I Just Can’t Fit It in! Implications of the Fit Between Work and Family on Health-Promoting Behaviors

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (11) ◽  
pp. 1577-1603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen E. Pagnan ◽  
Amber Seidel ◽  
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Family Meals ◽  
National Study ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
Health Promoting Behaviors ◽  
Health Promoting

Individuals working long hours and/or experiencing work-related stress, including work–family conflict, are less likely to engage in health-promoting behaviors. Grounded in a life course perspective and guided by the conceptualization of life course fit, this study examined appraisals of fit between work and family roles and engagement in health-promoting behaviors, specifically physical activity and family meals, using a sample of parents ( n = 811). The sample was drawn from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce, a nationally representative sample of workers in the United States. Results suggest that multiple dimensions of fit were associated with greater frequency of exercise and family meals. Furthermore, parenting demands and eldercare moderated these associations. A better understanding of the proximal processes related to engagement in health-promoting behaviors would be valuable in understanding how to secure the health and well-being of families for the future.

scholarly journals PATHWAYS TO A GOOD LIFE? MULTIPLE SOCIAL ROLES IN ADULTHOOD AND MENTAL WELL-BEING IN LATER LIFE IN EUROPE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S916-S916
Author(s):  
Christian Deindl ◽  
Miriam Engels
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Role Strain ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Indirect Impact ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The connection between employment, family life and health is well documented. Job demands and family obligations are divergent responsibilities and can be a constant source of conflict. The resulting role strain can have a long lasting impact on mental health. Using data from SHARE and ELSA, we take a life course perspective and look at patterns of employment history from the age of 25 to 40 combined with partnership and fertility history of 17,189 men and 23,266 women in 22 European countries. Sequence analysis combined with cluster analysis shows a clear picture of five dominant states in our sample: Stable work and family, stable work without family, working single parent, working childless couples, and being non employed. This pattern is similar for men and women. We use path models to distinguish the impact of childhood conditions on such life course patterns and the direct and indirect impact of employment and family life on mental health. Women who did not combine work and family roles, (work without family, family without work) reported higher levels of depression in comparison with women who combined work and family. Non-working women and single mothers also experienced indirect effects on depression through their economic situation. Unemployed men or men without family reported higher levels of depression. Unemployment and being a single father also have an indirect impact on depression via economic conditions and health. Moreover, such results also differ between countries, with lower employment rates reducing role strain for women, but not so for men.

scholarly journals LIFE COURSE EXAMINATION OF GLOBAL AND DAILY PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPACTS OF FAMILY CAREGIVERS IN MIDLIFE AND LATE ADULTHOOD

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S819-S819
Author(s):  
Jen D Wong ◽  
Jen D Wong ◽  
Yetty Shobo ◽  
Barbara T Hodgdon
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Family Caregiving ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Psychosocial Impacts ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract Family members often serve as informal caregivers for the first line of care. The complexity of family caregiving suggests the need to examine the personal and environmental resources that contribute to caregivers’ psychosocial well-being. Informed by the life course perspective, this study investigates the impacts of providing care to a family member on global and daily psychosocial well-being, and the moderating influences of age, gender, marital status, and social support. The sample consists of 1449 (M=55.99, SD=9.31) participants from Midlife in the United States (MIDUS-II: Main and Diary) survey. Regression and multilevel models results indicated greater global negative affect and daily stressors in caregivers as compared to non-caregivers. In line with the positive correlates of caregiving, caregivers reported greater daily positive events. Age, gender, and marital status significantly moderated the associations between caregiving and well-being. Findings showed that services aimed at family caregivers should take into account of personal resources.

Sylvia Barack Fishman (ed.), Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families: Paradoxes of a Social Revolution. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2015. 340 pp.

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Heterosexual Couples ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Love Marriage ◽  
Jewish Families

This chapter reviews the book Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families: Paradoxes of a Social Revolution (2015), edited by Sylvia Barack Fishman. Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families deals with topics that intersect Jewishness, religion, nationality, gender and sexual identities, and life course perspectives. It shows that Jewishness cannot be understood without intersectional analysis of its national and cultural context (illustrated by the United States and Israel), religious context, its temporal context, and its life course context. Fishman explores the ways in which the U.S. and Israeli contexts are significantly different with regard to Jewish families and family orientations; how childrearing among gay and lesbian couples entails different challenges than among heterosexual couples; the added dimension to combining work and family in the case of religiously observant families; and how the overwhelmingly secular outside society can serve to empower haredi women in a shift toward egalitarianism.

scholarly journals Joint Family and Work Trajectories and Multidimensional Wellbeing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Comolli ◽  
L. Bernardi ◽  
M. Voorpostel
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Subjective Wellbeing ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Employment Trajectories ◽  
Family And Work ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Family Trajectories

AbstractInformed by the life course perspective, this paper investigates whether and how employment and family trajectories are jointly associated with subjective, relational and financial wellbeing later in life. We draw on data from the Swiss Household Panel which combines biographical retrospective information on work, partnership and childbearing trajectories with 19 annual waves containing a number of wellbeing indicators as well as detailed socio-demographic and social origin information. We use sequence analysis to identify the main family and work trajectories for men and women aged 20–50 years old. We use OLS regression models to assess the association between those trajectories and their interdependency with wellbeing. Results reveal a joint association between work and family trajectories and wellbeing at older age, even net of social origin and pre-trajectory resources. For women, but not for men, the association is also not fully explained by proximate (current family and work status) determinants of wellbeing. Women’s stable full-time employment combined with traditional family trajectories yields a subjective wellbeing premium, whereas childlessness and absence of a stable partnership over the life course is associated with lower levels of financial and subjective wellbeing after 50 especially in combination with a trajectory of weak labour market involvement. Relational wellbeing is not associated with employment trajectories, and only weakly linked to family trajectories among men.

scholarly journals A Faith to Move Mountains? Childhood Abuse, Religious Change, and Mental Health at Midlife

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 461-461
Author(s):  
Laura Upenieks
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Childhood Abuse ◽  
Childhood Maltreatment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Attendance ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Religious Importance ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract Of all the various forms of adversity experienced during childhood, childhood maltreatment (emotional and physical abuse) is shown to have the largest impacts on mental health and well-being. Yet we still have a limited understanding of why some victims of early maltreatment suffer immense mental health consequences later on in the life course, while others are able to cushion the blow of these early insults. Using two waves of data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), this study considers change in religiosity as a buffer across three dimensions for victims of childhood abuse: religious importance, attendance, and the specific act of seeking comfort through religion. Results suggest that increases in religious comfort during adulthood are positively associated with adult mental health for victims of abuse, while decreases in religious comfort over time were associated with worse mental health. Changes in religious attendance and religious importance were not significant associated with mental health for victims of abuse. Taken together, my results show that the stress-moderating effects of religion for victims of childhood maltreatment are contingent on the stability or increases or decreases in religiosity over the life course, which has been overlooked in previous work.

Aspiring to Do All Things Through Him Who Strengthens? Quixotic Hope, Religiosity, and Mental Health in Emerging Adulthood

2021 ◽  
pp. 215686932110085
Author(s):  
Laura Upenieks
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Educational Expectations ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Attendance ◽  
National Study ◽  
Health Consequences

Beliefs about the probability of educational success tend to be very optimistic in the United States. However, scholars are beginning to uncover mental health consequences associated with quixotic hope—the unrealistic outstripping of expectation by aspiration. Using longitudinal data from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Study of Youth and Religion, this study asks, (1) does religiosity promote or diminish the likelihood of quixotic hope? and (2) does religious attendance and closeness to God mitigate long-term mental health consequences of quixotic hope? Results show that weekly religious attendance had a modest negative relationship with the likelihood of experiencing quixotic hope, while increasing religious attendance over time attenuated the negative mental health consequences of quixotic hope on increases in depression. Closeness to God neither predicted quixotic hope nor played a moderating role for depression. As educational expectations rise, regular religious practice may help protect the emotional well-being of youth.

scholarly journals Work-family conflict and work engagement among mothers: Conscientiousness and neuroticism as moderators

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy J. Opie ◽  
Carolina M. Henn
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Family Conflict ◽  
Working Mothers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Work Family

Orientation: The study investigates factors that impact work-family conflict and work engagement among working mothers.Research purpose: The job demand-resources model is utilised to investigate the moderating role of conscientiousness and neuroticism on the relationship between work-family conflict and work engagement.Motivation for the study: Working mothers are challenged to establish a balance between work and family life. The resulting work-family conflict can negatively affect well-being. It is thus necessary to explore personal factors that relate to work-family conflict, particularly in the South African context.Research design, approach and method: A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used. The sample (N = 267) was comprised of working mothers from several organisations. Data was gathered using the work-to-family conflict questionnaire, the Basic Traits Inventory and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.Main findings: The results indicated that work-family conflict negatively predicts work engagement. Conscientiousness positively predicts work engagement, and neuroticism negatively predicts work engagement. A significant interaction effect was found for conscientiousness but not for neuroticism. The findings showed that for participants with high levels of conscientiousness, work engagement decreases significantly more with an increase in work-family conflict than for participants with low levels of conscientiousness.Practical/Managerial implications: Organisations should consider those individuals who have high levels of conscientiousness and low levels of neuroticism in the selection and placement of employees. In addition, organisations have a responsibility to provide conscientious women, particularly mothers, with adequate support to ensure that work-family conflict does not adversely impact their levels of work engagement.

Associations Between Multiple Health‐Promoting Behaviors and Subjective Well‐Being in High School Age Youth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas David W. Smith ◽  
Kathy L. Bradley‐Klug ◽  
Shannon M. Suldo ◽  
Robert F. Dedrick ◽  
Emily J. Shaffer‐Hudkins
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Well Being ◽  
School Age ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Health Promoting Behaviors ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Multiple Health

scholarly journals Work-Family Conflict in the European Union: The Impact of Organizational and Public Facilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (22) ◽  
pp. 4419
Author(s):  
Chantal Remery ◽  
Joop Schippers
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Family Conflict ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
European Working ◽  
Work Family ◽  
The Impact

Today, as an increasing share of women and men is involved in both paid tasks at work and unpaid care tasks for children and other relatives, more people are at risk of work-family conflict, which can be a major threat to well-being and mental, but also physical health. Both organizations and governments invest in arrangements that are meant to support individuals in finding a balance between work and family life. The twofold goal of our article was to establish the level of work-family conflict in the member states of the European Union by gender and to analyze to what extent different arrangements at the organizational level as well the public level help to reduce this. Using the European Working Conditions Survey supplemented with macro-data on work-family facilities and the economic and emancipation climate in a country, we performed multilevel analyses. Our findings show that the intensity of work-family conflict does not vary widely in EU28. In most countries, men experience less work-family conflict than women, although the difference is small. Caring for children and providing informal care increases perceived work-life conflict. The relatively small country differences in work-family conflict show that different combinations of national facilities and organizational arrangements together can have the same impact on individuals; apparently, there are several ways to realize the same goal of work-family conflict reduction.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document