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Bringing Work Home or Bringing Family to Work: Personal and Relational Consequences for Working Parents

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Abstract

This study examined the impact of work–family and family–work role blurring on personal and, consequently, relational well-being among parents. A sample of 402 working parents of children between the ages of 2–12 completed measures of role blurring, well-being, and marital satisfaction. Both directions of role blurring were indirectly associated with lower marital satisfaction in mothers through a decreased psychological well-being. For fathers, family–work role blurring was also indirectly associated with poorer marital satisfaction through decreased psychological well-being, whereas work–family role blurring was directly associated with higher marital satisfaction. However, for both parents, the effects of work–family role blurring on well-being and marital satisfaction became non-significant when levels of family–work role blurring were held constant.

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  1. School of Psychology, University of Moncton, Moncton, NB, E1A 3E9, Canada

    Mélanie Paulin, Mylène Lachance-Grzela & Shawna McGee

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  1. Mélanie Paulin
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  2. Mylène Lachance-Grzela
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Correspondence to Mylène Lachance-Grzela.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the research ethic board of the University of Moncton.

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Paulin, M., Lachance-Grzela, M. & McGee, S. Bringing Work Home or Bringing Family to Work: Personal and Relational Consequences for Working Parents. J Fam Econ Iss 38, 463–476 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-017-9524-9

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