The Impact of Working Mother's Work-Family Spillover and Depression on Parenting

Background and purpose:

The role of a mother in a family and mother-children relationships are shifting as working mothers increase. The research examines the path through which the dual role of a working mother influences the mother-children relationships. To this end the research analyzes work-family spillover of working mothers with pre-school children (0-6 years) on their parenting, and mediation effect of depression. The suggestion is made to propose intervention to enhance quality of life of working mothers.

Methods

The researchers surveyed 430 working mothers with pre-school children residing in Seoul, the capital of South Korea and its surrounding area, between October and November 2009.

MIDUS (National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States) is applied in measuring work-family spillover. Parenting is measured with Korean Parenting Scale, which is a modification of Schaefer (1965) by Cho (1990). Depression is measured with Korean CES-D. Control variables include age, education level, monthly wage, and the number of children. The researchers executed a regression analysis for the study.

Result

The effect of work-family spillover (independent variable, IV) on parenting (dependent variable, DV): The subjects with higher negative work-family spillover demonstrated more authoritarian/controlling and hostile/rejecting parenting style. The subjects with high positive work-family spillover demonstrated democratic/self-governing and affectionate/receptive parenting style.

The effect of work-family spillover (IV) on depression (mediation): The subjects with higher positive work-family spillover and family-work positive spillover had lower level of depression and the subjects with higher negative work-family spillover and family-work negative spillover had higher level of depression.

Mediation effect of depression on the relationship between work-family spillover (IV) and parenting (DV): Depression proved to have partial mediation effect both on relationships between Positive work-family spillover and parenting, and Negative work-family spillover and parenting. Direct and indirect effect of depression on relationships between Positive work-family spillover and parenting, and Negative work-family spillover and parenting were discovered.

Conclusions and Implications:

The research shed light on the importance of work-family balance of female workers and provides the empirical evidence for intervention. Suggestions include encouragement of applying programs such as employee assistance programs (EAPs) that are designed to enhance individual psychological well-being, educate desirable parenting skills, and improve quality of work- and family-life of female workers.