Effect of Mothers’ Work-Family Gains on Children’s Communication: Dual Mediating Role of Mothers’ Permissive Parenting Practices and Children’s Media Dependency

Abstract

Objectives: Recently, there has been a noticeable increase in mothers who juggle their jobs and raising children. This study examined the effect of mothers’ work-family gains on school-aged children’s communication skills. Specifically, we investigated how this influence is dual-mediated by mothers’ permissive parenting practices and children’s media dependency.Methods: This study utilized data from 10th version of the Panel Study of Korean Children (PSKC). Data were collected from 707 children (364 boys, 343 girls) and their working mothers. The average age of children was 9.4 (<i>SD</i> = 1.40). The study conducted descriptive, correlation, regression analyses, including bootstrapping, employing SPSS 27.0, and the PROCESS macro version 4.2 to examine the hypothesized dual mediation model.Results: First, mothers’ work-family gains negatively affected children’s communication skills. Second, mother’s work-family gains had decreased mother’s permissive parenting practices and children’s media dependency, but increased children’s communication skills. Therefore, variables showed partial mediation effect on their relationship. Third, the dual mediation effect of mothers’ permissive parenting practices and children’s media dependency had verified significant indirect effects with a 95% confidence interval.Conclusion: These findings indicate the critical role of the effects of mothers’ work-family gains on children’s communication skills, dual mediated by mother’s permissive parenting practices and children’s media dependency. These findings highlight the importance of focusing on mothers’ work-family gains rather than work-family conflicts. Moreover, this study provides an academic basis for examining the importance of mothers’ work-family gains on school-aged children, including working mothers of infants or young children.