Parents' transitions into and out of work-family conflict and children's mental health: Longitudinal influence via family functioning

Abstract

The demands arising from the combination of work and family roles can generate conflicts (work-family conflicts), which have become recognized as major social determinants of mothers' and fathers' mental health. This raises the question of the potential effects on children. The current study of 2496 Australian families (7652 observations from children aged 4-5 up to 12-13 years) asks whether changes in children's mental health corresponds with changes in mothers' and fathers' work-family conflicts. Using longitudinal random-effect structural equation models, adjusting for prior child mental health, changes in work-family conflict were examined across four adjacent pairs of biennial data waves. Children's mental health deteriorated when their mother or father experienced an increase in work-family conflict, but improved when parents' work-family conflict reduced. Results held for mothers, fathers and couples, and the key pathways appear to be changes in children's relational environments. These results contribute new evidence that conflicts between the work-family interface are powerful social determinants of mental health which have an intergenerational reach.

Parenting style in the context of the conflict between parental and business roles

“…And, while parents with optimal mental health have capacity to provide warm, nurturing and stimulating environments for their children, parental stress and mental health difficulties are related with poorer quality parent-child interactions, with less warmth, more irritability and less consistency (Conger et al, 2002). Recent longitudinal research of work-family conflict and children's mental health (Dinh et al, 2017) showed that when parents move into work-family conflict and when it becomes chronic, children's wellbeing is adversely affected both directly and indirectly via increases in poor parent mental health, parenting irritability and marital dissatisfaction.…”

Maternal Work–Family Experiences: Longitudinal Influences on Child Mental Health through Inter-Parental Conflict

“…With a few exceptions (e.g., Dinh et al, 2017;Ferreira et al, 2018), the existing research on the associations between the work-family interface and child behavioral problems used cross-sectional study designs, limiting our understanding in two important ways. Firstly, associations between the work-family interface and child behavioral problems have been investigated separately in childhood or adolescence, but not together, which limits our understanding of developmental effects (for an exception, see Vahedi, Krug, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, & Westrupp, 2018).…”

“…In terms of empirical support, emerging evidence indicates that work-family experiences influence partners' relationship and the level of inter-parental conflict (Cooklin et al, 2015;Dinh et al, 2017); and a large body of research demonstrates the negative impacts of inter-parental conflict on child mental health (e.g., Cummings, George, McCoy, & Davies, 2012). Inter-parental conflict is also one of the family-based environmental factors that may be involved with the development of emotional insecurity and disordered eating in adolescents (George, Fairchild, Cummings, & Davies, 2014).…”

“…Work-family conflict refers to parents' difficulties in combining work and family roles, and workfamily enrichment refers to parents' positive experiences in combining work and family (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006;Marshall & Barnett, 1993); both increasingly common experiences for contemporary parents. Recent studies suggest that work-family factors are associated with child mental health problems (Strazdins, Obrien, Lucas, & Rodgers, 2013;Vieira, Matias, Ferreira, Lopez, & Matos, 2016); however, investigations into the mechanisms that mediate (i.e., explain) these associations over time are scarce (Dinh et al, 2017). Given that inter-parental conflict is related to both work-family conflict/enrichment (Cooklin et al, 2015;Hart & Kelley, 2006), and child mental health problems (Davies & Cummings, 1994;Westrupp, Rose, Nicholson, & Brown, 2015), it is possible that inter-parental conflict may mediate the association between work-family conflict/enrichment and child mental health problems.…”

“…In line with the crossover theory, A growing body of research indicates a positive association between the work-family interface and child behavioral problems (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). These associations have been found to operate both directly (Hart & Kelley, 2006;Lawson, Davis, McHale, Hammer, & Buxton, 2014), and indirectly, through a number of family functioning mechanisms, including poor parenting (Dinh et al, 2017;Ferreira et al, 2018), poor parent mental health (Strazdins et al, 2013), poor marital satisfaction (Dinh et al, 2017), and decreases in family cohesion and consistency in daily routines such as eating together, house chores, and bed-time (McLoyd, Toyokawa, & Kaplan, 2008). Work-family enrichment has also been shown to be negatively associated with child behavioral problems both directly and indirectly, through high quality parenting and better parental mental health (Strazdins et al, 2013;Vieira et al, 2016).…”