Peer-reviewed article
Parental commuting and child well-being in Germany
Christine Borowsky, Sonja Drobnič, Michael Feldhaus ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The study looks at whether parents' long commutes are linked to the parent-child relationship and to child well-being in Germany. It uses pooled data from the German Family Panel pairfam and includes views from both parents and children, and looks at mothers and fathers separately. Some results suggest long-distance commuting goes with a poorer parent-child relationship and lower child well-being. However, the authors describe these associations as sporadic and substantively weak.
Key points
- About 1.6 million people in Germany are long-distance commuters, spending at least two hours per day travelling to and from work.
- There has been little research on how long commuting affects family life and children.
- Analysis used pooled data from the German Family Panel pairfam, covering parent and child perspectives and distinguishing mothers and fathers.
- Some results link long-distance commuting to a poorer parent-child relationship and ultimately lower child well-being.
- The associations are rather sporadic and substantively weak.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so details on the sample, measures, methods and the specific results for mothers, fathers and children are not known. The findings describe associations and do not show that commuting causes lower well-being.
Abstract
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.