Work-Family Predictors of Parenting Outcomes

The purpose of the present study was to examine the direct relationship between stress (i.e., economic strain and work-family conflict) and parenting outcomes (i.e., parenting satisfaction, authoritative parenting and authoritarian parenting), and how social support moderates the relationship between the two predictors (i.e., work-family conflict and economic strain) and the three parenting outcomes. Participants included 135 parents who were workers. They completed questionnaires that assessed work-family conflict, economic strain, social support, parenting satisfaction and parenting style. The researcher hypothesized that for participants who face multiple demanding roles (i.e., worker and parent), work-family conflict and economic pressure would be negatively related to parenting satisfaction and authoritative parenting and positively related to authoritarian parenting, and that social support would be positively related to parenting satisfaction and authoritative parenting and negatively related to authoritarian parenting. In addition, the researcher hypothesized that social support would moderate the relationship between stress (i.e., economic strain and work-family conflict) and parenting outcomes (i.e., parenting style and parenting satisfaction) such that at higher levels of social support the negative impact of economic strain and work-family conflict on parenting outcomes would be reduced. Hypotheses were tested using Pearson's r correlations and hierarchical multiple regressions. Partially supporting the researcher's hypotheses, a positive relationship between social support and parenting satisfaction was found, and a negative relationship between the two stress variables (i.e., economic strain and work-family conflict) and parenting satisfaction was found. Also, at p < .01, a positive relationship was found between social support and authoritative parenting, as predicted in hypothesis three. Although social support moderating the relationship between stress and parenting outcomes was not supported, regression analyses did yield social support to be a significant positive predictor of parenting satisfaction and authoritative parenting, and work-family conflict to be a significant negative predictor of parenting satisfaction. Since social support was found to be significantly positively related to parenting satisfaction and authoritative parenting, and work-family conflict and family-work conflict were found to be negatively related to parenting satisfaction, programs should be implemented to educate employers on the positive effects of social support for individuals who are involved in multiple roles.