Maternal Work–Family Conflict and Psychological Distress: Reciprocal Relationships Over 8 Years
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| Author | Amanda Cooklin,Elizabeth M. Westrupp,Lyndall Strazdins,Angela Martin,Jan M. Nicholson,Stephen R. Zubrick |
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12262 |
E M. W La Trobe University
L S Australian National University∗
A M University of Tasmania∗∗
A C La Trobe University∗∗∗
S R. Z University of Western Australia∗∗∗∗
J M. N La Trobe University∗∗∗∗∗
Maternal Work–Family Conict and Psychological
Distress: Reciprocal Relationships Over 8 Years
The relationships between employed mothers’
work–family conict and psychological distress
are unlikely to be static or one way. Using
longitudinal data, the authors investigated
reciprocal effects between work–family conict
and psychological distress across 8 years of the
family life cycle. They modeled cross-lagged
structural equations over 5 biennial waves of
Judith Lumley Centre, La Trobe University,Melbourne,
Victoria 3086, Australia (e.westrupp@latrobe.edu.au).
∗National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health,
Australian National University,Building 62, Corner of
Eggleston and Mills Rds., Canberra, Australian Capial
Territory 2601, Australia.
∗∗Tasmanian School of Business & Economics, University
of Tasmania, LockedBag 1317, Launceton, Tasmania 7250,
Australia.
∗∗∗Judith Lumley Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne,
Victoria 3086, Australia.
∗∗∗∗Centre for Child Health Research, University of
Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.
∗∗∗∗∗Judith Lumley Centre, La Trobe University,
Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia.
This article was edited by Jennifer Glass.
Key Words: mental health, multiple roles, parenting, struc-
tural equation modeling, work–family balance.
data, in 4 overlapping samples of Australian
mothers reentering work between child ages
0–1 to 8–9 (Nrange: 1,027–2,449). The nd-
ings revealed that work–family conict and
psychological distress are distinctive aspects
of mothers’ well-being that inuence each
other over time. Reciprocal inuences were
not conned to one period of parenting but
continued as children grew older. Associations
persisted after controlling for a range of work
and family characteristics, and there was no
evidence of mediation by family socioeconomic
status, maternal age, or job quality. The ndings
suggest that employed mothers may benet from
policies and workplace practices that both pro-
mote maternal well-being and reduce conicts
between employment and raising children.
In developed countries, most parents manage
two major life roles simultaneously: raising chil-
dren and participating in paid work. Work–family
conict (WFC) refers to the challenges posed
by juggling these role demands. High WFC has
been shown to have signicant social and eco-
nomic costs to employers, individuals, and their
families (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, &
Brinley, 2005). Although psychological distress
Journal of Marriage and Family 78 (February 2016): 107–126 107
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12262
108 Journal of Marriage and Family
is often studied as a consequence of WFC, the
nature of the relationship between WFC and
psychological distress remains unclear: Do they
affect each other and, if so, is it at particular
points in the family life course or is it an ongo-
ing and potentially compounding process? We
assessed the nature and direction of the relation-
ship between WFC and psychological distress
for mothers from the postpartum period for 8–9
years across the early family life cycle using
data from a large cohort of Australian families
and a cross-lagged structural equation modeling
(SEM) approach.
WFC can occur in two ways: (a) work can
interfere with family (work-to-family con-
ict) and (b) family can interfere with work
(family-to-work conict). Work-to-family and
family-to-work conict share a strong positive
relationship and represent a global construct
(“work–family conict”; Byron, 2005; Michel,
Kotrba, Mitchelson, Clark, & Baltes, 2011) that
has signicant social implications. WFC has
been shown to adversely inuence the effective-
ness of organizations (e.g., reduced productivity
and increased staff turnover; Eby et al., 2005),
and it has substantial effects on the well-being of
individual employees, including increased risks
for depression, physical health complaints, and
substance abuse (Eby et al., 2005). There is also
growing evidence of broader impacts of WFC on
the families of employees. For example, WFC is
associated with reduced satisfaction with family
and the couple relationship and with high levels
of family distress (Frone, Yardley, & Markel,
1997). Mothers’ job demands have been shown
to be related to negative interactions with their
children (Bass, Butler, Grzywacz, & Linney,
2009; Cooklin, Westrupp, Strazdins, Giallo,
et al., 2014; Cooklin, Westrupp, Strazdins,
Martin, et al., 2015), to a degree that inuences
children’s mental health outcomes (Strazdins,
O’Brien, Lucas, & Rodgers, 2013). Parent
mental health is one of the most important deter-
minants of parenting, family functioning, and
children’s well-being and development (Low &
Stocker, 2005; Romano, Tremblay, Boulerice, &
Swisher, 2005). Thus, the relationship between
WFC and psychological distress has important,
wide-ranging implications beyond the health
and well-being of individual employees and is
likely to have implications for broader family
functioning and child developmental outcomes.
Nevertheless, the nature of the relationship
between WFC and psychological distress is not
well understood. With some recent exceptions,
research in this eld has been cross-sectional and
descriptive, limiting professionals’ understand-
ing of the extent to which interactive processes
exist and whether these occur largely within a
particular parenting period or pose problems for
mothers’ well-being (and potentially children’s)
irrespective of child age. The way these factors
relate to each other concurrently and over time
has implications for how best to support par-
ents to combine work with their caregiving roles
at different life stages (Grzywacz, Almeida, &
McDonald, 2002). In this study, we sought to
establish the nature of the relationships between
mothers’ WFC and psychological distress across
the family life course. Weused a stepwise model
testing approach to capture the full range of
mothers reentering the workforce between the
early to mid-parenting years. We also examined
whether the associations we observed can be
explained by mothers’ individual or family con-
text or if they vary by family socioeconomic
status.
T G N W–F
R A
There are clear cross-country differences in
the gendered nature of work–family contexts.
Employed mothers in Australia typically bear a
disproportionate share of household and child
care responsibilities in comparison to employed
fathers (Craig, Mullan, & Blaxland, 2010; Craig
& Sawrikar, 2009). Gendered expectations and
workloads are most salient in the early stage of
the family life cycle, when care demands are
high and the corresponding division of paid and
unpaid labor between mothers and fathers is
often inequitable (Bianchi & Milkie, 2010; Craig
et al., 2010; Craig & Mullan, 2010). In general,
Australian mothers of infants and preschool-age
children have lower employment participation
(46%) compared to all mothers of dependent
children (<15 years, 69%), and all mothers par-
ticipate at lower rates than fathers (Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2011). Hence, employed
Australian mothers are more likely to shoul-
der much of the caregiving responsibility, and
their experience of conict may be particularly
important for family functioning and child out-
comes. In our review of the literature, below, we
have therefore attempted to focus on maternal
outcomes, although this was not always possible
because of a lack of gender-specic research.
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