Employed parents' reactions to work-family conflicts: Adaptive strategies of scaling back in Germany

Abstract

Objective: This study investigates the extent to which employed mothers and fathers scale back on working hours or job pressures in response to work-to-family conflicts (WFC). Background: Drawing on the concept of adaptive family strategies, it is assumed that WFC is an antecedent to a reduction in work demands. Considering partners’ gender ideology net of other resources and characteristics, we can expect to see gender differences in the adoption of this strategy. Relatively little research has been conducted on associations among WFC, gender ideology, gender, and work-related coping strategies. Method: We use six waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam, release 11.0), covering the survey years 2012-2019, to examine the effect of WFC and gender ideology on employed mothers’ and fathers’ work-related coping strategies (N=791 mothers and N=1292 fathers). OLS regression is used to estimate the effect of WFC at and gender ideology on changes in job pressure and working hours between and . Results: Parents who experience WFC are more likely to reduce their job pressure and less likely to scale back on working hours. Gender differences in the reaction between mothers and fathers on WFC only occur in connection with traditional gender ideology. Conclusion: Scaling back seems not to be a commonly used strategy to react to WFC.

Transition to fatherhood and adjustments in working hours: The importance of organizational policy feedback

“…This is in line with the findings by Pollmann-Schult & Reynolds (2017), suggesting that financial considerations in the family domain restrict fathers' opportunities to work reduced hours (Pollmann-Schult & Reynolds, 2017). Moreover, it is in line with the study by Adams & Golsch (2022) showing that scaling back is not a common strategy to deal with work-family conflict.…”

“…Policy feedback theory (Campbell, 2012;Gangl & Ziefle, 2015;Grunow et al, 2018) suggests that this is a result of state policies that increasingly support a dual earner/dual carer family model, e.g., with periods of parental leave exclusively reserved for fathers. However, existing research indicates that the share of fathers who have actually reduced their working hours remains relatively low (Adams & Golsch 2022;Hobson & Fahlén, 2009;Pollmann-Schult & Reynolds, 2017). In the family domain, financial considerations have been found to be of importance (Pollmann-Schult & Reynolds, 2017) which aligns with previous research on the importance of the family domain for work-family conflicts .…”

The family side of work-family conflict: A literature review of antecedents and consequences

“…When it comes to practice or policy implications of our knowledge on antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict, scholars mainly target two directions: On the one hand, it is focused on the organizational role or the need to change the individual work situation. This is either by organizational policies providing work-family supportive measures (Abendroth, 2022), especially through possibilities for flexible working, or by individual career decisions (Adams & Golsch, 2022). On the other hand, experts in this field demand social policy and welfare state support, for example, by expanding childcare and parental leave opportunities and making them more flexible.…”

The family side of work-family conflict: A literature review of antecedents and consequences

“…When it comes to practical or policy implications of the knowledge on antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict, scholars mainly target two directions: On the one hand, it is focused on the organizational role or the need to change the individual work situation. This is either by organizational policies providing work-family supportive measures (Abendroth, 2022), especially through possibilities for flexible working, or by individual career decisions (Adams & Golsch, 2022). On the other hand, experts in this field demand for social policy and welfare state support, for example, by expanding childcare and parental leave opportunities and making them more flexible.…”