Parental Factors,Psychological Well-Being,and Sibling Dynamics: A Mediational Model in Emerging Adulthood

The purposes of the current study were to assess the impact of parental divorce on psychological well-being in general and on sibling dynamics in particular. Driven by recent advances in systems orientation, the study assesses the interconnection between divorce, perceived parental marital satisfaction, psychological well-being, and sibling dynamics and evaluates the interconnection between sibling relationship quality, perceived parental marital satisfaction, and psychological well-being outcomes in emerging adulthood. Three hundred and ninety-two college students completed indices of parental marital status and satisfaction, sibling relationship quality, and psychological well-being. Positive associations between perceived parental marital satisfaction and sibling closeness and communication were found. Perceived parental marital satisfaction was also found to be positively associated with self-esteem and life-satisfaction. Sibling closeness and warmth was positively correlated with satisfaction with life. Perceived parental marital satisfaction was found to mediate the relationship between parental divorce and sibling closeness as well as the relationship between parental divorce and sibling communication. Furthermore, perceived parental marital satisfaction was found to mediate the relationship between sibling closeness and life-satisfaction. The current study contributes to a growing body of literature assessing parental variables, sibling relationships, and well-being in emerging adults. The results highlight the importance of examining the mechanisms through which separation/divorce impact outcomes.     

Boundary-Spanning Demands,Personal Mastery,and Family Satisfaction: Individual and Crossover Effects Among Dual-Earner Parents

Grounded in ecological systems theory, this study modeled family satisfaction as a function of family-unfriendly work culture, work–family blurring, and personal mastery, examining both individual crossover effects. Analysis of data from 273 married dual-earner parents revealed that family-unfriendly work culture was negatively related to family satisfaction, whereas personal mastery was positively related to family satisfaction. Mothers' family-unfriendly work culture and work–family blurring were negatively related to their husbands' family satisfaction, but no parallel crossover findings were obtained for fathers, suggesting gender differences in crossover. Results were consistent with the notion that family life can be compromised by work cultures that create demands spanning both work and family domains. Implications for the management of work and family boundaries are discussed.     

Quantity and Quality: A More Nuanced Look at the Association Between Family Work and Marital Well-Being

The current study uses family systems and gender theories to look at three forms of family work (housework, emotion work, and child care) and their association with marital satisfaction and burnout. Data were taken from a sample of dual-earner mothers and fathers parenting preschool-age children. First, relationships between the quantity of family work performed and marital well-being were established. Then, measures related to the perceived “quality” of child care provided by a spouse (childcare appraisals and, for wives, maternal gatekeeping) were added to the statistical model. Overall, emotion work was the most influential predictor of women’s marital well-being. For fathers, the perceived quality of care provided by mothers was most significant for marital well-being.     

The Far-Reaching Consequences of Job Insecurity: A Review on Family-Related Outcomes

Job insecurity (JI) appears a fairly stable job stressor in working life today and likely to impair employee well-being. This review article presents the key findings of studies examining the effects of perceived JI on family well-being (e.g., marital/parental role quality, work–family conflict). The results, based on 25 published peer-reviewed studies, suggest an association between JI and impaired family well-being. Thus, JI spills over into family life as proposed in the spillover theory of work–family interface. Furthermore, studies have found some evidence of crossover effects of JI from parents to children: parents’ JI relates to negative outcomes in children. These results support the view that JI is very likely a severe stressor not only for employees’ well-being and health but also for their families’ well-being. Limitations, future directions, and implications are also discussed.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Newlywed Couples' Neuroticism and Stressful Events on Marital Satisfaction Through Mutual Problem Solving

This investigation examined the role of neuroticism, stressful experiences, and mutual problem solving in newlywed couples' marital satisfaction. The vulnerability-stress-adaptation model of marital development was used as the basis of the proposed hypotheses. Dyadic analyses and tests of indirect effects were performed on data from 186 couples in the first 5 years of their marriage. Results indicate that husbands' and wives' work, job–home interference, and family stress were significantly associated with their own lower marital satisfaction. Significant partner effects further indicated that husbands' and wives' family stress was negatively associated with the marital satisfaction of their partner. Additionally, the relationships between (1) neuroticism and marital satisfaction and (2) stressful events and marital satisfaction can be partially explained by mutual problem solving for both husbands and wives. This study emphasizes the important role of problem-solving communication in newlywed couples' experiences of stressful events and marital satisfaction.     

Associations Between Family of Origin Climate,Relationship Self‐Regulation,and Marital Outcomes

Using dyadic data from 961 married couples from the Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire project, the current study explored the direct association between family of origin climate and marital outcomes and the indirect association via relationship self‐regulation (RSR). Results from the actor–partner interdependence model analysis indicated that family of origin climate was positively associated with marital stability directly and indirectly via the effects of RSR and marital satisfaction for both men and women. Results suggest that the experience one has in their family of origin is associated with their marital outcomes through their RSR. Actor–partner direct and indirect effects indicate that spouses' RSR may have important consequences for both partner's evaluation of the marriage. Implications for intervention and future research are discussed.     

Study on Work and the Workplace: Implications of the Psychological Aspects for Health Education and an Occupational Health and Safety Program on a University Campus

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to examine social and psychological factors accounting for satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work and to relate levels of job satisfaction to physical and psychological well-being. Eight hundred eighty-seven male and female employees at all job levels at a large mid-Atlantic university completed the questionnaire, responding to questions on job satisfaction, health characteristics (chronic conditions and physical symptoms) and psychological well-being. Job satisfaction was a function of those variables associated with occupational status, particularly the intrinsic dimension of challenge. Overall satisfaction was highest among the occupational group with highest status — faculty/administration — and lowest among the secretarial/clerical group. Health status appeared also to be related to occupational group; secretarial/clerical, the group with the lowest job satisfaction, also reported significantly more physical symptoms than faculty/administration. Faculty/administration reported highest levels of overall psychological well-being, significantly higher than associate staff and secretarial/clerical. A major implication to be drawn from these data is that the relationship between job satisfaction and physical and psychological well-being indicates the need for modification of certain job characteristics to minimize or eliminate unnecessary stressors. Health professionals from different disciplines all play a role in promoting a healthful and safe work environment.     

Who Does What When Partners Become Parents:

Forty-seven couples who were first-time parents were assessed in late pregnancy and again at 6 and 18 months postpartum. Fifteen couples not yet decided about having a baby were assessed at equivalent times. Actual involvement in household, decision-making, and childcare roles was determined by responses to a 36-item "Who Does What?" questionnaire. Psychological involvement in parent, partner, and worker roles was also determined, as was each partner's satisfaction with behavioral and psychological involvement in each domain. On the basis of global analyses, previous studies have suggested that new parents adopt more traditional roles. Item analyses indicated that men's and women's roles change in both traditional and nontraditional ways during the transition to parenthood, depending on the item and the time of assessment. Measures of individual and couple adaption were also obtained: self-esteem, parenting stress, and marital satisfaction. Men's involvement in family tasks was correlated with their own or their wives adaption in pregnancy but became linked with adaptation at 6 months postpartum. However, at 18 months after birth husbands' involvement in family tasks was correlated only with wives' adaptation. For both parents, satisfaction with family task arrangements becomes correlated with self-esteem, parenting stress and marital quality after childbirth; these measures of adaptation are more closely linked with role satisfaction than with actual sharing of family work.     

Trajectories of Conflict Over Raising Adolescent Children and Marital Satisfaction

The present study examined trajectories of marital satisfaction among couples with adolescent children and evaluated how changes in parents' conflict over raising adolescent children were associated with changes in marital satisfaction over 4 years. Using a prospective, longitudinal research design and controlling for family socioeconomic status, dyadic growth curve analysis from a sample of 431 couples with adolescent children indicated that marital satisfaction decreased over time for parents with adolescent children and that the trajectories for mothers and fathers were substantially linked. More importantly, the study demonstrated that increases or decreases in parents' marital conflict over raising adolescent children were associated with corresponding decreases or increases in marital satisfaction for both mothers and fathers.     

Perceived Parental Control Processes,Parent–Child Relational Qualities,and Adolescent Psychological Well-Being in Intact and Nonintact Families: Longitudinal Findings in the Chinese Culture

ABSTRACT

Over 3 consecutive years, Chinese adolescents from intact families (n?=?2,140) and nonintact families (n?=?234) responded to instruments assessing their perceived parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness, as well as parental control based on indigenous Chinese concepts), parental psychological control, parent–child relational qualities (satisfaction with parental control, child's readiness to communicate with the parents, and perceived mutual trust between parents and their children), and psychological well-being. Perceived parental behavioral control processes, parent–child relational qualities, and psychological well-being were poorer in nonintact families relative to intact families over time. In contrast, maternal psychological control was higher in nonintact families over time than in intact families over time. Adolescents from stable and disruptive nonintact families without remarriage generally performed poorer than did adolescents from nonintact families with remarriage on the various indicators of family processes and adolescent psychological well-being.     

To your happiness? Extra hours of labor supply and worker well-being

Does extra work buy happiness and well-being? Unique survey data are analyzed to consider whether measures of self-reported subjective happiness, psychological health and economic satisfaction bear a net positive or negative relationship with working extra hours. Overtime work hours generally are associated with increased work stress, fatigue and work–family interference. When overtime work is required, this appears to offset the otherwise greater happiness and mental healthiness produced by its additional income. Mandatory overtime work is associated with additional work–family interference and unhappiness for some workers but the opposite for some others. Policies most fruitful for improving individual economic and social welfare should focus on minimizing the incidences where overtime is both mandatory and harmful.     

EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPES OF FAMILY WORK AND MARITAL WELL-BEING

We use an expanded definition of family work and test its association with marital well-being. Using a gender perspective, we examine the role of the respondent's and partner's performance of family work for both husbands and wives. Data are taken from a sample of couples with dependent children under age 18 (N = 96), and separate regression equations are estimated by gender. Though housework is cited as one of the most contentious issues reported by couples, it is not significant in our analysis of marital well-being. In our analysis, other forms of family work are considered, and childcare, emotion work, and formal volunteering are significantly associated with marital well-being. The role of partner's provision of emotion work is particularly salient. Discussion of the gendered nature of our findings follows.     

Implications of work pressure and supervisor support for fathers’, mothers’ and adolescents’ relationships and well-being in dual-earner families

The present study investigates the implications of work pressure and supervisor support for individual psychosocial functioning, marital and parent–adolescent relationships. We examined the effects of work pressure and supervisor support separately for mothers and fathers and their adolescent children (M=17.33 years) in 156 white working- and middle-class, dual-earner families. Results revealed when husbands reported high work pressure and low supervisor support, both parents reported higher levels of depressive symptoms. When wives were in the high pressure/low support group, they reported lower levels of marital love, and both spouses reported less marital satisfaction. When either parent was in the high pressure/low support group, both parents reported higher levels of role overload, and families experienced more conflict and less intimacy in their relationships with their children. Their children also reported higher levels of depressive symptoms. Results associated with parent and child depressive symptoms, however, varied by parent and child sex.     

Self- and Spouse-Reported Work–Family Conflict and Dual-Earners’ Job Satisfaction

We add to the literature on job satisfaction by examining the role played by self-reported and spouse-reported work–family conflict for dual-earner husbands and wives (N = 156 couples, 312 individuals), a contagion model of work and family. Two path models of job satisfaction were tested: a spillover model, including the respondent's work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict, and a crossover model, including the spouse's perception of the respondent's work-to-family conflict. Workplace and family/respondent characteristics were also included in the models. For wives, job satisfaction is associated with family-to-work conflict (spillover). For husbands, job satisfaction is associated with his spouse's perception of his work-to-family conflict (crossover). For both husbands and wives, coworker support is both directly and indirectly associated with job satisfaction.     

Parenting challenges and parents’ intimate relationships

ABSTRACT

Parenthood is a rewarding as well as a potentially stressful event for many couples as it brings many changes to their lives. Having young children at home can result in decreased relationship satisfaction and a low-quality sexual relationship. Same-sex couples may, however, report different parenting experiences, and their parenthood may not significantly affect their level of relationship satisfaction. The quality of marital relationship is an important determinant of the parenting stress and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Mothers and fathers who report dissatisfaction with their marriage and relationship experience more parenting difficulties and stress than those who are satisfied with their relationships. Although research into transition to parenthood is very significant, the association between parenting challenges and parents’ intimate relationships remains an understudied topic. Research needs not only to highlight the importance of parents and family well-being and its direct impacts on the child’s well-being, but also to emphasize the bidirectional association between parent-child interactions and couples’ intimate relationship satisfaction.     

HOW ARE FAMILY‐RESPONSIVE WORKPLACE ARRANGEMENTS FAMILY FRIENDLY?

Family-responsive workplace arrangements, including schedule flexibility, reduced hours, and workplace social support, are often touted as important to employed parents' abilities to balance the simultaneous demands involved in work and childrearing. Empirical evidence regarding this supposition has most often focused on employed parents' perceptions of work-family incompatibility, leaving little understanding of (1) which arrangements are associated with parenting and children's well-being and (2) the process through which these arrangements may be related to these aspects of family life. A stress perspective on the work-family interface suggests that work-family arrangements might be related to parenting and children through the mechanisms of parents' psychological well-being. I use data from a regional sample of employed mothers to investigate this proposition. Findings from path models show that most relationships between arrangements and parenting are direct and unmediated by mothers' well-being and that work-family arrangements are only indirectly associated with children's socioemotional well-being.     

“What Happens at Home Does Not Necessarily Stay at Home”: The Relationship of Observed Negative Couple Interaction With Physical Health,Mental Health,and Work Satisfaction

Using data from a sample of 281 couples (the Flourishing Families data set), the authors tested a systemic theoretical model that examined the relationship among observed marital interaction, physical and mental health, and work satisfaction. The results showed that negative marital interaction was associated with significantly lower work satisfaction and poorer health for men. Higher negative marital interaction scores were significantly related to elevated depression scores for both women and men. For both men and women, negative couple interaction was associated with work satisfaction through depression and health. Overall, 34% of the variance in work satisfaction for men and 24% for the women was explained by the model. The results suggest that marriage‐to‐work spillover can be costly for families, organizations, and governments.     

The Experience of Work–Family Conflict Among Divorced Parents in Flanders

This study investigates the difference between married and divorced parents, accounting for gender and relationship status after divorce. It also provides insight into differences within the category of divorced parents. Data from 769 married and 1,424 divorced parents were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The results identify a complex interplay among marital status, relationship status, and gender. For mothers, both marital and relationship status have an impact on work–family conflict. For fathers, it is the presence of a partner that affects the interference of family with work. Gender, working hours, and child’s presence were identified as important factors influencing work–family conflict among divorced parents.     

Individual and Crossover Effects of Work Schedule Fit: A Within‐Couple Analysis

A couple‐level analysis with a sample of 105 female reduced‐hours physicians and their full‐time–employed husbands found individual and spouse crossover effects: Each spouse's ratings of own schedule fit predict own job‐role quality; wives' ratings of partner/family schedule fit predict their marital‐role quality, with a similar trend for husbands; husbands' ratings of own schedule fit predict wives' marital‐role quality; and husbands' ratings of partner/family schedule fit and wives' ratings of own schedule fit predict husbands' psychological distress. These findings highlight the interdependence of couple members' experiences and illustrate potential costs of wives' trading off time at work for time at home.     

Linkages between mothers’ job stressors and adolescents’ perceptions of the mother–child relationship in the context of weak versus strong support networks

This study tested the hypothesis that mothers’ exposure to psychosocial job stressors would be indirectly associated with less favorable ratings of the mother–adolescent relationship, as perceived by youth, by way of mothers feeling depleted of cognitive and emotional energies after work. We also examined whether mothers’ perceptions of being socially supported with regard to work and family responsibilities moderate associations between greater psychosocial job stressors and lesser quality in the mother–adolescent relationship. The sample consisted of 169 diverse mother–early adolescent dyads. Mothers and adolescents completed surveys independently. Hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling and multi-group comparisons. Psychosocial job stressors were indirectly related to qualities of the mother–adolescent relationship via their association with mothers’ experiences of psychological energy depletion from work to family. The most consistent evidence for these associations was found among women who felt less social support in regard to their work–family responsibilities.