Table 3: Highest Level of Educational Qualification of Parents interviewed

Education	Number of parents
Year 10	3
Year 11	2
Year 12	11
Trade/Apprentice	2
Certificate	8
Diploma	4
Degree	18
Post-graduate	19
Not given	2

The range of occupations of parents was similarly broad, including professional work such as social work, teaching, social science; and accountancy; para-professional work, such as nursing and child care; trades and apprenticeships, such as carpentry and cooking; admin work clerks such as secretaries, receptionists, office administration workers; labourers; and machinists and drivers.

2.5 Income

Just under half of the sample (22 of 47) had a family income of over $52,000 per year. The remaining families were earning less than $52,000 a year, with 6 families earning below $16,000 per year. Parents were also asked about how they felt they were managing financially. In the income categories over $26,000, the most common response was "doing alright", except for the over $78,000 category where the same number said they were living comfortably. Below $26,000, more families described themselves as "just about getting by" and "finding it quite difficult".

Table 4: Estimated total household income and subjective financial status

Estimated total household income before tax	Number of families	Subjective financial status
		1	2	3	4	5
Nil income
$1 – 6,239 per year
$6,240 – 15,599 per year	6		2	2	2
$15,600 – 25,999	7		2	1	4
$26,000 – 36,399	3		2	1
$36,400 – 41,599	4		3	1
$41,600 – 51,999	4		2	2
$52,000 – 77,999	11	3	5	2	1
Over $78,000	11	6	5			5
Not given	(1)	(2)

Subjective income:
1 living comfortably
2 Doing alright
3 Just about getting by
4 Finding it quite difficult
5 Finding it very difficult

2.6 Interview schedules

The interview schedule used in the present research was based on Galinsky's (1999) original one-on-one interview schedule, but incorporated aspects of the quantitative questionnaire used in her survey of nationally representative samples of parents and children. These questions and themes were then restructured and represented from an Australian perspective, with some additional material added, including some questions taken from a study called "The Child's Eye View of Family Life" conducted by AIFS in the mid 1980s (Ochiltree and Amato, 1985).

Semi-structured interviews were conducted in the homes of the families in all but four cases, and were usually conducted in the evenings. Interviews with each adult took approximately one hour, and interviews with each child took approximately half an hour. The complete interview schedules are included as Appendix A.

The adult interview schedule covered the following areas:

• Parent's Employment – current paid work undertaken; reasons for working; hours worked; preferred hours to work; enjoyment of work; work as job or career; how decisions were made by the individual and/or within a couple about who would work, and how work would be managed; whether the way the respondent thinks about work changed after having children.
• Family's Typical Daily Routine, particularly before and after work
• Experiences of Using Non-parental Care – current; prior to school entry; when children are sick; during school holidays; the respondent's sense of children's views about such care.
• Time Spent with Children – everyday activities undertaken; organized versus hanging around time; how much parent knows about child's life; ease of focusing on child; whether parent has enough time with children;
• Parenting Self-Efficacy – whether and when parent feels he/she is doing a good job; whether and when parent feels he/she is doing a bad job; impact of work on such feelings.
• Children's Knowledge of Parents' Work – whether parent talks with children; whether it's important that children know what parents do or why parents work; whether children think that parents like their work and whether it matters what they think.
• Parent's Working Practices – bringing work home; rules for working at home; travel for work; whether children wait because of work; whether parent is distracted by work at home; whether children are aware of a parent's bad or good days at work and what they do differently.
• Perceptions about Impact of Work on Family – whether working has an impact on children, in general and in own case; what "balance" means and whether this is how the parent thinks of it; whether children or parents have missed out on anything because of parent's work; parent's own experiences in family of origin.
• Final Overview Questions – "If your family had all the money it would ever need, would you want to change anything about your work?"; advice to other working parents; what parent wishes someone had told them.

The children's interview schedule covered the following areas:

• Family's Typical Daily Routine – morning and afternoon routine; everyday activities; level of responsibility; whether parents' work status affects responsibility.
• Children's Knowledge of Parents' Work – do parents work; do parents talk about work; what children know about jobs; do parents like working; visits to workplaces; do parents work too much, too little or the right amount.
• Experience of Non-parental Care – experiences including pre-school, before and after school care, care when child is sick and holiday care; what carers should be like.
• Time Spent with Parents – activities undertaken with each parent; whether each parent spends too much or too little time with child; favorite family activities; organized activities versus hanging around time; "being there"; parents ability to focus; parents helping; how much parent knows about child's life; parents involvement in child's life at school and in extra-curricula activities.
• Parents' Working Practices – whether and how parents work at home; think about work at home; travel for work; awareness of parents' bad or good days and what they do differently.
• Perceived Impact of Work on Family – perceived consequences of parents' working; best/worst thing about having working parent/s; good or bad that parents work; differences that might follow from different circumstances.
• Overview Question – "all the money in the world" question.
• Child's Future plans – future career; family plans; work and family plan.

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