Work–family conflict and toddler parenting: a dynamic approach to the role of parents’ daily work–family experiences in their day-to-day parenting practices through feelings of parental emotional exhaustion

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to examine associations between daily fluctuations in work–family conflict (i.e. work-to-family interference [WFI] and family-to-work interference [FWI]) and daily fluctuations in toddler parenting (i.e. controlling parenting practices), thereby investigating day-to-day feelings of parental emotional exhaustion as an underlying mechanism. Both mothers and fathers participated in a five-day diary study when their child was in the first year of kindergarten (N = 118, 53.39% fathers). At the between-person level, work–family conflict (both WFI and FWI) was significantly related to controlling parenting practices. Further, an indirect effect was found between work–family conflict (both WFI and FWI) and controlling parenting via parental emotional exhaustion. At the within-person level, work–family conflict (both WFI and FWI) was not directly related to controlling parenting practices but was indirectly related to controlling parenting via feelings of emotional exhaustion. The findings highlight the importance of balancing work and family life, both in terms of parents’ mental health (i.e. parental emotional exhaustion) as in terms of the quality of parenting.

KEYWORDS:

• Diary study
• work–family conflict
• Parental emotional exhaustion
• Parenting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Research Foundation Flanders [FWO.3EO.2015.0012.01].

Notes on contributors

Katrijn Brenning

Katrijn Brenning is a professor at the Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology at Ghent University, Belgium. She received her PhD in clinical psychology in 2012 from Ghent University, Belgium. Her research interests include emotion regulation, child and parental mental health, early parent-child interactions and parenting.

Elien Mabbe

Elien Mabbe is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology at Ghent University, Belgium. She received her PhD in clinical psychology in 2018 from Ghent University, Belgium. Her research interests include temperament, personality, parenting and parenting interventions.

Bart Soenens

Bart Soenens is a full professor at the Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology at Ghent University, Belgium. He received his PhD in developmental psychology in 2006 from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. His research interests include self-determination, autonomy, parent-adolescent relationships, parental psychological control, and identity development.