Top

Gepubliceerd in:

12-11-2022 | Original Paper

Associations between Work–Family Balance, Parenting Stress, and Marital Conflicts during COVID-19 Pandemic in Singapore

Auteurs: Gerard Siew Keong Chung, Xi Wen Chan, Paul Lanier, Peace Yuh Ju Wong

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies | Uitgave 1/2023

Abstract

As part of the “Circuit-breaker” social distancing measure to address COVID-19, the government of Singapore closed schools and workplaces from April to May 2020. Although this helped reduce transmission rates, for working parents, this period had been a challenging experience of working from home while providing care for children full-time. Problems in the work-home interface can have a significant impact on parenting and marital harmony. We analyzed data from 201 married and employed parents in Singapore using online surveys. Latent profile analysis was used to identify profiles of parents’ work–family balance (WFB) and spousal and employer support. Linear regression was used to examine links between profiles with parenting stress and marital conflicts. Results indicated three distinct profiles of WFB and social support levels: (a) Strong (43%), (b) Moderate (38%), and (c) Poor (19%). Mothers were more likely than fathers to be in the Moderate and Poor profiles. One key finding is that profiles characterized by poorer WFB were found to be linked with higher parenting stress and increased marital conflicts. There are important variations in parents’ abilities to balance work and family and levels of social support received. Lock-downs can affect parenting and marital harmony especially for parents with poor WFB and weak social support. Any attention given to supporting working parents is vital and urgent to counter any problems in the work–family interface during a lockdown.

vorige artikel Psychological Stress and Parenting styles Predict Parental Involvement for Children with Intellectual Disabilities during the COVID-19

volgende artikel Italian Children’s Accounts of the Lockdown: Insights and Perspectives

Abidin, R. R. (1992). The determinants of parenting behavior. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 21(4), 407–412. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp2104_12.CrossRef

Agrawal, N. (2020, April 7). The Coronavirus Could Cause a Child Abuse Epidemic. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/coronavirus-child-abuse.html.

Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2014). Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: Three-step approaches using Mplus. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(3), 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.915181.CrossRef

Aycan, Z., & Eskin, M. (2005). Relative contributions of childcare, spousal support, and organizational support in reducing work–family conflict for men and women: The case of Turkey. Sex Roles, 53(7), 453–471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-7134-8.CrossRef

Bauer, D. J., & Shanahan, M. J. (2007). Modeling complex interactions: Person-centered and variable-centered approaches. In T. Little, J. Bovaird, & N. Card (Eds.), Modeling contextual effects in longitudinal studies (pp. 255–283). Routledge: New York.

Berlin, K. S., Parra, G. R., & Williams, N. A. (2014). An introduction to latent variable mixture modeling (part 1): Overview and cross-sectional latent class and latent profile analyses. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 39(2), 174–87. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jst085.CrossRef

Berry, J. O., & Jones, W. H. (1995). The Parental Stress Scale: Initial psychometric evidence. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 12(3), 463–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407595123009.CrossRef

Bolck, A., Croon, M., & Hagenaars, J. (2004). Estimating latent structure models with categorical variables: One-step versus three-step estimators. Political Analysis, 12(1), 3–27CrossRef

Borg, A., den Dulk, L., Lewis, S., & Santos, C. (2020). Community, work and family in diverse contexts and changing times. Community, Work & Family, 23(5), 497–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2020.1832264.CrossRef

Brough, P., Timms, C., Chan, X. W., Hawkes, A., & Rasmussen, L. (2020). Work–life balance: Definitions, causes, and consequences. In T. Theorell (Ed.), Handbook of socioeconomic determinants of occupational health: From macro-level to micro-level evidence (pp. 1–15). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_20-1.

Campbell, A. M. (2020). An increasing risk of family violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: Strengthening community collaborations to save lives. Forensic Science International: Reports, 2, 100089 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsir.2020.100089.CrossRef

Carroll, S. J., Hill, E. J., Yorgason, J. B., Larson, J. H., & Sandberg, J. G. (2013). Couple communication as a mediator between work–family conflict and marital satisfaction. Contemporary Family Therapy, 35(3), 530–545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-013-9237-7.CrossRef

Chan, X. W., Kalliath, P., Chan, C., & Kalliath, T. (2020). How does family support facilitate job satisfaction? Investigating the chain mediating effects of work–family enrichment and job-related well-being. Stress and Health, 36(1), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2918.CrossRef

Chan, X. W., Kalliath, T., Brough, P., Siu, O.-L., O’Driscoll, M. P., & Timms, C. (2016). Work–family enrichment and satisfaction: The mediating role of self-efficacy and work–life balance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(15), 1755–1776. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1075574.CrossRef

Channel News Asia. (2020a, April 3). PM Lee’s address on enhanced measures to deal with COVID-19 situation in Singapore. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/coronavirus-covid-19-lee-hsien-loong-update-address-nation-tv-12606328.

Channel News Asia. (2020b, April 23). MSF keeping “close watch” on domestic abuse cases as more reach out for help over circuit breaker period. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-msf-domestic-abuse-violence-cases-circuit-breaker-12671330.

Cheung, S.-K. (2000). Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Parental Stress Scale. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 43, 253–261

Chung, G., Lanier, P. & Wong, P. Y. J. (2022). Mediating effects of parental stress on harsh parenting and parent-child relationship during Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Singapore. Journal of Family Violence, 37, 801–812. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-020-00200-1.

Chung, G., Phillips, J., Jensen, T. M., & Lanier, P. (2020). Parental involvement and adolescents’ academic achievement: Latent profiles of mother and father warmth as a moderating influence. Family Process, 59(2), 772–788. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12450.

Chung, H., & van der Lippe, T. (2018). Flexible working, work–life balance, and gender equality: Introduction. Social Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018.CrossRef

Clark, M. A., Rudolph, C. W., Zhdanova, L., Michel, J. S., & Baltes, B. B. (2017). Organizational support factors and work–family outcomes: Exploring gender differences. Journal of Family Issues, 38(11), 1520–1545. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X15585809.CrossRef

Collins, L. M., & Lanza, S. T. (2010). Latent Class and Latent Transition Analysis: With Applications in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences. John Wiley & Sons

Conway, L. G., Woodard, S. R., & Zubrod, A. (2020). Social Psychological Measurements of COVID-19: Coronavirus Perceived Threat, Government Response, Impacts, and Experiences Questionnaires. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/z2x9a.

Costigan, C. L., Cox, M. J., & Cauce, A. M. (2003). Work-parenting linkages among dual-earner couples at the transition to parenthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 17(3), 397–408. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.17.3.397.CrossRef

Coyne, L. W., Gould, E. R., Grimaldi, M., Wilson, K. G., Baffuto, G., & Biglan, A. (2020). First things first: Parent psychological flexibility and self-compassion during COVID-19. Open Science Framework. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/pyge2.

DOS. (2020). Average and Median Monthly Household Income from Work (Including Employer CPF Contributions) Among Resident and Resident Employed Households, 2000—2019

Fellows, K., Chiu, H., Hill, E., & Hawkins, A. (2016). Work–family conflict and couple relationship quality: A meta-analytic study. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 37, 509–518CrossRef

Ferguson, D. (2020, May 3). ‘I feel like a 1950s housewife’: How lockdown has exposed the gender divide. The Observer. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/i-feel-like-a-1950s-housewife-how-lockdown-has-exposed-the-gender-divide.

Fisher, J., Languilaire, J.-C., Lawthom, R., Nieuwenhuis, R., Petts, R. J., Runswick-Cole, K., & Yerkes, M. A. (2020). Community, work, and family in times of COVID-19. Community, Work & Family, 23(3), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2020.1756568.CrossRef

Gayathri, N., & Karthikeyan, P. (2016). The role of self-efficacy and social support in improving life satisfaction: The mediating role of work–family enrichment. Journal of Psychology, 224, 25–33. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000235.CrossRef

Greenberger, E., O’Neil, R., & Nagel, S. K. (1994). Linking workplace and homeplace: Relations between the nature of adults’ work and their parenting behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 30(6), 990–1002. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.30.6.990.CrossRef

Hobfoll, S. (2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6(4), 307–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.6.4.307.CrossRef

Holly, L. E., Fenley, A. R., Kritikos, T. K., Merson, R. A., Abidin, R. R., & Langer, D. A. (2019). Evidence-base update for parenting stress measures in clinical samples. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 48(5), 685–705. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2019.1639515.CrossRef

Jensen, T. M. (2019). A typology of interactional patterns between youth and their stepfathers: Associations with family relationship quality and youth well-being. Family Process, 58(2), 384–403. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12348.CrossRef

Kainz, K., Jensen, T., & Zimmerman, S. (2018). Cultivating a research tool kit for social work doctoral education. Journal of Social Work Education, 54(4), 792–807. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2018.1434446.CrossRef

Kalliath, T., & Brough, P. (2008). Work–life balance: A review of the meaning of the balance construct. Journal of Management & Organization, 14(3), 323–327CrossRef

Lapierre, L. M., Li, Y., Kwan, H. K., Greenhaus, J. H., DiRenzo, M. S., & Shao, P. (2018). A meta-analysis of the antecedents of work–family enrichment. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(4), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2234.CrossRef

Lee, S. J., Grogan-Kaylor, A., & Berger, L. M. (2014). Parental spanking of 1-year-old children and subsequent child protective services involvement. Child Abuse and Neglect, 38(5), 875–883. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.01.018.CrossRef

Mohan, M. (2020, April 21). Circuit breaker extended until Jun 1 as Singapore aims to bring down community cases ‘decisively’: PM Lee. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-circuit-breaker-extended-june-pm-lee-speech-apr-21-12662054.

Petras, H., & Masyn, K. (2010). General growth mixture analysis with antecedents and consequences of change. In A. Piquero & D. Weisburd (Eds.), Handbook of quantitative criminology (pp. 69–100). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387.

Reid, W. J., & Crisafulli, A. (1990). Marital discord and child behavior problems: A meta-analysis. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18(1), 105–117. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00919459.CrossRef

Restubog, S. L. D., Ocampo, A. C. G., & Wang, L. (2020). Taking control amidst the chaos: Emotion regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 119, 103440 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103440.CrossRef

Schwarz, G. (1978). Estimating the dimension of a model. The Annals of Statistics, 6(2), 461–464. https://doi.org/10.1214/aos/1176344136.CrossRef

Shrout, M. R., Brown, R. D., Orbuch, T. L., & Weigel, D. J. (2019). A multidimensional examination of marital conflict and subjective health over 16 years. Personal Relationships, 26(3), 490–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12292.CrossRef

Siu, O., Lu, J., Brough, P., Lu, C., Bakker, A. B., Kalliath, T., O’Driscoll, M., Phillips, D. R., Chen, W., Lo, D., Sit, C., & Shi, K. (2010). Role resources and work–family enrichment: The role of work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(3), 470–480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.06.007.CrossRef

Stevens, D., Kiger, G., & Riley, P. J. (2001). Working hard and hardly working: Domestic labor and marital satisfaction among dual-earner couples. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(2), 514–526. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.00514.x.CrossRef

Tang, S. (2020, April 28). Singapore will enter a recession this year, ‘significant uncertainty’ over duration and intensity: MAS. CNA. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-economy-singapore-will-enter-recession-2020-mas-review-12683096.

Ten Brummelhuis, L. L., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). A resource perspective on the work-home interface: The work-home resources model. The American Psychologist, 67(7), 545–556. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027974.CrossRef

The New York Times. (2020, June 5). Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html.

The Straits Times. (2020a, May 24). 9 in 10 here want to continue working from home: Survey. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/9-in-10-here-want-to-continue-working-from-home-survey.

The Straits Times. (2020b, June 6). 4-day work week among ideas to improve work-life balance here. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/4-day-work-week-among-ideas-to-improve-work-life-balance-here.

Usher, K., Bhullar, N., & Jackson, D. (2020). Life in the pandemic: Social isolation and mental health. Journal of Clinical Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15290.

Titel: Associations between Work–Family Balance, Parenting Stress, and Marital Conflicts during COVID-19 Pandemic in Singapore
Auteurs: Gerard Siew Keong Chung
Xi Wen Chan
Paul Lanier
Peace Yuh Ju Wong
Publicatiedatum: 12-11-2022
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies / Uitgave 1/2023
Print ISSN: 1062-1024
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2843
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02490-z

Andere artikelen Uitgave 1/2023

Assisted Conception Socialization Self-Efficacy Among Israeli Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parent Families and its Association with Child Externalizing Problems

Original Paper

The Role of Parental Reflective Functioning for Theory of Mind Development in Internationally Adopted Children

Original Paper

Effects of Familism, Parenting, and Family Cohesion on Child Internalizing Symptoms among Mexican Immigrant Families

Original Paper

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Parenting Competence among Israeli Male Veterans: The Mediating Roles of Experiential Avoidance and Parental Reflective Functioning

Original Paper

Relationship Between Parental Big Five And Children’s Ability To Delay Gratification

Open Access
Original Paper

Racial Disparities in Child Physical and Sexual Abuse Substantiations: Associations with Childs’ and Accused Individuals’ Race

Original Paper

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Welkom bij THIM Hogeschool voor Fysiotherapie & Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Registreer

Login

Associations between Work–Family Balance, Parenting Stress, and Marital Conflicts during COVID-19 Pandemic in Singapore

Abstract

Andere artikelen Uitgave 1/2023

Assisted Conception Socialization Self-Efficacy Among Israeli Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parent Families and its Association with Child Externalizing Problems

The Role of Parental Reflective Functioning for Theory of Mind Development in Internationally Adopted Children

Effects of Familism, Parenting, and Family Cohesion on Child Internalizing Symptoms among Mexican Immigrant Families

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Parenting Competence among Israeli Male Veterans: The Mediating Roles of Experiential Avoidance and Parental Reflective Functioning

Relationship Between Parental Big Five And Children’s Ability To Delay Gratification

Racial Disparities in Child Physical and Sexual Abuse Substantiations: Associations with Childs’ and Accused Individuals’ Race

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Welkom bij THIM Hogeschool voor Fysiotherapie & Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Registreer

Login

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

Abstract

Log in om toegang te krijgen

Assisted Conception Socialization Self-Efficacy Among Israeli Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parent Families and its Association with Child Externalizing Problems

The Role of Parental Reflective Functioning for Theory of Mind Development in Internationally Adopted Children

Effects of Familism, Parenting, and Family Cohesion on Child Internalizing Symptoms among Mexican Immigrant Families

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Parenting Competence among Israeli Male Veterans: The Mediating Roles of Experiential Avoidance and Parental Reflective Functioning

Relationship Between Parental Big Five And Children’s Ability To Delay Gratification

Racial Disparities in Child Physical and Sexual Abuse Substantiations: Associations with Childs’ and Accused Individuals’ Race