Open AccessParental commuting and child well-being in Germany
Author(s) -
Christine Borowsky,
Sonja Drobnič,
Michael Feldhaus
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of family research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2699-2337
DOI - 10.20377/jfr-370
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , german , demography , association (psychology) , psychology , panel data , demographic economics , developmental psychology , geography , sociology , economics , archaeology , econometrics , artificial intelligence , computer science , psychotherapist
The number of people commuting to work is increasing, including those who spend at least two hours travelling to and from work per day. In Germany, the group of these long-distance commuters comprises about 1.6 million people. To date, there has been little research on the possible consequences of long commuting times for family life and commuters’ children. On the basis of a pooled data set from the German Family Panel pairfam, we examine the relationship between parental commuting, the parent-child relationship and child well-being, both from the parent’s as well as the child’s perspective while also distinguishing between mothers and fathers. Some results indicate that long-distance commuting is associated with a poorer parent-child relationship and ultimately with lower child well-being. However, the association is rather sporadic and substantively weak.