The Differential Salience of Family and Community Demands and Resources for Family-to-Work Conflict and Facilitation

This paper examines the differential salience of family and community demands and resources in relation to family-to-work conflict and facilitation. The study used interviews with 1567 employed, married, parents from the 1995 National Survey of Midlife Development (MIDUS). Family demands show relatively strong positive relationships to family-to-work conflict, whereas family resources are relatively important for family-to-work facilitation. Two community demands are positively related to family-to-work conflict and one community resource is positively associated with facilitation. Community demands and resources generally do not moderate relationships between family demands and resources and family-to-work conflict and facilitation. The study suggests that processes associated with demands are relatively important for family-to-work conflict, whereas processes embedded in resources are relatively salient for family-to-work facilitation.     

The Effects of Work and Community Resources and Demands on Family Integration

This paper uses interviews with 1,156 married dual-earner parents of children aged 10–17 from the 1992–1994 National Survey of Families and Households to examine relationships between work and community resources and demands and two aspects of family integration: activities with adolescents and family cohesion. The results indicate that mothers' shorter paid work hours and fathers' lower participation in community-professional organizations and moderate and high levels of informal helping are positively related to activities with adolescents, whereas moderate and high levels of participation in organized youth activities are positively related to family integration. Community-based subjective resources are positively related to family integration, whereas work-based subjective demands are negatively related to family cohesion. The findings generally are similar for mothers and fathers.     

Women's family power and gender preference in Minya,Egypt

Structural and ideational theories are adapted to explore the influence of women's resources and ideational exposures on their family power and gender preferences in Minya, Egypt. Data from a household survey of 2,226 married women aged 15–54 years show that residence with marital kin decreases women's family power. Women in endogamous marriages have greater family power than women in nonendogamous marriages but still tend to prefer sons. Educated women report weaker son preference and greater influence in decisions but still tend to prefer sons. The positive association of women's education, paid work, and urban residence with a variable measuring girl or equal preference and family power suggests that selected resources and ideational exposures may improve girls’ well‐being in Minya.     

Launching the workplace flexibility movement: work family research and a program of social change

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Workplace, Work Force & Working Families program was established in 1994 and ended in 2011. Over the course of its 17-year lifespan, this program – through its vision, commitment and unique, pragmatic grant-making strategies – pioneered the interdisciplinary field of work–family research and spearheaded a national movement to create more flexible workplaces that effectively meet the needs of employees and employers. The program's first strategic phase supported high-quality, multidisciplinary research to examine what was happening within working families at all stages of their lives, both at home and at work. Results from these investigations highlighted the structural mismatch between the needs of this diverse workforce – comprised increasingly of working parents and older workers – and the demands of a rigidly structured workplace requiring full-time, full-year work, with little to no flexibility in how, when, or where work gets done. After a decade of scholarly research documenting that the challenges facing American families were not private, individual problems but public, societal concerns, the Sloan Foundation designed and launched in 2003 the National Workplace Flexibility Initiative. Its goals were twofold: to make workplace flexibility a compelling national issue and to establish it as a standard of the American workplace. As a result of the collective efforts of Sloan-supported organizations and people, the stage is now set for a social movement to realign the structure of the American workplace to the needs of the twenty-first century workforce. Lessons for subsequent research-driven social movements close the article.     

Long Hours and Longings: Australian Children's Views of Fathers' Work and Family Time

Using two waves of paired data from a population sample of 10‐ to 13‐year‐old Australian children (5,711 father–child observations), the authors consider how the hours, schedules, intensity, and flexibility of fathers' jobs are associated with children's views about fathers' work and family time. A third of the children studied considered that their father works too much, one eighth wished that he did not work at all, and one third wanted more time with him or did not enjoy time together. Logistic regression modeling revealed that working on weekends, being time pressured, being unable to vary start and stop times, and working long hours generated negative views in children about fathers' jobs and time together. The time dilemmas generated by fathers' work devotions and demands are salient to and subjectively shared by their children.     

Translational research: implications for the study of work and family

ABSTRACT

Translational research facilitates the application of knowledge gained from research, bridging the divide between research and practice. In the context of work and family studies, translational research can take a variety of forms, depending upon the degree of engagement with stakeholders or end-users of the research. In this study, we defined and examined indicators of translational research in exemplary work and family research publications, in an effort to shed light on the adaptation of translational research perspectives to the work and family field. Using content analysis, we examined indicators of translational research in the 46 articles nominated for the 2018 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for work and family research. Of the 46 articles in the study, 24 (52.2%) included content suggesting translational research. The most common indicators of translational research involved presenting practical and policy applications or implications of research findings, while fewer articles mentioned developing sustained research-practice partnerships or engaging stakeholders in study design or implementation. We identify several implications of these findings for work and family scholars, academic organizations, professional associations, and the field of work and family research as a whole.     

A consortium approach for child and family practice education

Child and family practice and child protection are extraordinarily complex. They require in-depth understanding of intra- and inter-personal skills and intricate service systems, and capacity to operate in a constantly changing policy environment. One way of meeting the needs of such practitioners is facilitating their access to experts working across direct practice, management and leadership and policy-making contexts. This article discusses the rationale for collaboratively delivered post-qualifying courses for child and family practitioners, and discusses a highly successful example of such courses delivered through La Trobe University. It outlines the unique developmental process and model of delivery adopted by the consortium responsible for the postgraduate programme. It concludes with reference to early evaluative findings indicating it as a promising pedagogical model.     

Marriage matters for Black middle-class women: A review of Black American marriages,work, and family life

It is well documented that Black women tend to experience lower marriage participation than non-Black women because of the marriage squeeze, including an unequal sex-ratio within age cohorts, and the increase in economic precarity among Black men. The experience of the marriage squeeze impacts poor, and college educated Black women, but this is only one viewpoint. Drawing on work and family research at the intersection of racial identity, gender, and class, I argue that marriage provides Black middle-class women access to privileges and resources like safety and kin networks within a U.S. nation-state constrained by racism and sexism. By relying on marriage, Black middle-class women can realize personal and familial desires, as well as encounter patriarchal oppression. I end this review with a discussion on future directions for research in this area, and a discussion on imagined futures for Black women that incorporates self-love and self-actualization.     

A social policy model for the reconciliation of employment and family life from a gender equality perspective

The issue of family–employment reconciliation has rapidly evolved from being ignored to a certain dejá vu perception in public debate, as a result of its media success during the last decade. This is even more the case in Spain, where it was only in the late 1990s, when a law was passed to regulate and extend parental and other leave for workers with close relatives in need of care, that reconciliation policies began to be generally discussed and considered. In a context of quick population aging as a consequence of low fertility, concern on labor force supply in the middle term is high on the agenda. Women are increasingly considered to be necessary both as workers and mothers (of future workers), thus raising awareness of the importance of social policies to make their double presence in both worlds possible. There is now general agreement from the right to the left on the urgency to develop family–employment policies. But what is not generally addressed is the impact of such policies on gender equality, a dimension which tends to be either ignored or taken for granted. Not all reconciliation measures have the same effects on the women and men relationship. Some of them push forward equality, whereas others go backwards. Efficiency in making job and family responsibilities compatible does not always go hand in hand with increasing equality. The paper presents a theoretical model for the reconciliation of work and family life from a gender equality perspective. The three main kinds of instruments available in social policy – services, leave, and cash – are examined in four different cases: care of under-threes, care of sick children, coordination of work and school schedules, and care of children during school holidays. Each case is looked at considering its effects on social and gender equality, as well as child welfare. The model includes as active agents of the system the State (promotes and regulates), families and individuals (those directly implicated), and the market as labor market, on the one hand, and supplier of private services, on the other.     

An examination of the views of young people in the Romanian residential care system regarding their relationship with biological family members and the option of reintegration

This paper reports findings from research conducted in six Romanian residential care homes. The aim of the paper is to examine the views held by young people, currently living in residential care, about the importance of their biological families and the option and challenge of reintegration. The data reflect the ideas and perspectives of 44 young people captured through a narrative interview approach using social mapping activities. The results indicate that most children and young people know at least one birth parent and maintain contact on their own initiative; most do not place a high level of importance on such relationships which are generally characterised by lack of confidence, low security and a presumed limited capacity on the part of the biological family to meet their needs. Family reintegration is considered to be a viable option for a small number of young people; others do not see it as realistic because of the impact of long-term separation and the likelihood of experiencing poorer living conditions.