Association of Work-Family Conflict With Depression, Parenting Behaviors, and Socio-Behavioral Development of Children

Abstract

This study investigated the associations of work-family conflict with the psychological well-being, parenting behaviors, and socio-emotional development of children aged between 2 and 6 (M = 4.14, SD = 1.30) and their working mothers. The sample was constructed with a random sampling method from Turkey, with nationally representative 700 working mothers. The age of the mothers ranged from 20 to 49 (M = 34.02, SD = 5.46). The data was based on maternal reports. The data was collected through the Organizational Support Scale, Work-Family Conflict Scale, Parenting Questionnaire, Temperament Scale, Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory, Child Behavior Checklist, Brief Symptoms Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Work-Family Guilt Scale. The results of the study showed that (i) the mothers who reported higher levels of guilt due to working and lower levels of social support experienced higher levels of work-family conflict; (ii) the higher levels of work-family conflict increased the depression level and negative parenting behaviors in mothers while decreased the positive social-behavioral development in children, (iii) the social support had a buffering role in decreasing the negative effects of depression in mothers. This is the first study conducted with a nationally representative sample from Turkey to investigate an extensive ecology from mothers’ work-family conflict to their children’s socio-emotional development. The need for supporting policies to ameliorate working conditions and labor divisions for working mothers were emphasized by the study results. Keywords: Work-family conflict, parenting, support, socio-behavioral development