Bringing Work Home or Bringing Family to Work: Personal and Relational Consequences for Working Parents

This study examined the impact of work–family and family–work role blurring on personal and, consequently, relational well-being among parents. A sample of 402 working parents of children between the ages of 2–12 completed measures of role blurring, well-being, and marital satisfaction. Both directions of role blurring were indirectly associated with lower marital satisfaction in mothers through a decreased psychological well-being. For fathers, family–work role blurring was also indirectly associated with poorer marital satisfaction through decreased psychological well-being, whereas work–family role blurring was directly associated with higher marital satisfaction. However, for both parents, the effects of work–family role blurring on well-being and marital satisfaction became non-significant when levels of family–work role blurring were held constant.