Sandwiched Mothers: Parent Involvement and Mother’s Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

I investigated subjective well-being (SWB)—happiness, meaningfulness, sadness, stress, and tiredness—of 7,087 mothers, engaged in 11,154 cases of activities in which their children were present, using the Conservation of Resources theory. Results of OLS analysis of data from the American Time Use Study suggested that the presence of her parent(s) during the activities was associated positively with the mother’s happiness and negatively with her stress. Total time spent with her parent(s) was positively associated with the mother’s tiredness. Co-residence with parents was not significantly related to the mother’s SWB. The association between the mother’s SWB and her involvement with parents was positively moderated by demographic variables that may have increased her need for core resources in the form of kin support. The focus on sandwiched activities in which a mother engaged with her children and parents permitted direct assessment of how those activities affected the mother’s SWB.