Abstract
Having parenting boundaries permeated by work, expressed in bringing work home and dealing with work-related issues while performing the parental role can relate to increasing levels of work-family-conflict. This association, however, might be influenced by inter-individual differences in the meanings associated with work (career role orientation). To investigate these links we conducted a dyadic two-wave study that included 119 highly educated (59% of mother and 43% of fathers have a university degree) dual-earner couples with preschool-aged children. Participants’ self-reported on permeable parenting boundaries (PPB), career role orientation (CRO), and work-family-conflict (WFC). Actor-partner moderated effects were modeled across time and patterns of moderating effects were tested. Results showed that, controlling for time 1 WFC, fathers’ and mothers’ PPB at time 1 predicted positively fathers’ and mothers’ WFC at time 2 (actor effects). Mothers’ and fathers’ career orientation at time 1 had no main effect on mothers’ or fathers’ WFC at time 2. However, two interaction effects were found. Mothers’ PPB at time 1 predicted higher mothers’ WFC at time 2 when fathers were less CRO and mothers’ PPB at time 1 predicted higher fathers’ WFC at time 2 when mothers were less CRO. Findings suggest that career orientation may be an important moderator of the negative relationship of permeable parenting boundaries on WFC, in particular of the effects of mothers’ permeability. The evidence of couple interactions regarding career orientation indicates the need for systemic analyses of the work-family boundary management process.
Highlights
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Study of actor and partner effects on boundary management using a dyadic two-wave study.
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Permeable parenting boundaries (PPB) have a positive linkage with WFC across time.
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Career role orientation (CRO) is an important moderator of the link of PPB on WFC.
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Mothers’ PPB interacted with both own and partner’s CRO.
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CRO moderated actor and partner effects of permeable parenting boundaries and WFC.
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Notes
Parental stress was assessed with the Parental Stress Scale (PSS; Berry & Jones, 1995). The scale is comprised of 18 items (e.g., “I feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of being a parent”) scored in a 5-point Likert scale from (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.79 for fathers and mothers.
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Funding
This research was funded by FEDER through the Operational Competitiveness Factors Program – COMPETE, and by National Funds through FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), within the project PTDC/MHC-CED/5218/2012 and SFRH/BPD/102326/2014.
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Matias, M., Ferreira, T. & Matos, P.M. “Don’t Bring Work Home”: How Career Orientation Moderates Permeable Parenting Boundaries in Dual-earner Couples. J Child Fam Stud 32, 1018–1031 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02290-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02290-5