WHILE fly-in-fly-out and drive-in-drive-out work continues to attract people, so are studies increasing into the effect the work has on families and relationships.

CQUniversity fourth-year Bachelor of Psychology student Abby Chapman is conducting a study into relationship satisfaction and family dynamics.

The study is part of her final-year thesis and is set to focus on FIFO and DIDO workers and their partners.

She said the results would help determine whether the FIFO/DIDO lifestyle had a positive, negative or neutral impact.

Ms Chapman said the rapid expansion of the mining and resource sector could be one reason for the paucity of data on this particular impact.

"FIFO/DIDO work is something that has become more common as rental accommodation availability and real estate pricing in the regional centres has responded to demand," she said.

"Research has been focused on the economics, infrastructure, fatigue management and environment issues - sometimes perceived as the big ticket items - rather than the relationships which can be pushed into the background."

Ms Chapman decided to focus her thesis on this subject because of her own experiences with DIDO work. Her brother-in-law works as a DIDO employee.

She said recording the perspective of both partners would give an insight into who was affected more by these working arrangements - what aspects of the relationship/family were affected and where support networks were needed.

Gladstone Compassion Coaching personal coach Paul Stewart has had plenty of experience when it comes to coaching industry workers and their families.

Mr Stewart said studies like this were quite valuable at the moment.

When it came to industry work, Mr Stewart said there was an incredible drive to achieve high productivity but the cost to people could be forgotten in the process.

"One thing I've seen a lot lately is men, in particular, working long hours," Mr Stewart said.

"And they might be working long hours but they're not getting that sense of personal and family satisfaction."

Mr Stewart said a lot of men he had come across suffered as a result with family breakdowns or substance abuse.

"Work life gets out-of-balance," he said.

Mr Stewart said more studies such as Ms Chapman's should be given attention.

However, he said whether this kind of work had an impact on decision makers in business and industry was another matter.

"I think for a lot of decision makers, if they have the choice of the bottom line or paying attention to a study, the bottom line would probably win," he said.

"But if there's enough attention and enough research, then things would start to change."

Mr Stewart defined decision makers as many players, whether upper or middle management, department chief executive officers or even shareholders.

"I believe all of them have the ability to have an impact," he said.

How you can participate in the survey

ABBY Chapman is running her confidential survey online and needs your help. The survey takes 20-30 minutes to complete.

The focus of the study is to investigate the relationship satisfaction of FIFO and DIDO workers and their partners.

Both the employee and partner are essential to filling out the confidential survey, to obtain a full understanding of the potential impacts.

Ms Chapman said the research was about discovering how participants felt about this lifestyle and uncovering the family and relationship impacts.

"There is a number of existing FIFO/DIDO support networks which have Facebook and blog communication from families experiencing this lifestyle," she said.

"Some of the issues discussed on these sites revolve around stability in the family, managing the children on your own, the impacts when the working partner returns, establishing routines, loneliness for both partners and the impacts of changes in roster."

She said participants in this lifestyle were best placed to identify what worked for them.

Ms Chapman hoped the research would add to other knowledge in this field.

Visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/FIFODIDOemployeeandpartner to take part.

Participants will go into a draw to win one of two $50 Coles/Myer gift cards.