8266333 Gendered associations between work-family conflict and mental health amongst employed Australians parents

<h3></h3> Background: Australian households with both parents in paid employment has been increasing over the last decades, with growing numbers of dual-earner couples and working parents with dependent children. These shifts have led to increased household and work responsibilities. This presents challenges in organising work and non-work responsibilities around children which may impact parents’ mental health. <h3>Methods</h3> In this longitudinal population-based cohort study, data across 21 waves of the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey were used to employ within person fixed effects regression analysis to examine associations between work-family conflict and mental health in working-age (aged 25–64 years) Australian adults with parental responsibilities for children 14 years of age and under. Mental health was assessed using the MHI-5 scale. Both dimensions of the work-family conflict (work to family and family to work) were interrogated, as were the gender differences. <h3>Results</h3> Of the 10,130 participants (58,064 observations) across waves 2001-2021 of the HILDA survey who were working-age parents engaged in paid employment with children ≤14 years, 7,264 participants (46,527 observations) with at least two waves of data and non-missing data and were included in the analyses. Increasing work to family conflict was negatively associated with mental health in both women (β coefficient = -1.37 (95% CI: -1.56, -1.19)) and men (β coefficient = -1.37 (-1.55, -1.18)). While increasing family to work conflict was associated with worse mental health in women (β coefficient = -0.66 (-0.82, -0.49)), the association for men was stronger (β coefficient = -0.97 (-1.14, -0.80)). <h3>Conclusion</h3> Both work to family conflict and family to work conflict are independently associated with adverse mental health for women and men. More attention needs to be devoted to identifying and implementing strategies to enable working parents to cope with or reduce work-family conflict.