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Combining work and family: Rewards or risks for children's mental health?

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  • Strazdins, Lyndall
  • OBrien, Léan V.
  • Lucas, Nina
  • Rodgers, Bryan

Abstract

Prevailing child psychopathology paradigms focus on caregiving in isolation from market work. Yet most children's caregivers — mothers and fathers — are also employed. Although policy and academic debate has voiced concerns that employment could hamper mothers' capacity to care, less emphasis is given to the benefits generated by mothers' jobs. By contrast, theories of child mental health often view fathers' employment as beneficial, indeed necessary, for children's wellbeing, and few problematise fathers' capacity to combine work and care. This paper aims to integrate these seemingly contradictory concerns. We consider whether mothers' and fathers' rewards from combining employment with childcare may be protective for children's mental health, and whether their conflicts and dilemmas generate risks. Analyses use cross-sectional data from a representative survey of families with 4–5 year old children (Growing Up in Australia Study). We restricted our sample to employed parents (N = 2809 mothers; 3982 fathers), using data gathered in 2004. While a majority of parents reported benefits and rewards from working (work-family facilitation), more than one third also reported difficulties and conflicts (work-family conflict). When mothers or fathers experienced conflict we found elevations in young children's emotional and behavioural symptoms, with the risks compounding if both parents experienced conflict between work and family. Associations persisted after adjusting for family socioeconomic circumstances and composition, and they were not offset by work-family facilitation. We did not find evidence for heightened vulnerability to work-family conflict in families with few socioeconomic resources. However, among these disadvantaged families we observed stronger protective associations with children's mental health when parents had rewarding and supportive jobs. Our study extends current paradigms of child mental health by considering the interplay between care environments and market work. Jobs which help mothers and fathers to combine employment with caregiving could yield health benefits across generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Strazdins, Lyndall & OBrien, Léan V. & Lucas, Nina & Rodgers, Bryan, 2013. "Combining work and family: Rewards or risks for children's mental health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 99-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:87:y:2013:i:c:p:99-107
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.03.030
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bauer, Katherine W. & Hearst, Mary O. & Escoto, Kamisha & Berge, Jerica M. & Neumark-Sztainer, Dianne, 2012. "Parental employment and work-family stress: Associations with family food environments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 496-504.
    2. Sara Charlesworth & Lyndall Strazdins, 2011. "Parents jobs in Australia: work hours polarisation and the consequences of job quality and gender equality," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 14(1), pages 35-57.
    3. Strazdins, Lyndall & Shipley, Megan & Clements, Mark & Obrien, Léan V. & Broom, Dorothy H., 2010. "Job quality and inequality: Parents' jobs and children's emotional and behavioural difficulties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2052-2060, June.
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    1. Cooklin, Amanda R. & Giallo, Rebecca & Strazdins, Lyndall & Martin, Angela & Leach, Liana S. & Nicholson, Jan M., 2015. "What matters for working fathers? Job characteristics, work-family conflict and enrichment, and fathers' postpartum mental health in an Australian cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 214-222.
    2. Cooklin, A.R. & Dinh, H. & Strazdins, L. & Westrupp, E. & Leach, L.S. & Nicholson, J.M., 2016. "Change and stability in work–family conflict and mothers' and fathers' mental health: Longitudinal evidence from an Australian cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 24-34.
    3. Dinh, Huong & Cooklin, Amanda R. & Leach, Liana S. & Westrupp, Elizabeth M. & Nicholson, Jan M. & Strazdins, Lyndall, 2017. "Parents' transitions into and out of work-family conflict and children's mental health: Longitudinal influence via family functioning," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 42-50.
    4. Nicole Rosalinde Hander & Manuela Gulde & Thomas Klein & Nadine Mulfinger & Lucia Jerg-Bretzke & Ute Ziegenhain & Harald Gündel & Eva Rothermund, 2021. "Group-Treatment for Dealing with the Work-Family Conflict for Healthcare Professionals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Vahedi, Andisheh & Krug, Isabel & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Matthew & Westrupp, Elizabeth M., 2018. "Longitudinal associations between work-family conflict and enrichment, inter-parental conflict, and child internalizing and externalizing problems," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 251-260.
    6. Engelhardt, Linda & Mack, Judith & Weise, Victoria & Kopp, Marie & Starke, Karla Romero & Garthus-Niegel, Susan, 2023. "The COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for work-privacy-conflict and parent–child-bonding in mothers and fathers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Annelies Van den Eynde & Dimitri Mortelmans, 2020. "The Consequences of Work–Family Enrichment in Families on the Behaviour of Children," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-13, October.

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