Suchergebnisse

"They Sure Don't Make It Easy for Parents": Low-Income Working Parents and Their Children -- "The Invisible Americans": The Work and Family Transitions Project -- "A Little Can Go a Long Way": Workplace Policies and Parents' Well-Being -- "They Treat Me Right, Then I Do Right by Them": Experiences in Low-Income Jobs and Mental Health -- "This Parenting Thing Is Harder Than It Looks": Low-Income Work and Parenting -- "I Just Want Him to Have a Good Start in Life": Work and Child Development -- "Thriving or Surviving": How to Move Forward.

AbstractThis invited review examines major trends and developments in the work and family field from an ecological perspective. We examine how research has developed over the past several decades with attention to the ways in which dominant theories and empirical findings, couched in specific historical and social eras, have moved the field forward and addressed important questions, while also raising many more. We first examine theoretical paradigms and empirical work on the topic of work and family across the decades spanning from the 1960s to 2000. We then pay significant attention to the major theoretical and empirical foci of the 21st century based on an analysis of more than 300 of the top‐rated work–family articles in the field. We close with a proposal for fruitful directions for future research and theory in the work and family field.

We explore dyadic parenting styles and their association with first‐grade children's externalizing behavior symptoms in a sample of 85 working‐class, dual‐earner families. Cluster analysis is used to create a typology of parenting types, reflecting the parental warmth, overreactivity, and laxness of both mothers and fathers in two‐parent families. Three distinct groups emerged: Supportive Parents, Mixed‐Support Parents, and Unsupportive Parents. Results indicate that dyadic parenting styles were related to teacher‐reported externalizing symptoms for boys but not for girls.

This study examined the extent to which family dinnertime rituals serve a protective role for families experiencing high levels of stress. Using data from a longitudinal study of working‐class couples, the role of dinnertime rituals as a moderator of mothers' and fathers' parenting stress and child psychosocial outcomes was investigated. Greater dinnertime rituals reported by fathers moderated the effect of parenting stress on internalizing problems for girls, but not for boys. Fathers' reports of dinnertime rituals were related to fewer behavioral symptoms, internalizing problems and externalizing problems, and greater adaptive skills for girls. No significant interaction effects for mothers' parenting stress or rituals were found, but there were significant main effects of mothers' parenting stress and dinnertime rituals on child outcomes. These findings suggest that dinnertime rituals can potentially moderate the effects of parenting stress on child outcomes and fathers and daughters showed the greatest benefits of these family practices.

The goal of the current article is to describe how an ecological perspective could further our understanding of the division of labor in families. We consider how social contexts, or "space," in conjunction with individual, family, social, and historical "time" influence the division of labor in families as well as its consequences for family members' well‐being and relationship quality. Research is examined that explores how social class, race and ethnicity, family structure and life course issues directly and indirectly affect the division of labor in families. Using examples from current research, we show that at times the predictors and outcomes of the division of family labor differ as a function of the social context in which they occur and as a function of unique historical and social time periods. An ecological perspective provides a framework for considering how the complex power and influence processes in families play out in different ways as a function of social values and norms reflected in our race and ethnicity, social class, gender, life stage, and family structure.

ObjectiveThis study examined associations between workplace policies and maternal depression in the context of mothers' relationship status and job characteristics.BackgroundThe associations between workplace policies and postpartum depressive symptoms may differ based on contextual factors that have received little attention in the literature. In this study, these questions are addressed in an understudied sample of low‐income working mothers.MethodParticipants included 95 employed, low‐income mothers who were recruited from prenatal classes in southern New England. Mothers' self‐reported data was collected at five time points from the third trimester of pregnancy through 12 months postpartum. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test all study hypotheses.ResultsLength of parental leave and negative spillover interacted to predict levels of depressive symptoms, such that longer leave mattered more in the context of high spillover. A moderated mediation was found, whereby schedule flexibility related to less of an increase in depressive symptoms for single mothers, whereas partnered mothers with greater schedule flexibility experienced an increase in spillover, with no net benefit to depression.ConclusionContextual factors, such as mothers' relationship status and the level of spillover on the job, can influence whether and how much different types of workplace policies can benefit maternal postpartum mental health.ImplicationsEmployers also may ease the transition back to work after parental leave by taking steps to minimize negative work‐to‐family spillover for new mothers. More work needs to be done to enable partnered mothers to experience the mental health benefits of schedule flexibility policies.

In this article the meaning of translational research in the work and family field is examined. Specifically, we review findings from a longitudinal study of low‐wage workers across the transition to parenthood and examine how this basic discovery research informs the next step in translational research, that of clinical practice. The authors describe three specific sets of findings that hold direct and immediate implications for interventions and policy that could support working families. We close with a discussion of how both translational and transdisciplinary research have the potential to inform evidence‐based practice, social policy, and effective social action to decrease physical and mental health disparities among low‐income, working families.