Abstract
Research on time poverty is nascent, and has focused more on unpaid household production and gender differences. Using survey data of 1,620 workers aged 21 to 38 in Singapore, we found that work-based time poverty affects the psychological well-being of young workers. First, factor analysis of time-related work quality indices led to a work-based time poverty measure along two dimensions: (i) long and late working hours, and (ii) nonstandard and uncontrollable working hours. Then, through a structural equation model, we found that individuals in low-wage work are more time poor in terms of nonstandard and uncontrollable hours. These hours worsen work-to-family conflict and together, they mediate the relationship between low wage and two psychological well-being outcomes: generalised anxiety disorder and self-efficacy. Our findings have implications on low-wage young workers’ ability to invest time in their families and on training. They suggest the need to work with policymakers and employers to address workplace time poverty challenges that are beyond what young workers themselves can control.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available because they are embargoed until the completion of the overall research project.
Notes
Ethics approval for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the National University of Singapore on 26 February 2020.
78% of households in Singapore live in public housing (Department of Statistics, 2022).
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the contributions of our research team members in conceptualising time poverty together and research assistance from Aloysius Chan, Nicole Lim and Jennifer Nguyen.
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This study was funded by Singapore’s Ministry of Education Social Science Research Thematic Grant (MOE2018-SSRTG-016).
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Ng, I.Y., Tan, Z.H. & Chung, G. Time Poverty among the Young Working Poor: A Pathway from Low Wage to Psychological Well-being through Work-to-Family-Conflict. J Fam Econ Iss (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-024-09951-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-024-09951-1