Coparenting and conflicts between work and family: Between-within analysis of German mothers and fathers

Abstract

Objective: The study examines the relationship between coparenting conflicts and work-to-family/family-to-work conflicts for employed mothers and fathers. Background: The presence of children exacerbates the compatibility of work and duties of the private life for working parents. Working along similar lines in terms of parenting seems to be necessary to cope with these challenges. Still, a few studies have focused on the relationship between coparenting and interrole conflicts. Method: The quantitative analysis draws on longitudinal data from waves 6 to 10 of the German Family Panel, comprising N=3,608 observations of 1,377 individuals. The study employs between-within regression models to examine the inter- and intraindividual associations of coparenting conflicts and work-to-family/family-to-work conflicts. Results: The results revealed a statistically significant association between the level of coparenting conflicts and both, work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts. Additionally, changes in coparenting conflicts are associated with changes in family-to-work conflicts. Interestingly, the interaction between the level of coparenting conflicts and gender shows that the associations with interrole conflicts are more pronounced for fathers than mothers. Conclusion: The study provides insights into the interrelatedness between the parental coparenting relationship and the compatibility of work and family. The results underscore the significant relationship between coparenting conflicts and interrole conflicts for mothers and fathers.