Social Jetlag in the Context of Work and Family1

Abstract

By definition, social jetlag – a misalignment between the social and biological time – is closely linked to social obligations that conflict with the individual’s chronotype. It is a widespread phenomenon and is linked to various negative health, cognitive, and psychological outcomes. Although there are studies on social jetlag, they are mostly dominated by biomedical approaches. Therefore, the presented study aims to explore the link between social jetlag and work and family status from an original social perspective. The study explores the link between the magnitude of social jetlag and factors related to the type of occupation and selected family obligations using a representative Czech sample. Using the 4th wave of the Czech Household Panel Survey (CHPS), secondary data analysis in Stata 16 was performed. A sample of 1,441 employed and self-employed respondents was included in the analysis. The multilevel mixed-effects modelling was used to control for members of the same household. Model fit was evaluated by likelihood ratio test and BIC. Self-employed individuals are less likely to experience social jetlag than employees. Professional classes are least likely to suffer from social jetlag. Lower occupational classes experience more severe social jetlag, but its severity is moderated by self-employment. If self-employed, the routine manual and non-manual workers do not experience significantly larger social jetlag than professionals. In contrast to occupation, we found no evidence that family status, such as co-residential partnership, contributes to the severity of social jetlag. Working parents of small children experience lower social jetlag than childless individuals. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that social jetlag is more closely linked to the type of work than to the family status.