scholarly journals Introduction to the Special Issue “Parental work and family/child well-being”

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-191
Author(s):  
Matthias Pollmann-Schult ◽  
Jianghong Li

The "new economy" is characterized by increasing levels of nonstandard employment. A significant proportion of employees work very long hours, work with high intensity, or have long commutes to work. Also, many workers struggle to secure adequate, stable employment or good quality jobs, and work evening and night shifts or work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. This special issue examines the consequences of the new economy for the wellbeing of family and children. The studies included in this special issue address the impact of parents’ nonstandard work schedules (shift work), long work hours, temporary employment, and long commutes to work on parental and child health and wellbeing, relationship satisfaction, work-family balance, and the division of labour.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elvira Perez Vallejos ◽  
Liz Dowthwaite ◽  
Helen Creswich ◽  
Virginia Portillo ◽  
Ansgar Koene ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Algorithms rule the online environments and are essential for performing data processing, filtering, personalisation and other tasks. Research has shown that children and young people make up a significant proportion of Internet users, however little attention has been given to their experiences of algorithmically-mediated online platforms, or the impact of them on their mental health and well-being. The algorithms that govern online platforms are often obfuscated by a lack of transparency in their online Terms and Conditions and user agreements. This lack of transparency speaks to the need for protecting the most vulnerable users from potential online harms. OBJECTIVE To capture young people's experiences when being online and perceived impact on their well-being. METHODS In this paper, we draw on qualitative and quantitative data from a total of 260 children and young people who took part in a ‘Youth Jury’ to bring their opinions to the forefront, elicit discussion of their experiences of using online platforms, and perceived psychosocial impact on users. RESULTS The results of the study revealed the young people’s positive as well as negative experiences of using online platforms. Benefits such as being convenient and providing entertainment and personalised search results were identified. However, the data also reveals participants’ concerns for their privacy, safety and trust when online, which can have a significant impact on their well-being. CONCLUSIONS We conclude by making recommendations that online platforms acknowledge and enact on their responsibility to protect the privacy of their young users, recognising the significant developmental milestones that this group experience during these early years, and the impact that technology may have on them. We argue that governments need to incorporate policies that require technologists and others to embed the safeguarding of users’ well-being within the core of the design of Internet products and services to improve the user experiences and psychological well-being of all, but especially those of children and young people. CLINICALTRIAL N/A


Author(s):  
Chantal Remery ◽  
Joop Schippers

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 469-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mashal Ahmed Wattoo ◽  
Shuming Zhao ◽  
Meng Xi

Purpose Considering work and family responsibility has become an important issue due to changes in the lives of people, understanding work and family responsibilities is essential for organizations in assisting employees to increase their well-being. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find the impact of perceived organizational support (POS) on work–family facilitation (WFF) and work–family conflict (WFC) and eventually on employee well-being. Design/methodology/approach A survey questionnaire is administered to 1,340 employees of Chinese enterprises. Structural equation modeling is used to test the model fit. Findings Results of this study indicate a significant positive relationship between POS and WFF and significant negative relation between POS and WFC. Results of this paper also indicate that WFF and WFC partially mediate the relationship between POS and employee well-being. Originality/value Over the past two decades, the extent of research on work–family literature has been increased. Most of the work–family research works have been conducted in the Western countries. Very little is known about whether these results are applicable to Eastern societies. This study is extended to focus on work–family literature by drawing a sample from different regions of China. The findings of this study may provide a good understanding of WFC and WFF for Chinese employees. This study stresses the importance of providing organizational support to increase the well-being of employees.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (suppl 1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel M.D. Rosa ◽  
Carolyn J. Lundquist ◽  
Simon Ferrier ◽  
Rob Alkemade ◽  
Paula F. Drummond de Castro ◽  
...  

Abstract: Extensive anthropogenic activities driven by the demand for agriculture and forestry products have led to dramatic reductions in biodiversity worldwide and significant changes in the provisioning of ecosystem services. These trends are expected to continue in the future as the world continues to develop without much consideration of the role that nature plays in sustaining human livelihoods. Scenarios and models can be important tools to help policy- and decision-makers foresee the impact of their decisions; thus, increasing capacity in creating such models and scenarios is of utmost importance. However, postgraduate training schools that focus on this topic are still rare. Here we present and reflect on the experience of the São Paulo School of Advanced Science on Scenarios and Modelling on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services to Support Human Well-Being (SPSAS Scenarios). In addition, we introduce the Special Issue of Biota Neotropica that resulted from the activities taking place during the SPSAS Scenarios. In total, nine case studies emerged from the activities carried out during SPSAS Scenarios. These focused on a variety of ecosystems, their current drivers of change and expected trends, as well as on the development of alternative positive scenarios applying the recently developed Nature Futures Framework. We emphasize the need to increase capacity in scenario and modelling skills in order to address some of the existing gaps in producing policy-relevant scenarios and models for biodiversity and ecosystem services.


The present study is an attempt to examine relationship of emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, perceived organizational support, perceived family support, work adjustment, general adjustment with Intention to finish the assignment of Indian Information technology expatriates in United States of America. This study adopts positivist deductive approach it, starts with clear variables which are derived from theory and based on these variables. Structured questionnaire is used to collect the data. The sample for the present study was collected from the Indian IT expatriates who are assigned to USA working in the four major IT cluster of USA i.e. California, Washington, New York, & Chicago. A total 634 questionnaires were received indicating a response rate of 52 %. The questionnaire for this study consists of 78 items and the five point Likert scale is used for record the response. SPSS 21 and Microsoft excel are the statistical packages and regression is the tools used in the present study. The study proposes a strong relationship among emotional intelligence and expatriate intention to finish the assignment. . An emotional intelligent employee is more adjustable to the new cultural work environment and there are high chances of him being completing the assignment. Cultural intelligence help the expatriate to adjust well to the diverse work environment and when the expatriate is well adjusted to the new environment, his or her intention to complete the assignment will be high. The importance of the organizational support is essential for the employee well-being and the employees if they perceive that organization supports them in all facets of their work and family they will to be more productive and more committed to the organization. A well-adjusted employee to both general environment and work environment will have high intention to finish the assignment. No significant relationship was found between perceived family support and expatriate intention to finish the assignment. One of the important reason for the expatriate failure is the non-adjustment of the family so the perceived family support have a direct impact on the expatriate intention to finish the assignment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Derndorfer ◽  
Franziska Disslbacher ◽  
Vanessa Lechinger ◽  
Katharina Mär ◽  
Eva Six

A lockdown implies a shift from the public to the private sphere, and from market to non-market production, thereby increasing the volume of unpaid work. Already before the pandemic, unpaid work was disproportionately borne by women. This paper studies the effect of working from home for pay (WFH), due to a lockdown, on the change in the division of housework and childcare within couple households. While previous studies on the effect of WFH on the reconciliation of work and family life and the division of labour within the household suffered from selection bias, we are able to identify this effect by drawing upon the shock of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Austria. The corresponding legal measures left little choice over WFH. In any case, WFH is exogenous, conditional on a small set of individual and household characteristics we control for. We employ data from a survey on the gendered aspects of the lockdown. The dataset includes detailed information on time use during the lockdown and on the quality and experience of WFH. Uniquely, this survey data also includes information on the division, and not only magnitude, of unpaid work within households. Austria is an interesting case in this respect as it is characterized by very conservative gender norms. The results reveal that the probability of men taking on a larger share of housework increases if men are WFH alone or together with their female partner. By contrast, the involvement of men in childcare increased only in the event that the female partner was not able to WFH. Overall, the burden of childcare, and particularly homeschooling, was disproportionately borne by women.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vânia Sofia Carvalho ◽  
Inês Correia ◽  
Maria José Chambel

Purpose To analyze the relationship between technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW) and well-being in the workplace – burnout and engagement. Furthermore, this study aims to test the relationship between TASW and burnout, mediated by work-to-family conflict (WFC) and the relationship between TASW and engagement mediated by work-to-family enrichment (WFE). Design/methodology/approach The data was collected from a service company operating in Portugal. A total of 338 responses from a services company in Portugal were analyzed. Two statistical programs were used for the data analysis: IBM statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS 25.0) and SPSS analysis of moment structures (AMOS 25.0). Findings The results highlight the positive relationship between TASW and engagement and the relationship between TASW and burnout, which only exists when WFC is present. Moreover, the relationship between TASW and engagement is stronger through WFE. Originality/value Using the conservation of resources theory as a framework, the results contribute to the literature by shedding further light upon the positive effects of TASW on employees’ well-being and the work and family relationship.


Author(s):  
Annika H. Davidsen ◽  
Maria S. Petersen

The societal changes caused by COVID-19 have been far-reaching, causing challenges for employees around the world. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the COVID-19 restrictions on mental well-being, working life, family life and social life among Faroese employees within a broad range of professions. A total of 1328 Faroese employees answered an anonymous self-report survey from 13 April to 4 May 2020. Employee mental well-being was only modestly affected by the restrictions and the respondents had a mean score of 50.7 on the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale where a score between 41–44 is found to correspond with possible depression. Work commitment, work and family life, work satisfaction and work ability were all rated significantly worse after the COVID-19 outbreak than before (all p values < 0.005). Contrary to previous research, employees in health services assessed their work ability significantly higher than employees in teaching, and child and youth care (p < 0.05). Working parents had higher levels of stress and assessed their work ability significantly lower than employees without children (p < 0.05), and women tended to be more worried than men because of the pandemic. In conclusion, the overall mental well-being of Faroese employees was on an average level during lock-down in April and May 2020. Their working life seemed, however, to be worse than usual.


ILR Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 807-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Lorena Cook ◽  
Shannon Gleeson ◽  
Kati L. Griffith ◽  
Lawrence M. Kahn

This article is the third in a series to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ILR Review. The series features articles that analyze the state of research and future directions for important themes the journal has featured over its many years of publication. In this issue, we also feature a special cluster of articles and book reviews on one of the most critical labor market issues across the globe—the legalization and integration of immigrants into national labor markets. Despite the urgent need for immigration reform in the United States, there is a paucity of US research that looks at the impact of a shift from unauthorized to legal immigrant status in the workplace. The US immigration literature has also paid little attention to immigrant legalization policies outside of the United States, despite the fact that other countries have implemented such policies with far more regularity. The articles in this special issue draw on studies of legalization initiatives in major immigrant destinations: Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Together they underscore the importance of cross-national perspectives for understanding the range of legalization programs and their impact on immigrant workers, the workplace, and the labor market. These findings contribute to key questions in migration scholarship and inform the global policy debate surrounding the integration and well-being of immigrants.


2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruedi Epple ◽  
Martin Gasser ◽  
Sarah Kersten ◽  
Michael Nollert ◽  
Sebastian Schief

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of cantonal social policies and cultural settings (in Switzerland) on women’s and men’s employment behaviour. Special consideration is given to the transition to parenthood. Design/methodology/approach – Based on data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS) this paper conducts multilevel analyses to test individual and cantonal effects on the probability of employment and on working hours. To analyse the effect of parenthood, models for women and men with children under three are contrasted with models for women and men without children or with older children. Findings – The paper documents the persistence of gender inequality in employment linked to parenthood. How the reconciliation of work and family life can be realised for women and men strongly depends on a set of policies and cultural conditions. Moreover, individual characteristics such as education or marriage are important predictors. Research limitations/implications – A shortcoming of this study is the focus on the individual employment use and not on household-level division of labour. This disadvantage is due to the design of the SLFS, which is (at present) the only available survey to allow regionalisation at the cantonal level. However, the paper adds important results to the debate about gender inequality and parenthood in Switzerland as previous research has focused only little on cantonal diversity. Originality/value – The paper connects to previous cantonal comparative studies of female employment but extends their analyses in three important ways. By analysing cantonal differences in policies and culture this paper takes the diversity of framework conditions in Switzerland into account. Furthermore it simultaneously analyses male and female employment behaviour to get a better understanding of gender inequality and parenthood.


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