Long hours destroying dads' relationship with kids and health, study finds

One in three Aussie kids aged between 11 and 13 think their dad works too much, while Australia’s growing culture of long working hours is also damaging men’s health, a new study has found.

The 'Growing Up in Australia' study looked at 3000 kids and their dads. It found some kids don’t really enjoy time with their dad either.

Long hours, irregular hours and difficulty in getting time off contributing to a family disconnect at home, the study found.

"Australia's work culture and social norms are making it hard for dads to be the fathers they want to be," lead researcher Professor Lyndall Strazdins, from the Australian National University Research School of Population Health, said.

"More than half of fathers reported missing family events because of work, while a fifth described their family time as more pressured and less fun due to their jobs, and these were problems their children shared."

Research shows Australian dads are more likely to spend time in paid work than mothers, who are still more likely to take care of domestic duties.

More than half of those dads were clocking in for more than 44 hours per week, leading researchers to conclude that men were more likely than women to struggle with the work-life balance.

It is not good for them.

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"Our research has shown that people who work more than 39 hours per week are putting their health at risk, and we have also shown that expectations to work long hours are a problem for gender equality,” Professor Strazdins said.

"Workplaces still assume men are more devoted to their jobs than women and so they expect men to work longer hours, but this creates dilemmas for fathers."

The children are suffering as well, with 40 per cent of fathers likely to be working nights and weekends, again eating into valuable family time.

"We delude ourselves that what happens in fathers' workplaces is somehow separate from children's lives,” Professor Strazdins said.

“Time with their fathers is a problem for many children, it's not just an issue for adults and the economy.”

ANU conducted the study with Australian Institute of Family Studies and the WZB Social Science Institute in Berlin.

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