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The Work-Family Interface: Spillover, Complications, and Challenges

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Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research

Series Editor: Sampson Lee Blair

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Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research Volume 13

The Work–Family Interface: Spillover, Complications, and Challenges

Edited By

Sampson Lee Blair

The State University of New York, Buffalo, USA

Josip ObradoviC´

Catholic University of Croatia, Croatia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2018

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ISBN: 978-1-78769-112-4 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-111-7 (Online)

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ISSN: 1530-3535 (Series)

Editorial Board

• Clarence M. Batan

  University of Santo Tomas, The Philippines

• Eli Buchbinder

  University of Haifa, Israel

• Yu-Hua Chen

  National Taiwan University, Taiwan

• Patricia Neff Claster

  Edinboro University, USA

• Teresa M. Cooney

  University of Colorado-Denver, USA

• Rosalina Pisco Costa

  University of Évora Portugal

• Alda Britto da Motta

  Federal University of Bahia, Brazil

• Olufemi Adeniyi Fawole

  University of Ilorin, Nigeria

• Giovanna Gianesini

  University of Bologna, Italy

• Ana Josefina Cuevas Hernandez

  University of Colima, Mexico

• Cardell K. Jacobson

  Brigham Young University, USA

• Josip Obradović

  University of Zagreb, Croatia

• Matthias Pollman-Schult

  Social Science Research Center Berlin, Germany

• Ria Smit

  University of Johannesburg, South Africa

• Helen M. Stallman

  University of South Australia, Australia

• Fleur Thomése

  VU University, The Netherlands

Contents

List of Contributors

Anja-Kristin Abendroth is a Junior-Professor of Technical and Social Change in the Department of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Germany. She is currently one of the principal investigators of the project “Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations” funded by the German Science Foundation. She is also a member of the research program “Digital Future” funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2013 she defended her dissertation, “Working Women in Europe: How the Country, Workplace, and Family Context Matter”, at the Faculty of Sociology/ICS at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research interests include digitalization of work, social inequalities, the interplay of work and family, and organizational and cross-national comparative research.

Kadie L. Ausherbauer is a Prevention Scientist and Family Therapist currently completing a doctoral program in Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, USA. She is interested in family risk and resilience factors, particularly in how preventive intervention can ameliorate the impact of contextual risk factors that families face. One of Kadie’s goals is to use prevention science and intervention to invest in families, individuals, and communities who experience marginalization due to systemic social problems such as racism, classism, and sexism. Her other research projects have focused on parent–child relationship attributes that facilitate positive child development, preventive parenting intervention in military families, and self-regulation promotion in delinquent youth. Kadie manages a behavioral coding lab with a large grant-funded project on preventive parenting intervention. As a Family Therapist, Kadie has worked primarily with mandated clients in a variety of settings: residential treatment for adolescents in sex offender treatment, in-home family preservation for families involved in child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and currently in a residential chemical dependency treatment program for adult men. After providing direct care for under-served and high-risk families for nearly a decade, the need for effective, appropriate, and sustainable intervention and prevention drives Kadie’s research.

Sarah A. Burcher is currently completing a doctoral program in Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, USA. She earned a master’s in Business Administration in Nonprofit Management from Lipscomb University and a Masters of Arts in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. Focusing on the intersection of family, work, and finance, current research topics include financial socialization and capability, career identity development, and work–family crossover, with a strong emphasis on the family system and the working-poor. Sarah is a Graduate Research Assistant working on qualitative and quantitative research, with past projects examining emerging adults’ family financial socialization and behaviors. She is also a Graduate Teaching Assistant for family resource management courses. One of Sarah’s favorite activities is teaching a personal finance class to young mothers at a local alternative high school. Sarah began her career working in the nonprofit sector, including being Manager at a homeless shelter, Director at a lodging facility for cancer patients, Volunteer Recruiter, and Fundraiser. She served two terms with the AmeriCorps working with low-income families obtaining home ownership for the first time and connecting children with caring adult mentors. Additionally, Sarah was a Volunteer Instructor for a community adult job-training program. After nearly 10 years working with diverse families, she returned to academia to conduct research that empowers families and communities to break cycles of poverty. Whether her clients were cancer patients or homeless families, young or old, financially stable or living paycheck-to-paycheck, all were balancing family and work demands while interacting daily with the financial sector. Taking a critical perspective, Sarah believes that inequality exists and that the structures of power must be exposed and challenged.

Nicola Carroll was awarded a Ph.D. in Sociology for her comparative study involving lone mothers in a diverse range of situations. She became fascinated by historical changes in family life and the relationship between stigmatisation and resource allocation during this research. She is now an Associate Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield teaching on modules covering: social theory and cultural identity; health, identity, and social change; and research methodology. Her research interests span: families and personal relationships, welfare and citizenship, media representations of motherhood, and impacts of class inequalities on family life. Methodologically, she is interested in further pursuing non-stigmatising approaches to researching stigma and exploring non-classifying approaches to researching class.

Tiziana Casciaro is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and the Jim Fisher Professor in Leadership Development at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research explores how structural and psychological forces jointly shape behavior in organizations. Her work on organizational networks, power dynamics, change implementation, and professional networking is published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, Social Forces, and Social Networks. Dr Casciaro has been recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the 30 thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led. She regularly publishes in the Harvard Business Review, and her work has been featured in the Economist, Financial Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, USA Today, Forbes, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBC Radio, Fortune, and TIME. Professor Casciaro has served as Senior Editor at Organization Science. Recent awards include the Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior Award of the Academy of Management and the Rotman Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Tiziana received her B.A. in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Organization Science and Sociology from Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining the University of Toronto, she served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School.

Delfino Vargas Chanes is a Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) since 2010. He obtained his doctorate in Sociology from Iowa State University, USA (Ph.D., 2000), master’s degree in Sociology (1996) and Statistics (1994) both from the State University of Iowa, USA, with emphasis on statistical methodology for social research, with a degree in Mathematics (1982) from UNAM. He has been a researcher in the USA between 2001 and 2008 at different institutions: the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, and Arizona State University. His research interests are inequality and poverty, the development of advanced quantitative methodologies for social research. He is currently a full professor at UNAM. He has published more than 50 articles in various national and international refereed academic journals in the areas of statistics, medicine, psychology, sociology, administration, among others, two books. He has taught courses on structural equations modeling, longitudinal analysis, and the elaboration of surveys in different Mexican institutions such as El Colegio de México, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Banco de México, and Universidad Anáhuac del Sur. He has carried out research work for CONEVAL, SEDESOL, and CONAPO, in studies aimed at measuring poverty and social measurement. He has directed more than 10 doctoral theses, 3 master’s, and 3 bachelor’s theses. He has obtained various awards such as Cum Laude at UNAM, an award for excellence for his doctoral dissertation at Iowa State University, and he is a recognized National Researcher by the National Council of Science and Technology.

Jamie J. Chapman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Westminster College, in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, USA. She has a B.A. in History from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Social Sciences from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Akron. She currently teaches courses related to Medical Sociology, Social Psychology, and Sociology of the Family at Westminster College. Dr Chapman’s current research interests include investigating the experiences of work–family spillover among people working in caring occupations, as well as investigating the experiences of teaching and learning in prison settings.

Lukasz Czarnecki is a Researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in the University Program on Asian and African Studies from 2017. He holds Ph.D. in Sociology from University of Strasbourg (2015) and Ph.D. in Political and Social Studies from the UNAM (Cum Laude, 2012), Master in Law (2007) as well as International Relations (2004), both from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He was a Research Professor in the School of Political and social Science (2015–2017), the School of Economics (2017), the School of Administration of the UNAM (2016), as well as the FLACSO (2015–2016) in Mexico City. He was a Coordinator of research in collaboration with the local government of Mexico City, Coordinator of projects on social construction of diabetes with collaboration with Mexican researchers. He was a Public Policy Adviser on social capital in government institutions and negotiated public actions between federal and states governments with regard to national program combating poverty PROSEPRA led by SEDESOL. He has published 2 books and more than 30 articles in the national and international journals on poverty and inequalities. He is a member of the National Network of Researchers (SNI in Spanish) recognized by CONACYT in Mexico.

Shannon N. Davis is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at George Mason University, USA, and Vice President of the Southern Sociological Society. Her research has two foci. One vein of her work focuses on the creation of families and the negotiation of family life. Specifically, she is interested in how family members negotiate the intersection of paid and unpaid work in their daily lives and how gender inequality is reproduced in families. Recently, she began investigating the ways married couples are responding to the recent economic recession, and how these responses facilitate and undermine gender equality. The second, and related, focus of her research is on the construction and maintenance of beliefs about gender, or gender ideologies. She is also interested in the ways in which gender ideologies inform decisions about education, work, and relationships. Other recent research has examined the processes through which inequality is reproduced or undermined in higher education with an eye toward understanding the role that undergraduate research can play in changing the future of the professoriate.

Marshal Neal Fettro is a Family Demographer with research interests including families, gay, and lesbian relationships, and the intersection of work and family. He has earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Bowling Green State University, USA. He currently examines variation in gender differences in time allocations in paid work, housework, and leisure between same-sex and different sex couples. His work has been published in journals such as Population Research and Policy Review and Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Janet Garcia-Hallett is an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA, in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, and an Affiliate Faculty member of the Latinx and Latin American Studies Program. Her research is primarily focused on social justice issues across race/ethnicity and gender – particularly, the impact of incarceration on families and communities of color, the obstacles women face post-incarceration, as well as the racial–ethnic differences in policing strategies. Janet has received numerous awards for her work, including the Rutgers Dissertation Fellowship, the American Society of Criminology Graduate Fellowship for Ethnic Minorities as well as the Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Scholarship from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She has recently published in Feminist Criminology, Sociology Compass, and the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.

Ewa Giermanowska, Dr hab., is a Sociologist, employed at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences of the University of Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests include sociology of work and organization, public policy concerning labor market and labor relations, sociological studies on the employment of young people, and people with disabilities. She is an Expert at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy and a member of the Polish Sociological Association, Section of Sociology of Work. She is an author of expert opinions and analyzes for the government, local-government, non-governmental organizations, and scientific publications dealing with the research areas listed earlier.

Joseph G. Grzywacz is Chair and Norejane Hendrickson Professor of Family and Child Science at Florida State University, USA. His research focuses on the health-related implications of everyday work and family life, and is particularly focused on how these experiences contribute to health inequalities borne by those in poverty and racial and ethnic minorities. This research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health for the past 15 years. Grzywacz has served as the Principal Investigator on grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles, placing them in the flagship discipline-specific and interdisciplinary journals like Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Applied Psychology, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science & Medicine, and Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Grzywacz is a Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations.

Aimee Hubbard started her career at Mayo Clinic as a Wellness Coach, where she worked for over five years. She went on to complete her Master of Science in Family Studies and Human Services in Couples and Family Therapy at Kansas State University, USA. Currently, she is a doctoral student in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Social Science, with an emphasis in Couples and Family Therapy. She presently serves as the Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Her research interests focus on couples and the couple help-seeking process.

Melissa Rector LaGraff is a Doctoral Candidate in Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. She received her B.S. in Human Ecology and M.S. in Child and Family Studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Prior to returning to graduate school to pursue her doctorate degree, she was a County Director and Family and Consumer Sciences Agent with University of Tennessee Extension where she provided educational programs and research-based information related to financial management, nutrition and food safety, health, and human development to adult and youth audiences. In addition to her experience conducting program evaluations of parenting education programs, her research examines how work–life influences parenting decisions and behaviors as well as how to improve family functioning through family policies and parenting education.

Soyoung Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Science and Human Development at Montclair State University, USA. She is also a certified family life educator. Her major research focuses are (1) ethnically and culturally diverse families’ experiences within larger community and global settings and (2) family life education in order to support the changing needs of families and communities in a diverse society. As part of her research program, she has conducted research on Korean immigrants’ adjustments in the USA, multicultural families and family policies in South Korea, parenting experiences among various ethnic groups, and effective teaching strategies in the fields of family science.

Wen-Hsu Lin, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, College of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. His research focuses on adolescent health and development and quantitative research methods.

Miriam R. Linver is currently a Professor of Family Science and Human Development at Montclair State University, USA, and the Co-Director of the Institute for Research on Youth Thriving and Evaluation. Previously, she was a Senior Research Scientist at the National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Dr Linver received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Family Studies and Human Development from the University of Arizona. She graduated from Brandeis University with a B.A. in Psychology and Anthropology. Dr Linver’s research reflects Bronfenbrenner’s ecological paradigm, focusing on the contexts of child and adolescent development. Dr Linver has expertise in the importance of parents and families; how school and out-of-school experiences matter; and flourishing and character development as key outcomes. She has served as a Guest Editor of several journal special issues, including Parenting: Science and Practice (“Parenting at HOME”), Infant Mental Health Journal (“New directions in young children’s socio-emotional measures”), and Research in Human Development (“‘My life purpose is…’: Assessment of youth purpose in context”). Dr Linver is the Co-PI on three current projects: (1) Character Virtue Development Evaluation Capacity Building Initiative, known as PACE; (2) Inspiring Youth Purpose through Reflection on the Laws of Life: Improving, Implementing, Evaluating, and Researching the Inspire>Aspire Poster Program; and (3) Boy Scouts of America National Character Initiative. She was previously the Co-PI on the John Templeton Foundation project, “Reflecting on the Laws of Life: A Systems Evaluation Planning Project and Process Evaluation.”

Sue H. Moon is an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York Farmingdale’s School of Business, USA. She completed her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. In pursuing research at the intersection of gender, culture, and work–family, her work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of Social Issues, Journal of Family Issues, and Human Resource Management Review.

Christin L. Munsch is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, USA, specializing in family, work and occupations, gender, social psychology, and research methods. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Her work has been published in leading academic journals like American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Journal of Marriage and Family.

Tyler W. Myroniuk is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at George Mason University, USA. His most recent research includes examinations of the relationships between village characteristics and migration behavior/perceptions, social participation and health, marriage and health outcomes of older adults, family composition and wealth, social connections and educational achievement, and household shocks and migration. His published work is set in Malawi, South Africa, India, and the USA and Europe.

Kei Nomaguchi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Bowling Green State University, USA. Her research interests include work and family, parenting, parents and children, and family and health. Most of her research concerns disparities in parental and child well-being across social statuses such as gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and family structure as well as variations across cohorts and life stages. Her work has been supported by the National Institute of Health and published in journals such as Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Journal of Family Issues, Social Science Research, and Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Madeleine Novich is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Manhattan College, USA. Previously, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice, where she completed her Ph.D. Her research primarily focuses on policing and perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy among criminalized populations. Madeleine has received several awards for her work including the inaugural Division on Women and Crime Larry J. Siegel Graduate Fellowship, the Rutgers Dissertation Fellowship, and the Rutgers University Women and Gender Studies Research Grant. Her work has been published in Feminist Criminology, Gender, Work & Organization, Race and Justice: An International Journal and Drugs: Education, Policy and Prevention. She also recently co-edited a special issue of Race and Justice: An International Journal focused on youth and policing.

Lindsey Trimble O’Connor is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, Channel Islands, USA. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Washington State University in 2012 and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. She teaches and conducts research on gender, work, and social networks. Her work has been published in Sociological Perspectives, Social Science Research, Gender & Society, and Work & Occupations.

Mariola Racław, Dr hab., is a Sociologist, employed at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences of the University of Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests include the sociology of population, sociology of family, public policy concerning family, population policy, sociological studies of old age and disability. She is a member of the Government Population Council and a member of the Polish Sociological Association, Section of Family Sociology and Social Work Section. She is an author of expert opinions and analyzes for the government, local government, non-governmental organizations, and scientific publications dealing with the research areas listed earlier.

Hassan Raza, Ph. D., is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Science and Social Work at Miami University, USA. His research is grounded in bioecological theory and social justice. The focus of his research is to examine individual characteristics and contextual factors that can help working women to decrease work–family conflict and maintain a healthy work–family balance while accounting for the diversity among working women at the within- and between-person level. He also conducts cross-cultural research to highlight the vulnerabilities of women living in developing countries. He uses quantitative, qualitative, mixed method, and action research techniques in his research. He has expertise in statistical modeling, such as multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, and hierarchical linear regression modeling.

Mareike Reimann is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Germany. She is currently a member of the research program “Digital Future” funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia. She is also part of the project “Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations” funded by the German Science Foundation. In 2017, she defended her dissertation “Unmet Expectations in Employment Relationships. Investigating the Emergence of Psychological Contract Breach and its Consequences for Employee Health” at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. Her current research interests include work–life interface, social inequalities, employment relationships, health, and digitalization of work.

Shannon Leigh Shen, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, USA. She received her doctorate from Michigan State University. Her research areas include family, health, and aging, and she is interested in the intersections of the social and biological processes that link marriage and health. Her current work focuses on older adults and how chronic diseases and relationship quality affect their sexual lives. Her work is published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, and Sociological Perspectives.

Yi-Ping Shih, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan, specializing in research on cultural capital, parenthood, and cosmopolitanism. Her research is at the intersection of cultural globalization and domestic socialization. In her work she tries to understand how cultural elements and class advantages have been transmitted inter-generationally at home and in schools. Her recent publication includes “Social Class and Cosmopolitan Parenting in Taiwanese Families” in Journal of Family Issues and a book chapter “Redefining Cosmopolitanism: The Inter-Generational Transmission of Global Cultural Capital in Taiwan” in Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in a Global World (Brill).

Heidi E. Stolz is a Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee, USA, where she also serves as the Co-Director of the Center for Parenting. She received her B.A. in Economics from Whitman College, B.Ed. in Secondary Education from the University of Puget Sound, M.A. in Human Development from Washington State University, and Ph.D. in Marriage, Family, and Human Development from Brigham Young University. Dr Stolz conducts basic research on mothering, fathering, and parenting, as well as applied research related to parenting education. She is a member of the National Council on Family Relations and a former two-term member of the Board of the National Parenting Education Network.

Colleen Stuart is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, USA, and received her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research focuses on the connection between social structure, the pattern of relationships that exist among interdependent individuals, and women’s careers. In a second line of research, she studies how structural changes to social systems force individuals to reconfigure their collaborative work.

Brad van Eeden-Moorefield, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Family Science and Human Development at Montclair State University, USA. His research includes a strong commitment to understanding and strengthening marginalized families, with his most recent work focused on stepfamilies headed by same-sex couples. Much of this research focuses on identifying how factors in the social world (e.g., stigma, stereotypes, and policy) influence everyday family life and how both impact various indicators of individual (e.g., depression and happiness) and family well-being (stability). Recently, he published two books: Designing and Proposing your Research Project (with Dr Jennifer Brown) and Urban and Contemporary Families at the Nexus of Research and Practice (with Dr Scott Browning) and guest edited a Special Issue of Family Relations on intersectional variations in the experiences of queer families.

Matthew Weinshenker is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Fordham University, USA, and a Faculty Affiliate of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. His broad research interests are work–life issues and fatherhood. His recent research has focused on the impact of nonstandard employment scheduling on working parents and their family members. His publications have appeared in outlets including Community, Work, and Family, Journal of Family Issues, Demography, and Sex Roles.

Chin-Chun Yi, Ph.D., is a distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, USA. Dr Yi’s research interests include changing families in Chinese and East Asian societies, the intergenerational transmission of Value of Children, and the growth trajectories of youth from early adolescence to young adulthood. She has served as the principal investigator of research projects in family and youth studies, and leads the team composed of researchers of different ranks. Chin-Chun Yi has been an active member of the ISA since 1990, and is the Current President of RC06 (2014–2018) as well as the ISA Executive Committee member of Research Council (2010–2014–2018). In addition to academic work, Dr Yi was appointed the National Policy Advisor for the President (2011–2016), the Commissioner and Honorary Advisor for Taiwan Provincial Government (1994–1998) when she initiated and established the child protection program in Taiwan. Chin-Chun Yi has also actively participated in social services and has frequently been invited to give advice to government agencies in Taiwan.

Foreword

Around the globe, one of the common threads in the fabric of life which all people share is the fact that they spend most of their days in two distinct environments – the family and work. In order to support their families, individuals devote much of their time to provide for the needs of their loved ones. These efforts require considerable dedication, as work is often quite demanding, stressful, and even risky for one’s well-being. Throughout human history, though, individuals have fulfilled these roles and have toiled long hours in order to ensure that their families’ needs are met. The notion of a “labor of love” is often used to describe these efforts, as the love and devotion to one’s family is often what motivates one to work.

This dyadic relationship between work and family, though, creates an often mutually conflicting situation, individuals are working to provide for their loved ones, yet their work creates various forms of separation from those very same loved ones. The characteristics of work, which can create such complications are many, frequently place workers in a dilemma of mammoth proportions. In their various family roles, as spouses, parents, or otherwise, they want to fulfill their familial responsibilities in manners consistent with the love and affection maintained therein. The affectional environment of the family truly creates an enmeshed relationship network where bonds are based upon love, devotion, and the desire to ensure the well-being of other family members. The work environment, on the other hand, retains the qualities of a secondary group, in which relationships are more formalized, roles are more specialized, and production and performance are the essence of relationships.

Researchers have long recognized the potential for conflict between these two distinct entities, the family and work. Across a variety of sciences, researchers have focused upon the complications created by the intertwined nature of family and work. In the mid-1900s, such studies often had a decidedly patriarchal bias, focusing upon such issues as how maternal employment might be negatively associated with children’s well-being. By the late twentieth century, though, as dual-earner couples became the norm, studies began to adopt a considerably more comprehensive understanding of the work–family interface. Researchers began to focus on the impact of work upon not only the working members of families, but also upon how work could affect all family members and all family relationships. At the same time, researchers recognized the potential for family roles and responsibilities to impact job performance and the larger work environment.

This broader understanding of the work–family interface has yielded considerable understanding, yet it must also be viewed within the historical context. Simply put, both families and work are dynamic, and their various structures and roles continue to change, as time moves forward. Family structures and family roles have undergone considerable shifts over the past several decades. Fluctuations in such basic characteristics as marriage, divorce, and fertility have prompted substantial change in family structures and familial norms. At the same time, the nature of work continues to change. On the global scale, jobs within the service sector have increased, along with the need for greater educational and skills attainment by workers. Technological change, in particular, has served to redefine both how and where work is performed. Such changes in work will, understandably, have consequences for the work–family interface.

In this volume of Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, researchers focus upon the work–family interface. This is no easy task, given the dynamic natures of both work and family. The studies contained in this volume provide a very comprehensive examination of a wide range of issues within the work–family interface and offer considerable insight into the multiple facets of this uniquely interwoven pair of environments. As with previous volumes, a global perspective is also utilized herein, with research from around the world. This is particularly necessary in the study of work and family issues, as the perceptions, experiences, and even definitions of what constitutes a work–family matter varies from one culture to another.

Researchers who have focused upon the work–family interface have frequently directed their attention to the potential complications and consequences for the most vulnerable segment of families – the children. In “Stability in Mothers’ Work Hours in Early Childhood and Children’s Achievement in Kindergarten,” Kei Nomaguchi and Marshal Neal Fettro use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to examine the relationship between maternal employment and children’s cognitive development. They find that both maternal employment patterns during early childrearing years and children's cognitive outcomes in kindergarten are shaped by family contexts that mothers are embedded in. The understanding of the larger context of the work–family interface is further examined by Ewa Giermanowska and Mariola Raclaw in “Social and Cultural Context of Family Policy and the Employment of Mothers of Small Children. The example of Poland.” Their study focuses upon how the creation and implementation of policies concerning the work–family interface commonly overlook the broader social and cultural context in which such policies reside. Although policymakers may often have the best of intentions, the needs of children, along with the needs of working parents, cultural themes need to be recognized as part of the development and implementation of public policy strategies. Beyond the cultural context, the socio-political context of the work–family interface also needs to be considered. In “Lone Mothers’ Negotiation of Competing Employment and Parenting Demands in the Contemporary British Context of “Worker Citizenship”,” Nicola Carroll examines a sample of lone mothers from northern England, with a specific focus upon their struggles in coping with the various stigmas. While the population of lone mothers is increasing, there remains a stigmatization at the cultural level, wherein they are perceived as being dependent upon welfare services, despite the clear evidence of their substantial presence in the workplace.

Of course, the work–family interface will involve all members of the family. While the majority of research on parents has focused upon mothers, there remains the need to examine fathers, as well. In “Perceived Work–Family Balance and Engagement Behaviors of Fathers of Infants,” Melissa Rector LaGraff and Heidi E. Stolz examine how perceptions of the work–family balance may affect fathers’ relationships with their infant children. Although such perceptions did not appear to affect the overall engagement of fathers with their infants, fathers’ perceptions of the work–family balance did influence how often they told stories to their children, as well as how frequently they dressed their infants. These findings demonstrate the complex nature of the work–family interface, which can also extend beyond the family, and into the schools. In “Parental Involvement and Educational Performance among Taiwanese Adolescents: Comparing Dual-Earner and Single-Earner Families,” Yi-Ping Shih, Fu Jen, Wen-Hsu Lin, and Chin-Chun Yi examine how parental involvement in their children’s schooling may vary as a function of parental employment. Using a sample from the Taiwan Youth Project, they find that parental school involvement significantly affects the performance of children from dual-earner families, but not for those from single-earner families. Distinct experiences are shown for daughters and sons, suggesting that the work–family interface may also vary depending upon the sex of children.

For many families, the nature of the work, itself, can affect the manners in which difficulties may arise from the work–family interface. In “A Longitudinal Examination of Work–Family Conflict among Working Mothers in the United States,” Hassan Raza, Bradley van Eeden-Moorefield, Joseph G. Grzywacz, Miriam R. Linver, and Soyoung Lee examine both work-to-family and family-to-work conflict among employed mothers. Building upon bioecological theory, they demonstrate the role of nonstandard work schedules and relationship quality in working mothers’ experiences. Our understanding of the work-to-family conflict is further extended in “Motivation for Night Work and Parents’ Work-to-Family Conflict and Life Satisfaction,” by Matthew Weinshenker. Through analysis of a sample of parents who work a non-standard schedule, he demonstrates the importance of motivations for working such schedules, as these vary considerably in terms of affecting work-to-family conflict. When fathers and mothers work such schedules, but not for personal reasons, the potential for risk can be substantial.

The potential complications of the work–family interface are often interwoven with the factors of sex and race/ethnicity. In “Strategies for Balance: Examining How Parents of Color Navigate Work and Life in the Academy,” Madeleine Novich and Janet Garcia-Hallet examine a sample of mothers and fathers of color, focusing upon how they cope with the challenges of both professional and familial responsibilities. They find that such parents often adapt to these challenges through social and professional isolation, which can improve their abilities to function as parents, yet at a cost to their professional performance. The potential consequences are shown to have a greater impact upon mothers, as compared to fathers. Given the nature of the work–family interface, gender issues often arise. In “Diabetes as a Consequence of Work–Family Conflicts and Gender Violence in México,” Lukasz Czarnecki and Delfino Vargas Chanes focus upon how work–family conflicts can influence the onset of diabetes. Work conditions are shown to have a deleterious impact upon workers’ well-being, and particularly so for women. By framing diabetes as a social phenomenon, their study yields implications for policy throughout Latin America. This relationship between work–family conflict and well-being is examined by Tyler W. Myroniuk and Shannon N. Davis in “Multi-Faceted Household Dependency, Work-Family Conflict, and Self-Rated Health in Five High-Income Countries.” Analyzing samples from Austria, France, Iceland, Switzerland, and the United States, their study uses the demand–resources framework to examine how dependency and work factors affect health and well-being. Work-family conflict appears to deleteriously affect health across all samples, suggesting that the policy implications of these findings may have utility across nationalities.

Many of the dimensions of work have been associated with the challenges of the work–family interface, including the core component of the timing of work. In “For Better or For Worse: Nonstandard Work Schedules and Self-Rated Health across Marital Status,” Shannon Leigh Shen uses a sample from the National Study of the Changing Workforce to examine how non-standard work schedules may affect health and well-being. In her analyses, she demonstrates that non-standard work schedules do, indeed, have a negative influence upon health, but that these harmful associations are most consequential among women who are cohabiting, divorced, separated, or widowed. Some of the challenges linked with the work–family interface involve the issue of spillover, wherein family roles and work roles often become intertwined. Jamie J. Chapman examines this concern in “How Do Nurses Perceive Role-Taking and Emotional Labor Processes to Influence Work–Family Spillover?” Through a qualitative analysis, she uses a foundation of interactionist role theory to examine how nurses deal with the complicated nature of their jobs, and particularly the empathic role-taking and emotional labor they perform. The very nature of their work places nurses in a rather delicate position, wherein the potential for work–family spillover can be quite high.

In some instances, the work–family interface may be affected by job performance, particularly with regard to achievements within one’s career. In “Penalty for Success? Career Achievement and Gender Differences in Divorce,” H. Colleen Stuart, Sue H. Moon, and Tiziana Casciaro approach this issue from a rather unique perspective, by investigating how exceptional job performance may affect the risk of divorce. Using data compiled from the success and marital histories of Hollywood actors, they find that winning an Academy Award is associated with greater marital instability, and that this risk is especially complicated for actresses. The respective meanings of work and family are not only created by working partners and parents, but are also carried over generations within families. In “‘I Really Don’t Have a Career. I just Work and I Like Doing My Work.’ A Qualitative Study on the Meaning of Work for Low-Income Women from a Family Perspective,” Sarah A. Burcher and Kadie L. Ausherbauer examine how the meanings and values concerning work are transmitted through generations. They identify a variety of themes created and maintained by employed women, and provide a novel and useful understanding of how work, itself, is perceived.

With technological advancement and increasingly urban populations, a growing number of workers no longer need to travel to a centralized site to perform their jobs. In “Telework and Work–Family Conflict across Workplaces: Investigating the Implications of Work–Family-Supportive and High-Demand Workplace Cultures,” Anja-Kristin Abendroth and Mareike Reimann explore how the implications of telework for strain-based and time-based work–family conflict depend upon work–family-supportive and high-demand workplace cultures. Using a sample of German workers, they find that telework often yields complications and conflicts which are similar to more traditional forms of paid employment. Aimee Hubbard examines how perceptions of the work–life balance vary over time in her study, “Evaluating Relational Factors as Possible Protective Factors for Work–Life Balance via a Linear Mixed Effects Model.” Using data from the Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics, she finds that such perceptions tend to decline, on average, over time, yet may be affected by more intimate dimensions of relationships, such as sexual satisfaction. Her work again illustrates the complex nature of the work–family interface. Being a worker necessarily implies that one must approach the tasks with a particular frame of mind, as attitudes toward work will have great bearing upon the work–family interface. In “What I Think You Think about Family and Work: Pluralistic Ignorance and the Ideal Worker Norm,” Christin L. Munsch and Lindsey Trimble O’Connor examine how American workers accept ideal worker norms. In their analyses, they find that while women and men typically maintain that workers should dedicate themselves to their respective tasks, there remains a distinct dislike for work qualities which challenge or complicate their abilities to function within their familial roles.

Overall, these studies provide a very comprehensive and insightful understanding of the work–family interface. Beyond the present findings, the researchers also provide multiple suggestions for future research on this very important topic, as well as numerous recommendations for both practitioners and policymakers. We wish to offer them our most sincere appreciation for their efforts, and also express our thanks to the members of the editorial board, the external reviewers, and the wonderful staff at Emerald Publishing for their tremendous assistance.

Sampson Lee Blair

Josip Obradović