Definitions of work-life balance in childfree dual-career couples: an inductive typology

Abstract

PurposeWork-life balance experiences of dual-career professional couples with children have received considerable attention, but there remains a paucity of research on the definitions of work-life balance among dual-career professional couples without children. This qualitative investigation sheds light on childfree couples' lives outside of work and their concomitant understanding of work-life balance.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on interviews with 21 dual-career professional couples in Canada and the US, exploring their non-work lives and how they conceive of work-life balance.FindingsThematic analyses demonstrate that this group, while free of child rearing responsibilities, still deals with myriad non-work obligations. These couples also defy uniform characterization. The inductive investigation uncovered four couple categories based on the individual members' career and care orientations. These included careerist, conventional, non-conventional and egalitarian couples. Definitions of work-life balance varied across couple type according to the value they placed on flexibility, autonomy and control, and their particular level of satisfaction with their work and non-work domains.Originality/valueThis study contributes to research at the intersection of work-life balance and various demographic groups by exploring the work-life balance of professional dual-career couples without children. Using an interpretive ontology, the study advances a typology of childfree dual-career professional couples. The findings challenge the rhetoric that these couples are primarily work-oriented but otherwise carefree. Thus, this study demonstrates ways that childfree couples are different as well as similar to those with children.

Prevalence, Age of Decision, and Interpersonal Warmth Judgements of Childfree Adults: Replication and Extensions

“…Although childfree adults are a distinct population with unique healthcare (Campbell, 1999) and workplace needs (Boiarintseva et al, 2019(Boiarintseva et al, , 2021Gay, 2021), there is still limited generalizable research on their prevalence, age of decision, and interpersonal warmth judgements. Replicating past findings (Neal and Neal, 2022), our study provides additional confidence that childfree adults are numerous, tend to make the decision to not have children early in life, and are subject to lower levels of interpersonal warmth from parents due to parents' ingroup favoritism.…”

“…However, re-cent research suggests it is an important population to understand because its members have unique reproductive health (Campbell, 1999) and end-oflife (Blackstone, 2019) needs. Childfree individuals also encounter challenges managing work-life balance (Boiarintseva et al, 2019(Boiarintseva et al, , 2021Gay, 2021) and with stereotypes (Letherby, 2002;Ciaccio et al, 2021;Ashburn-Nardo, 2017;Bays, 2017;Bahtiyar-Saygan and Sakallı-Ugurlu, 2019;Ekelund and Ask, 2021). Much of the emerging research on the childfree population either adopts a qualitative approach (Boiarintseva et al, 2019(Boiarintseva et al, , 2021Stahnke et al, 2020;Doyle et al, 2013;Ruegemer and Dziengel, 2021;Stegen et al, 2021;Hintz and Brown, 2020), or conducts quantitative analysis of a non-representative sample (Ashburn-Nardo, 2017;Ciaccio et al, 2021;Koropeckyj-Cox et al, 2018;Bays, 2017;Ekelund and Ask, 2021;Maftei et al, 2021).…”

“…Childfree individuals also encounter challenges managing work-life balance (Boiarintseva et al, 2019(Boiarintseva et al, , 2021Gay, 2021) and with stereotypes (Letherby, 2002;Ciaccio et al, 2021;Ashburn-Nardo, 2017;Bays, 2017;Bahtiyar-Saygan and Sakallı-Ugurlu, 2019;Ekelund and Ask, 2021). Much of the emerging research on the childfree population either adopts a qualitative approach (Boiarintseva et al, 2019(Boiarintseva et al, , 2021Stahnke et al, 2020;Doyle et al, 2013;Ruegemer and Dziengel, 2021;Stegen et al, 2021;Hintz and Brown, 2020), or conducts quantitative analysis of a non-representative sample (Ashburn-Nardo, 2017;Ciaccio et al, 2021;Koropeckyj-Cox et al, 2018;Bays, 2017;Ekelund and Ask, 2021;Maftei et al, 2021). Although this prior work has provided insight, it does not allow conclusions to be drawn about population characteristics such as prevalence, age of decision, or interpersonal warmth judgements.…”

Prevalence, age of decision, and interpersonal warmth judgements of childfree adults

“…Members of this large population experience unique barriers in the workplace and healthcare. For example, childfree adults are often neglected in discussions of work-life balance 14 , 15 and are commonly denied access to voluntary sterilization by their physicians 16 . Childfree adults also experience stigmatization and are the recipients of negative stereotypes from parents and other adults without children 17 – 27 .…”

“…Qualitative studies have yielded insight into the experiences of childfree adults 14 , 15 , 28 – 32 , while quantitative studies have attempted to estimate the prevalence of childfree adults 13 , 33 – 35 and measure attitudes toward them 13 , 17 – 19 , 21 , 23 – 25 . However, many of these past studies are limited in their generalizability because they focus exclusively on women 33 , 34 or rely on non-representative samples 14 , 15 , 17 , 21 , 24 , 28 – 31 . In this work, to be inclusive we examine the entire population, including both men and women, but report results separately for men and women in the Supplementary Information .…”