Objective The study examines the associations between two distinct forms of workplace flexibility—flexible schedules and working at home—and workers' well‐being, with special attention to the distinct reasons for working at home and gender differences. Background Workplace flexibility can be a key resource to manage work and family responsibilities. However, there are gaps in knowledge regarding the types of flexibility that provide either a benefit or disadvantage for workers. In particular, insufficient attention has been paid to different reasons employees have for working at home and their implications. Method Using the General Social Survey, we created a pooled sample across the four waves of data (2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014, N = 6,945). Workers' well‐being was measured with job satisfaction, job stress, daily fatigue, and work‐to‐family conflict. Multivariate regression analysis and several sensitivity tests were conducted. Results The study found benefits of flexible schedules for work‐related well‐being. Working at home as part of one's job had some benefits, but working at home to catch up on work had consistent disadvantages for worker well‐being. Moreover, the ability to adjust start and end times of work and working at home to catch up on work were associated with elevated work‐to‐family conflict, particularly for female workers. Conclusion The findings suggest the potential advantages and unintended consequences of different flexibility arrangements for workers, and these implications may differ by gender.

Child-care assistance is a critical safety net program that directly benefits families and society. But short spells and program churning raise concerns about the effectiveness of the child-care subsidy program to support stable employment and contribute to long-term family economic stability. On the basis of data that link administrative child-care assistance records with survey data on a sample of subsidy recipients in Illinois and New York, we examine demographic, employment, child-care, and subsidy program characteristics associated with the risk of experiencing child-care subsidy instability. As we hypothesized, these factors relate to exit risk, confirming and extending past research on determinants of subsidy instability. The study contributes new policy-relevant knowledge about how employment instability and public benefit rules and practices shape clients' program experiences and in turn how subsidy (in)stability may operate as a mechanism through which stable employment and economic security are ultimately achieved or threatened.introduction Nonparental child care is a critical support for working families with young children. Over three-fourths of children age 5 spend time in child-care and early education settings-from centers, nurseries, and preschools to licensed family child-care homes and unlicensed home-based settings-while their Social Service Review (September 2017).

Greater access to flexible work arrangements is considered a solution to many working parents’ challenges balancing the demands of work and family, yet it remains unclear whether such arrangements are associated with parents’ time in the active caregiving activities linked to children’s development and parents’ notions of quality time. We examine this question using data from the American Time Use Survey and Leave and Job Flexibilities Module (2017–2018) ( n = 1,874 mothers, n = 1,756 fathers) and linear regression and inverse probability weighting techniques. Results indicate that access to flextime is associated with more active caregiving time for mothers but not fathers. They also provide suggestive evidence that flexplace is associated with more active caregiving time for mothers and fathers and strong evidence that it is associated with more passive caregiving time for both parents. The findings highlight the importance of expanding parents’ access to flexible work options, and the limits of doing so.