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A comparative analysis of the challenges to establishing a work–life balance for working fathers and mothers

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Abstract

Aim

This study compared and analyzed the relationship between work engagement and parental involvement and perceived work–family and family–work conflicts among working fathers and mothers in China.

Subject and methods

A total of 455 valid questionnaires were collected from a random nationwide sample of urban working parents with children aged 3–18 years. The questionnaire included scales measuring reciprocal work–family conflict, work engagement, and parental involvement and a self-designed background information questionnaire. SPSS version 26 was employed for primary variable correlation analysis and analysis of variance to examine differences in work and family domain characteristics among workplace parents.

Results

The findings indicated a positive correlation between work engagement and parental involvement. Parental involvement was significantly higher for working mothers than for working fathers. No significant gender differences were observed in work engagement. No significant gender differences were observed in either work–family or family–work conflicts. However, gender differences were found in perceptions of parental engagement and family–work conflict and in perceptions of work engagement and work–family conflict.

Conclusion

With the growing need to strike a balance between work and family life, the situation is gradually improving for working mothers, whereas working fathers’ “controllability” urgently needs to be increased.

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Data availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Code availability

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Acknowledgements

This study has received ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (approval number: H21090). Participants were informed about the purpose of the research in the survey questionnaire and provided informed consent.

Funding

This research received no funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Leyin Guo, Ligang Wang, Wenbin Gao, Yuanyuan Jin & Mingzhen Liang

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Leyin Guo, Ligang Wang, Wenbin Gao, Yuanyuan Jin & Mingzhen Liang

Authors
  1. Leyin Guo
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  2. Ligang Wang
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  3. Wenbin Gao
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  4. Yuanyuan Jin
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  5. Mingzhen Liang
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Contributions

Leyin Guo: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Project administration, Writing – original draft.

Ligang Wang: Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.

Wenbin Gao: Project administration, Resources, Supervision.

Yuanyuan Jin: Resources, Software.

Mingzhen Liang: Resources, Software.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ligang Wang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Obtained the ethical audit certificate from the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the ethical audit label H21090, on January 18, 2022.

Consent to participate

The purpose of using the survey data has been explained in the survey questionnaire and informed consent has been obtained.

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Not applicable.

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Guo, L., Wang, L., Gao, W. et al. A comparative analysis of the challenges to establishing a work–life balance for working fathers and mothers. J Public Health (Berl.) (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-024-02249-4

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