Does a mismatch in working hours negatively influence the job satisfaction of Dutch fathers?

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Does a mismatch in working hours negatively

influence the job satisfaction of Dutch fathers?

Marco de Jager – S2732815

m.b.dejager@student.rug.nl

January 19, 2019

Supervisor university: P. van der Meer

Abstract

The parental leave of Dutch fathers is a hot topic of debate in The Netherlands. Fathers are increasingly involved in the daily care of their children. This causes more a balancing problem for fathers between their working life and family life. The preferred working hours of fathers are changing and mismatches in working hours are more frequently occur which negatively influence job satisfaction. Lower job satisfaction of fathers is at the expense of the organizations. This study uses data from the LISS panel. The analysis of these data shows that fatherhood has no significant positive effect on the job satisfaction of the Dutch men. However, it appears that overemployment among the Dutch fathers leads to lower job satisfaction and therefore presents a risk for companies. Every hour that someone is overemployed causes a lower job satisfaction of 0.012 point. The results are discussed and limitations are mentioned.

Keywords

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Introduction

A traditional distribution in the household has been common for a long time. Work and care were separated. This distinction has slowly disappeared because women have started to work more and men are more involved in the household and care of the children. The way how families are seeing the job of a man in the family is changing from the traditional view of fathers as breadwinners toward a view where fathers are more involved in caregiving and where they are more emotionally present for their children (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth, & Lamb, 2000). The Dutch government also recognizes and supports this shift. In 2016 the ‘Law of flexible working’ was introduced. Thanks to this law, people have more autonomy over their own working hours. Flexibilization would make it easier to combine work and care because it enables people to better adapt their work to their private situation. These measures should ensure that a mismatch in working hours decreases and supports fatherhood with a working life and thereby the satisfaction of the employee.

An important focus for organizations is the job satisfaction of their employees. The effect of fatherhood on job satisfaction is rather positive. Locke (1969) stated a long time ago job satisfaction as the sum of the evaluations of the distinguishable elements of which the job is composed. Working hours is an element from the job. However, there is no consensus in the research literature on the effect of fatherhood on their working hours, of which the job is composed, and thereby the job satisfaction. Where some studies show that fathers work more hours than nonfathers (Bünning and Pollmann-Schult, 2016; Glauber and Gozjolko, 2011), other studies show that becoming a father has little or no influence on the actual working hours of fathers (Reynolds and Johnson, 2012; Smith Koslowski, 2011). Pollmann-Schult & Reynolds (2017) also found a difference in preferred working hours between German fathers. The differences arise due to generational differences. The younger generation fathers do want to work less hours to spend more time with their children. Older cohort fathers want to work the same or even more hours to increase their income. All this creates a mismatch between the actual working hours and the preferred working hours.

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argue that workers are often unable to decrease their work hours even if they are willing to accept the consequences it may have for their incomes. But on the other hand, according to McGill (2014) it is more expected from fathers that they are more actively involved in caring for the children.

Young fathers want to spend more time with their child but do not dare to take parental leave because they fear their career opportunities. In contrast to women, the actual working time of men hardly changes after the birth of the first child. On the other hand, a comparison with 2014 shows that part-time work for fathers is increasingly being considered ideal by the fathers themselves (Emancipatiemonitor CBS, 2016). This creates a gap between the preferred working hours and the actual working hours of Dutch fathers. Young fathers prefer working part-time to have more time for the children but the numbers show us that actually, the young fathers keep on working full time. According to Friendland and Price (2003), this overemployment is related to a lower job satisfaction.

In this article, I want to explain the relationship between fatherhood and job satisfaction. The mismatch in working hours is thereby the moderation variable which influences the effect of fatherhood on job satisfaction. Therefore, I will use panel data from the LISS database to examine the change in mismatches of working hours for those who became a father as well as the extent to which a mismatch influences the job satisfaction. Furthermore, to my knowledge, this study is the first to examine a possible mismatch in working hours for Dutch fathers and thereby the relationship with the job satisfaction of these fathers. My research question will be: To what extent does a mismatch in working hours moderate the relation between fatherhood and job satisfaction?

Theoretical background

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with the newborn child (Emancipation monitor CBS, 2016). However, little is known about the influence on the work-related outcomes of these fathers who are increasingly involved in parenting. Some researchers concluding that work and family may facilitate one another (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000; Kirchmeyer, 1992).

Previous studies suggest that you can determine how workers respond to their jobs by looking at the characteristics of employees’ personal and family lives (Barnett, 1994; Crouter, 1984). The study of Ladge, Humberd, Watkins & Harrington (2015) suggests that involved fathering is gainful for organizations because of the positive connection for the fathers on their job satisfaction. Fathers who are more involved in the family life and parenting experience greater job satisfaction and they strengthen their work-family relation. They also experience less work-family conflict. Al of this ensures that they are less likely to think about quitting their jobs. Thissuggests that spending more time interacting with children during a typical workday is associated with greater job satisfaction.

To find out why fatherhood leads to higher job satisfaction, it is important to know what the key factors are of determining job satisfaction. According to Heller et al. (2002) life satisfaction is associated with job satisfaction. A growing body of research has shown that higher life satisfaction is related to various desirable companies' results, such as organizational commitment, and especially, job satisfaction (Diener and Tay, 2012). The results of Judge and Watanabe (1993) suggest that job satisfaction and life satisfaction are positively and vice versa related. Life satisfaction significantly influences job satisfaction.

The effect of fatherhood on life satisfaction of men thereby influences the job satisfaction of fathers. Despite the diverse stressful effects of parenthood, Pollmann-Schultz (2010) observes an increase in general life satisfaction after starting a family. This applies to men and women. Another study by Pollmann-Schultz (2013) also shows that parents are more satisfied with their lives in general than their childless peers. Especially in the medium and higher income ranges there is a distinct association between parenthood and life satisfaction.

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Hypothesis 1: Fatherhood is positively related to job satisfaction.

A mismatch in the preferred working hours of people and the actual hours they are working is a common issue which has consequences on both the working life and the private life of people. Most people need working hours and the people who cannot find work directly experience the negative consequences of not having a job. However, working hours that do not meet the needs of people can also have negative consequences. Aside from that children can cause the parents preferred working hours to decline because of the ask for parents’ time and energy, a lot of employers do not accommodate the changes in preferences, making many parents working more or fewer hours than they prefer. Research is not clear if this explanation is as relevant for men as it is for women (Reynolds and Johnson, 2012). Previous research shows us that such a mismatch in working hours has negative consequences for the job and life satisfaction (Wooden, et al. 2009). These results indicate that job satisfaction is highest in the absence of hours mismatch.

Most attention of the research goes to mismatches of overemployment, working more hours than preferred. Friedland and Price (2003) found a negative effect of overemployment on job satisfaction.

People whose actual working hours exceeds their preferences have to deal with lower job satisfaction.

Green and Tsitsianis (2005) found in their research that the negative effect of overemployment on job satisfaction is higher than the negative effect of underemployment on job satisfaction. Their results are based on data from the British Household Panel Survey for the UK.

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Accordingly, the employees who are not working the number of hours they would like to work may have to deal with a negative effect on their job satisfaction. As well for overemployment as for underemployment. Both mismatches in working hours can negatively influence the positive relation of fatherhood on job satisfaction. Thereby, my second hypothesis is as follows:

Hypothesis 2: A mismatch in working hours has a negative effect on job satisfaction.

Fathers tend to have a change in preferred working hours what stimulates the mismatch of hours. Differences will occur in the social connections, family relationships, and work behavior of the fathers compared to the nonfathers (Eggebeen and Knoester, 2001). To better understand the importance of limitations and preferences in adapting the father’s actual work hours, it is thereby necessary to have a look on how fatherhood is related to changes in actual working hours and preferred working hours. By that point of view, you can examine how fatherhood is related to a mismatch in working hours.

Although most fathers have full-time jobs, only one-fifth of the Dutch men think this is a suitable working time for fathers of children who are not attending school yet (Emancipatiemonitor 2016, CBS). The birth of a child can cause a work-family conflict. This rise in work-family conflict reported by men has grown beside a new ideal about fathering that has appeared in recent years. In this new ideal, being a good father requires more than being the usual breadwinner. Fathers are more expected to take care of the household as well as taking care of the children. (O’Brien, 2005).

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Despite this shift of work preferences, organizations are not always prepared for these individuals who are unencumbered by family responsibilities. Not all employers can deal with these changing preferences. This leaves many parents working more or fewer hours than they prefer. The study of Haas and Hwang (1995) found variation in employers’ attitudes toward parental leave and the effect of this variation on the employees use of parental leave. Besides the attitude of the employer, men are not always using the space they have for parental leave. One of the explanations is that men find it difficult to be absent from their workplaces (Brandth and Kvanda, 2001). They are afraid of the negative effects on their career.

According to Statistics Netherlands (2016), most of the Dutch fathers are not working less hours after the birth of their first child. This in contrast to the change in preferences they have. This creates a mismatch in working hours for the fathers. Altman (2001) implies that if fathers get the hours they want, they probably do so by changing their preferences rather than their actual hours. Employers could help prevent mismatches by allowing workers to adjust their hours instead of adjusting their preferable hours.

A mismatch in working hours could have stronger effects for fathers than for non-fathers. Working men have to deal with a work-life balance, both fathers and not fathers. The birth of a child creates a child-care responsibility for the father which influences the work-life balance of the man. Fathers who take care of their children experience that this care work is time-costing (Brandth and Kvande, 2002). Fathers cannot carry out the care for children in a short amount of time. To understand what the child(ren) need and feel, the father must be present by many routine activities for a long period of time. (Brandth and Kvande, 2002). Overemployment means for these fathers that they cannot have the involvement they want in the care of the children. This care-taking is an extra experience for the work-life balance of fathers compared to non-fathers.

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having a mismatch in working hours has a stronger negative effect for fathers. The third hypothesis is as follows:

Hypothesis 3: A mismatch in working hours is negatively influencing the positive relation between fatherhood and job satisfaction.

Method and data

Data collection

To evaluate my hypotheses, I researched the relationship between my variables by using data of the LISS panel (www.lissdata.nl). The LISS panel is the core element of the project Measurement and Experimentation in the Social Sciences (MESS). This data is collected since 2008 and it consists of 4500 households, comprising 7000 individuals, drawn from the population register by Statistics Netherlands. A traditional random sample was drawn from the population registers, in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands Panel members complete online questionnaires every month of about 15 to 30 minutes in total. They are paid for each completed questionnaire. There can be no self-selection for people to participate. In the event of a drop out of participants, the population is complemented with new participants. One of the subjects of the LISS questionnaire is the chapter ‘Work and schooling’. This contains various information about work-related issues including job satisfaction, working hours, education and other information. The background-questionnaire contains questions about background information on the households. That can determine if a man is a father or non-father.

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who are working at least 10 hours a week with a maximum of 70 hours a week. Also, the preferred hours are restricted with the same numbers. As a final selection, only participants who are employed by an employer are selected. The self-employed/freelance worker or independent professional are not included in the survey because their work hours are different from employees. They have more control over their own working hours. Previous research from Pollmann-Schult (2008) shows us that the employment of German fathers is most strongly affected by the age of the youngest child. I examine fatherhood for fathers with the youngest child under 8 years old.

Table 1 gives information about the distribution of the 2310 men who are part of this study. In total, the data consists of 7821 records of these 2310 men. These are divided into 2,070 men without children and 5,751 men with children. These are not unique respondents, many participants come back several years as seen in table 1. It is also possible that a respondent changes from non-father to father during the years. Table 1 shows how many men meet the requirements in this study with participating years and the number of men who meet the requirements every single wave. There are 742 men who only meet the requirements of this study for 1 year and therefore, these men only have 1 record in this study. 409 men participate for 2 years. These years do not have to be consecutive, there may be a gap between years. The multilevel analysis method deals with this unbalanced data. Eventually, there are 113 men of whom all 9 years (2009 to 2017) of data in this study have been processed. Of the 7821 records, 1015 records are from 2009 and 810 records are from the last wave of 2017.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics; quantity of participating men with participating years

Amount of participating years

1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years 6 years 7 years 8 years 9 years

Number of men 742 409 260 240 151 144 123 128 113

Year of wave

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Number of men 1015 1007 754 859 819 884 850 823 810

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Measures

Section 7 of the questionnaire, work and schooling, contains questions about job satisfaction, about children and questions about the working hours. Job satisfaction is asked by one question, namely the question “How satisfied are you with your current work?”. This is on a scale from 0 to 10. According to Scarpello and Campbell (1983), to measure job satisfaction, the use of a single-item measure is preferable to a scale that is based on a sum of specific job facet satisfactions.

When someone indicates to have 1 or more children, this man scores a 1 in the variable of children. When someone indicates not to have children, this man scores a 0. This distinguishes fathers and non-fathers. In order to investigate whether young children have an influence on job satisfaction, the variable number of young children has been changed with the possible answers 'yes' or 'no'. In the dataset, the 'yes' scores a 1, the 'no' scores a 0. With this, a man with young children scores a 1, a man without young children a 0. Both variables of children are now used to determine the type of father, a non-father, a father with young child(ren) or a father without young child(ren). Four variables have been created for the interaction effect, whereby the type of father (man with or without young child) is combined with the type of mismatch in working hours (overemployed or underemployed).

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Control variables

My study will include control variables for gross income, level of education, age, type of organization, the size of the organization and the amount of autonomy within the job. The gross income is stated as the personal gross monthly income in categories where most categories have a reach of 500 euros. The last 2 categories have increased reaches. The level of education is asked with categories where the man has to indicate in which category, 1 (primary school) to 6 (university), his education level lies. The date of birth is used for the age. The normal age is used in the descriptive statistics. In the models for the analysis, the age is divided by 10 to show the age effect. For the type of organization, the men have to indicate whether they work in the public sector or in the private sector. The public sector is labeled in the data as 0 and the private sector as 1. For the size of the organization, the men have indicated how many employees work at the company they work. Because of the wide distribution of these numbers, the natural logarithm of these numbers is taken. The autonomy of the workplace is added as the last control variable. In the questionnaire, one question is asked about the amount of autonomy. The amount of autonomy is asked with the proposition: "There is very little freedom for me to determine how to do my work" This can be answered with 1 to 4 where 1 represent 'completely disagrees' and 4 'completely agree'. This ensures that a score of 1 indicates that there is a lot of autonomy and 4 little autonomy. The amount of autonomy is recoded in the dataset with the scores 0-3 where 0 indicates that there is little autonomy and 3 a lot of autonomy, which is a more logical sequence.

Data analysis

My research population includes both men with child(ren) and also men without child(ren) to examine the difference between these groups. Table 2 provides descriptive statistics for the elements of these groups, namely non-fathers, ‘fathers with young child(ren)’ and ‘fathers without young child(ren)’. In the distinction between the fathers, the maximum age of the children will be set at 8 years. A father with young child(ren) has at least one child who is younger than 8 years. An F-test on the descriptive statistics shows the significance of the differences.

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Multilevel analysis is less profound than the longitudinal analysis method and a multilevel analysis is also a suitable and statistically good method for this data. A multilevel analysis is suitable when parameters change on two or more levels (Agresti and Finlay, 2009). This analysis method takes into account the difference in measurements within one person over several years and the difference in measurements between people within one year. A schematic representation of this method can be found in figure 1. A multilevel analysis also takes into account that some men have missing years in the dataset. It analyses this unbalanced data. When a man does not meet the criteria anymore of being a working man with a partner, this year is missing as can be seen at working man 3 in figure 1.

This multilevel analysis will be executed in 3 models. The first analysis is whether fatherhood influences the job satisfaction of men. In model 2, the mismatch in working hours is examined. Finally, the interaction effect is examined where the interaction of a mismatch in working hours on the relation between fatherhood and job satisfaction is analyzed. The models are controlled with the earlier mentioned control variables. The assessment of the models is based on a number of issues. Whether the outcome of the models on the data is a significant outcome and if the relationship is positive or negative are important. In the multilevel analysis, I take the possible within-person changes into account by estimating the autocorrelation. This shows the extent to which the outcome is influenced by the outcome of the previous year. The autocorrelation is limited to one previous year, the first-order autocorrelation. This autocorrelation is visualized in figure 1 with the arrows.

Figure 1: Schematic representation of the multilevel-analysis model including autocorrelation

Working man 1 Working man 2 Working man 3

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Results

Descriptive statistics

This section contains the results of the different multilevel analysis. Tables 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the longitudinal data. Tables 3, 4 and 5 show the results of the multilevel analysis, which shows the relationship between fatherhood, a mismatch in working hours and job satisfaction.

Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of non-fathers compared to fathers where the fathers are divided into two categories that depend on the age of the youngest child. All differences between the three types of fatherhood are significant. The non-fathers have an average of 38.67 actual working hours and 36.25 preferred working hours. This makes an average mismatch in working hours of -2.42 indicating that the non-fathers on average want to work 2.42 hours less than they actually do. Whereas the fathers with young child(ren) have an average actual working hours of 41.11 and preferred working hours of 36.79, their average mismatch in working hours reaches -4.32, a clear difference in the mismatch of working hours with the non-fathers. The fathers without young child(ren) have the biggest mismatch, namely -4.48. This is caused by the actual working hours of 40.26 and preferred working hours of 35.78. This mismatch in working hours is shown in the various overemployed and underemployed statistics. When a non-father is overemployed, he works on average 3.63 hours more than he prefers. In the group with fathers, this is 4.90 hours for the father with young child(ren) and 5.04 hours for the father without young child(ren). For the underemployed men, we see that the non-fathers have the highest number of hours, namely 1.21.

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Table 2. Descriptive statistics of men’s characteristics

Non-fathers Fathers with young _child(ren) _{young child(ren)}Fathers without

M SD M SD M SD

Actual working hours ** 38.67 9.26 41.11 7.24 40.26 9.10

Preferred working hours ** 36.25 7.72 36.79 6.41 35.78 7.90

Overemployed ** 3.63 5.36 4.90 6.06 5.04 6.20

Underemployed ** 1.21 4.10 0.58 2.36 0.55 2.58

Job satisfaction ** 7.43 1.45 7.42 1.32 7.57 1.39

Gross income in categories ** 4.01 3.56 5.25 3.64 5.66 3.99

Level of education in CBS categories ** 3.95 1.46 4.31 1.24 3.97 1.39

Age ** 36.40 12.89 38.10 5.85 52.97 7.20

Natural logarithm of company size 4.21 1.78 4.25 1.66 4.29 1.71

Type of organization ** 0.71 0.45 0.76 0.43 0.65 0.48

Autonomy of work * 1.97 0.70 2.03 0.64 2.01 0.68

N (men) 2070 1890 3861

Notes: M: Mean; SD: standard deviation; *A F-test of the difference between the means was significant at the .05

level or higher; **A F-test of the difference between the means was significant at the .01 level or higher

Effect fatherhood on job satisfaction

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However, there are clearly significant differences in the gross income of the people, the sector of the company and the degree of autonomy in the men's workplace. The gross income of people and work autonomy have a significant positive effect on job satisfaction, while there is a negative impact of the sector. This means that the job satisfaction of men in the private sector is, on average, lower than the job satisfaction of men in the public sector. There is a small, positive autocorrelation of 0.335 and 0.321 indicating that there is a degree of similarity between the job satisfaction of the men and an observation the following year.

Table 3: Effects of fatherhood on job satisfaction

B S.e. B S.e.

Intercept 7.422** 0.041 6.947** 0.139

Father with young child(ren) 0.025 0.053 -0.012 0.052

Father without young child(ren) 0.137** 0.050 0.071 0.059

Gross income 0.018** 0.006 Company sector -0.254** 0.051 Work autonomy 0.307** 0.020 Educational level -0.010 0.024 Company size -0.007 0.011 Age 0.015 0.024 N (men) 2310 2310

-2 Restricted Log Likelihood 24468.79 24203.94

First-order autocorrelation 0.335** 0.321**

Notes: B: Unstandardized coefficients; S.e.: Standard errors; ** p<0.01; * p<0.05

Effect mismatch on Job satisfaction

For the following analysis, the effect of a mismatch in working hours on job satisfaction was examined. Table 4 shows the outcome of this analysis where the mismatch in working hours is divided into overemployed and underemployed. An analysis without control variables shows a negative effect on overemployment and underemployment on job satisfaction. The effect of overemployment is more significant. After adding the control variables to the analysis, the effect of overemployment remains significantly negative while the effect of underemployment disappears and is explained by the control variables.

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works more than his preferred hours, his job satisfaction drops by 0.012 points. The effect of underemployment is minimal, 0.006, and also not significant. As seen in previous analysis, the variables gross income, company sector and work autonomy have significant effects. The private working sector has a negative effect while the amount of work autonomy shows a positive effect. The effects of company sector and work autonomy are higher than having a mismatch in working hours. Also, the amount of the gross income of the man shows a significant positive effect. The effects from this model correspond to the effects shown in Table 3. The autocorrelation differs minimally from the analysis in the previous model. The results in table 4 partly support hypothesis 2 as overemployment leads to lower job satisfaction. This effect remains with the control variables added.

Table 4: Effects of mismatch in working hours on job satisfaction

B S.e. B S.e. Intercept 7.005** 0.136 6.916** 0.137 Overemployed -0.011** 0.003 -0.012** 0.003 Underemployed -0.011* 0.005 -0.006 0.005 Gross income 0.020** 0.006 Company sector -0.243** 0.051 Work autonomy 0.305** 0.020 Educational level -0.007 0.018 Company size -0.008 0.011 Age 0.037 0.020 N (men) 2310 2310

Notes: B: Unstandardized coefficients; S.e.: Standard errors; ** p<0.01; * p<0.05;

Interaction effect

The interaction effect in which a mismatch in working hours influences the relationship between fatherhood and job satisfaction is shown in table 5. Four groups have been created in which the type of father and the type of mismatch are combined. In this analysis, another 2310 unique men were used and the autocorrelation is about the same level as the previous analyzes, namely 0.316. The same control variables were used as the previous analyzes.

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again shows that overemployment has a greater impact on job satisfaction than underemployment. The effects of underemployment and being a father without young child(ren) disappear after adding the control variables and are therefore explained by these control variables.

Hypothesis 3 is partly supported by the outcomes of this model. Overemployment does indeed have a negative effect on the relationship between fatherhood and job satisfaction. However, underemployment has no significant negative effect. Neither is it shown that having a mismatch in working hours has a greater impact on fathers than on non-fathers. The combinations of type of father and type of mismatch do not show a significant effect. However, the same control variables show a significant effect as in the previous analysis (not presented).

Table 5: Interaction effect of fatherhood and a mismatch in working hours on job satisfaction

B S.e. B S.e.

Intercept 7.476** 0.047 6.973** 0.142

Father with young child(ren) 0.001 0.062 -0.037 0.062

Father without young child(ren) 0.162** 0.058 0.098 0.065

Overemployed -0.009* 0.005 -0.009* 0.005

Underemployed -0.015** 0.007 -0.010 0.007

Overemployed father with young child(ren) 0.003 0.007 0.004 0.007

Overemployed father without young child(ren) -0.007 0.006 -0.006 0.006

Underemployed father with young child(ren) 0.009 0.013 0.009 0.013

Underemployed father without young child(ren) 0.009 0.010 0.006 0.010

Control variables added No Yes

N (men) 2310 2310

Notes: B: Unstandardized coefficients; S.e.: Standard errors; * p<0.10; ** p<0.05;

Control variables include fixed effects of gross income, company sector, work autonomy, educational level, company size and age.

Discussion

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that becoming a father increases life satisfaction and that life satisfaction is a component that influences job satisfaction. There may be other factors that nullify the increase in job satisfaction. It is also possible that becoming a father has no influence on life satisfaction and therefore also that fatherhood has no influence on job satisfaction. The establishing of a negative effect due to an imbalance in the work-family relationship is also a possibility. When young fathers experience stress because of fatherhood, this stress can outweigh the increase in happiness. Fathers who are both busy with their work-life and with their family-life, tend to have a higher level of conflict (Ford, Heinen, and Langkamer, 2007). Dutch men can experience a higher work-life conflict. Further research has to be done to examine these possibilities.

In addition, theory indicates that a mismatch in work hours has a negative influence on job satisfaction. The results of this study support this theory partly, being overemployed in working hours has negative consequences for job satisfaction. The results of the analysis emphasize the findings of previous studies, that job satisfaction is the highest at the absence of a mismatch in working hours. These outcomes partly support hypothesis 2. Underemployment does not show the effect that the theory describes. A possible reason for this is that my data only consists of men and men have less part-time jobs than women. According to Wilkins (2007), underemployment especially affects job satisfaction of the part-time workers.

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consequences for their careers (Brandth and Kvanda, 2001). A more extensive parental leave for fathers can reduce the mismatch they are currently facing.

The third hypothesis mentioned the interaction effect where a mismatch in working hours has a negative effect on the positive relationship between fatherhood and job satisfaction. We have already seen that there is no positive relationship between fatherhood and job satisfaction. However, the analysis shows that overemployment continues to have a negative effect on job satisfaction but it has not been proven that fathers with a mismatch in working hours are significantly different from non-fathers. A mismatch in working hours, therefore, has no greater effects on fathers than on non-fathers. Underemployment and fathers without young child(ren) also show a significant effect without control variables. Fathers without young child(ren) are therefore significantly more satisfied with their work but the explanation is in the control variables such as autonomy, gross income and sector of working. That underemployment does not remain significant in the interaction model is in line with the theory of Green and Tsitsianis (2005) which indicate that the effect of underemployment is less than overemployment and that underemployment mainly affects part-time employees. As described before, my study only contains men and no distinction has been made between full-time and part-time employees.

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These results have several, theoretical and practical, implications. Alongside an argument for the extension of parental leave of fathers, this study can be helpful for companies and executives. It is important for companies to know which aspects of a job are important for their employees. Dutch men are happier with their work when they can adapt their hours to their preferred working hours. These results show that when companies adapt to the preferred working hours of men, and thus minimize the mismatch of working hours, they can positively influence the level of job satisfaction. With the results of my study, a company also knows that Dutch fathers have a greater chance of a mismatch in work hours compared to non-fathers. By supporting this group, companies can protect fathers for the possible mismatch. Furthermore, more research has to be done to examine the connection between the positive effects of fatherhood and the possible negative effects of fatherhood and to study the influence of the private and public sector.

Limitations

This study uses data collected by the LISS panel. A strong point in the use of this data is that it concerns a panel data. This allows data to be used over several years instead of one particular moment. However, there are also limitations to these data. When analyzing the data, it appears that a lot of missing data is present. The LISS questionnaire is already very extensive. Comprehensive questionnaires are not only time-costing but also increase the likelihood of hasty, careless or missing answers (Chipperfield, 2011). A more targeted, and therefore shorter, questionnaire can ensure a lower level of missing data. This can also ensure that a more stable panel with participants will be created.

This study focuses on the positive relationship between fatherhood and job satisfaction. Now that this positive relationship is not present, further research is necessary to know why the relationship is not positive. Previous studies did reflect this positive relationship. A follow-up study should show why Dutch fathers do not experience higher job satisfaction than the non-fathers. This follow-up study can include all factors of job satisfaction and life satisfaction in the analysis to find out which factors are of influence.

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Appendix

Table 3

MIXED jobsatisfaction WITH vader1 vader2

/CRITERIA=CIN(95) MXITER(100) MXSTEP(10) SCORING(1) SINGULAR(0.000000000001) HCONVERGE(0,

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, RELATIVE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=vader1 vader2 | SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML

/PRINT= CORB COVB R G SOLUTION TESTCOV /random=intercept | SUBJECT(nomem_encr) covtype(ID) /REPEATED=year | SUBJECT(nomem_encr) COVTYPE(AR1).

MIXED jobsatisfaction WITH vader1 vader2 brutocat sector autonomie oplcat age10 sizecompanylog /CRITERIA=CIN(95) MXITER(100) MXSTEP(10) SCORING(1) SINGULAR(0.000000000001) HCONVERGE(0,

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, RELATIVE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=vader1 vader2 brutocat sector autonomie oplcat age10 sizecompanylog | SSTYPE(3) /METHOD=ML

Table 4

MIXED jobsatisfaction WITH overemployed underemployed

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, RELATIVE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=overemployed underemployed | SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML

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/random=intercept | SUBJECT(nomem_encr) covtype(ID) /REPEATED=year | SUBJECT(nomem_encr) COVTYPE(AR1).

MIXED jobsatisfaction WITH overemployed underemployed brutocat sector autonomie oplcat age10 sizecompanylog

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, RELATIVE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE)

/FIXED=overemployed underemployed brutocat sector autonomie oplcat age10 sizecompanylog | SSTYPE(3) /METHOD=ML

Table 5

MIXED jobsatisfaction WITH vader1 vader2 overemployed underemployed mjkover mokover mjkunder mokunder

/FIXED= vader1 vader2 overemployed underemployed mjkover mokover mjkunder mokunder | SSTYPE(3) /METHOD=ML

MIXED jobsatisfaction WITH vader1 vader2 overemployed underemployed mjkover mokover mjkunder mokunder brutocat sector autonomie oplcat age10 sizecompanylog

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/FIXED= vader1 vader2 overemployed underemployed mjkover mokover mjkunder mokunder brutocat sector autonomie oplcat age10 sizecompanylog| SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML