Childcare, work or worries? What explains the decline in parents' well-being at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany?

Objective: We examine how care arrangements, general and altered working conditions, and worries influenced subjective well-being at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic for working parents in Germany. Background: Prior research suggests several reasons for declines in subjective well-being, particularly for working mothers. We employ Pearlin's (1989) stress process model to explore the role of parental childcare, altered working conditions and amplified worries of working parents in terms of increased stressors and modified resources to cope with the extraordinary situation. Method: We use data from two starting cohorts from the National Educational Panel Study and its supplementary COVID-19 web survey from spring 2020 to examine possible heterogeneities in contextual factors for individual-level changes in the well-being of working mothers and fathers. Results: We confirm a more pronounced decline in well-being for working mothers than fathers. Part-time work and access to emergency care reduce the gender gap in decreased well-being. Conversely, young children in the household and personal worries are associated with lower well-being for both parents. However, we cannot explain the more significant decrease in mothers’ well-being by increased childcare responsibilities or altered working conditions. Conclusion: A greater decline in well-being indicates a particular burden among working mothers. However, it cannot be linked solely to gendered inequalities in the changes of paid and unpaid work during the first months of the pandemic.

Child Day Care Center Use and Mental Stress of Working Mothers

Background: Some of the working mothers use child day care center (CDCC) for their children to reduce their mental stress. This study was designed to assess the association between mental stress of working mothers and child day care center use. Methods: This comparative cross sectional study was conducted among 106 working mothers of whom 53 were CDCC users and 53 were non-users from January to December, 2019. Data were collected by face to face interview by a semi-structured questionnaire. Mental stress was estimated by Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Data were analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Quality control checks for data were done. All ethical issues were maintained strictly in different stages of the study and informed written consent was taken from each individual. Results: Mean (±SD) age was 32.92(± 2.901) and 33.55(± 3.160) years in CDCC users and non-users respectively. Average monthly family income was Tk.191698.11 in CDCC users and Tk. 209433.96 in non-users. Majority (67.9%) of the CDCC users lived in nuclear family while 67.9% of the CDCC non-users lived in joint family. Mothers had significantly higher (85.5%) stress who had maid servant in comparison to mothers who had not and mothers had higher (75.0%) stress who suffered from illness compared to mothers who did not suffer and it was significant (p<0.05). Both low (61.5%) and moderate (59.4%) stress were significantly higher among CDCC users while high stress (83.3%) was significantly higher among CDCC non-users. Chance of having low stress was high (OR=8.0) in mothers who were CDCC users than mothers who were CDCC non-users. Conclusion: CDCC non-users had high level of mental stress than the CDCC users. CDCC should be established with every organization to reduce the mental stress of working mothers. JOPSOM 2021; 40(1): 59-65

PENGARUH LAMA JAM KERJA PADA IBU BEKERJA TERHADAP PEMBERIAN ASI EKSKLUSIF

Exclusive breastfeeding (according to WHO) is breastfeeding only for infants up to 6 months of age without additional fluids or other foods. Exclusive breastfeeding is giving only breast milk without other food and drinks. Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 6 months of life (WHO, 2005). Background: Breastfeeding in Indonesia has not been fully implemented and there is still very low level of exclusive breastfeeding, especially for working mothers. From the results of observations made by researchers, data was obtained that 8 out of 10 working mothers who breastfeed (babies aged 6-12 months) do not exclusively breastfeed their babies, and 9 out of 10 non-working mothers who breastfeed (babies aged 6-12 months) giving exclusive breastfeeding to the baby. Purpose: To determine the relationship between employment status and exclusive breastfeeding. Methods: This type of research is analytic with a cross sectional approach, with job status as the independent variable and exclusive breastfeeding as the dependent variable, using 21 samples. Result: This research was conducted using quantitative methods, namely by distributing a form in the form of a g-form so that it can be concluded that there is a relationship between long working hours for working mothers and exclusive breastfeeding. Conclusion: there is a relationship between work status and exclusive breastfeeding.

Effects of Employee Performance on the Implementation of Total Quality Management

Mother is a person who has many task and responsibilities daily. In addition, as a working mother, tasks and responsibilities are double and triple, for instance task and chores at home and task at the organization. Total quality management is practices and procedures that organizations use in order to enhance or improve the performance of the employee or the organization. Performance of working mothers is said to be not satisfactory, and their performance may drop after having babies. Some organizations and their colleagues don't seem to be helpful to working mothers after rejoining the workforce right after maternity leave ended. Some organization from other countries provide work-family support policies in order to help these working mothers to balance their lifestyle as mother and as an employee. Some researchers claimed that working mothers tend to have very happy children whilst underperforming in the organization. This chapter seeks to investigate the perception of working mothers on their performance after the implementation of total quality management.

Part of Material Opression: A Study On Romanticism and Stigma of The Role of Housewives and Working Mothers

<p><em>This study aims to determine the romanticism of the mother's role and the stigma housewives, and working mothers receive. Romance towards the role of the mother often has an unfavorable impact on the mother's condition. Besides romance, stigma is also born and accepted by housewives and working mothers. The stigma continues and impacts the condition and vulnerability of a mother. This research is descriptive qualitative research and analyzed by feminist theory about mothers. The study results stated that the romanticism of the mother's role affected the workload received. This study opens a view about the need for efforts to solve the problem of romanticism in the role of mothers. It is necessary because it is helpful to prevent the occurrence of adverse effects on the condition of the mother's vulnerability. This study also found four stigmas received by working mothers and housewive such as Bachelors who only become full-time mothers, housewives: working spends husband's money, working mothers: never have time to educate children, working mothers: children are entrusted to grandmother, be a grandma's child, housewive are clumsy. Housewive enjoy life because they relax, career women like hanging out, and working mothers have minimal knowledge of kitchen and parenting matters. The two points above are important points that became the findings in this study. housewife: work spends husband's money, working mother: never has time to educate children, working mother: grandmother leaves children, be grandma's child, housewive are clumsy. Housewive enjoy life because they relax, career women like hanging out, and working mothers have minimal knowledge of kitchen and parenting matters. The two points above are important points that became the findings of this study.</em></p><p> </p><p>Penelitian ini memiliki tujuan guna mengetahui romantisme peran ibu dan stigma yang diterima oleh ibu rumah tangga dan ibu bekerja. Romantisme terhadap peran ibu sering memberikan dampak yang kurang baik terhadap kondisi ibu. Selain romantisme, Stigma juga lahir dan diterima oleh ibu rumah tangga dan ibu yang bekerja. Stigma tersebut terus diproduksi dan memberikan dampak terhadap kondisi dan kerentanan seorang ibu. Penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif kualitatif, dan dianalisis dengan teori feminis tentang ibu. Hasil penelitian menyatakan bahwa romantisme peran ibu memberikan efek terhadap beban kerja yang diterima. Penelitian ini membuka pandangan mengenai perlunya upaya-upaya yang bisa menyelesaikan persoalan mengenai romantisme terhadap peran ibu. Hal tersebut diperlukan, sebab berguna untuk menghambat terjadinya dampak buruk terhadap kondisi kerentanan ibu. Penelitian ini juga menemukan empat stigma yang diterima ibu bekerja dan ibu rumah tangga seperti: Sarjana <em>kok </em>yang hanya menjadi <em>fulltime mom</em>, ibu rumah tangga: bekerja menghabiskan uang suami, ibu bekerja: tidak pernah memiliki waktu untuk mendidik anak, ibu bekerja: anak dititipkan nenek, jadilah anak nenek, ibu rumah tangga itu kucel. Ibu rumah tangga enak hidupnya karena hanya santai-santai, wanita karir emang hobinya nongkrong, dan ibu bekerja memiliki pengetahuan yang minim terhadap urusan dapur dan pengasuhan. Dua poin diatas menjadi poin penting yang menjadi temuan dalam penelitian ini.</p>

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

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

Resilience and Challenges of Working Mothers during COVID-19

The pandemic has brought on much hardships and highlighted the many inequities in our lives, including the increasing workload for working mothers. Compared to pre-pandemic, maternal research has found mothers to have increases in anxiety and depression during the pandemic. Given the added stressors of the pandemic, this paper aims to highlight some evidence-based strategies that mothers can use to support their mental health during the pandemic and beyond. These mental health strategies include (1) Self-compassion and mindfulness (2) Physical self-care (sleep and physical activity time); (3) Connecting time (maintaining social connections and shared responsibilities); and (4) Playtime (having fun!).

Perception of Working Mothers on Child Development: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan

The inclusion of women in the workforce is imperative for the advancement of every country in the world. In Pakistan the role of women is undergoing dynamic transformation which can have considerable influence on the mother-child relationship and child development. This research attempts to understand the influence of out-of-home maternal employment on the development of child. The study is qualitative in nature using snowball sampling. A total of six working mothers were interviewed from Lahore, Pakistan. Thematic analysis technique has been used to analyze the data. The following themes were identified: (i) Child Neglect; (ii) Strained Child-Parent Relationship; (iii) Child Aggression; (iv) Low Academic Achievement; and (v) Independence and Sense of Responsibility. The study concludes that working mothers need family and employer support to ensure child development in Pakistan. Some of the key reforms that are needed include respect for women’s triple role in society and employment benefits for working mothers.

Behavioural problems of children among working and non-working Mothers

For years mothers had been doing a full time job of upbringing their children and addressing their basic needs. However, the present scenario is such that it is not feasible to make a living with just one person’s earnings. Hence, women set out to support their family and the children are taken care of by the secondary caregivers. A number of research studies have revealed that the majority of children suffer from mild to moderate behavioural problems during the early developmental stages. Keeping these changing patterns in mind, the researcher conducted a comparative study at Race Course, Dehradun to assess the behavioural problems of children among working and non-working mothers. The main objectives of the study were to assess the Behavioural problems of children among working and non-working mothers and compare the Behavioural problems of children between working and non-working mothers. Data was collected from 60 working and 60 non-working mothers with the help of non-probability purposive sampling techniques. A structured Child Behaviour Assessment Scale was developed to collect the data from the mothers of children aged 4-12 years. Reliability of the tool was found to be 0.7. The study results revealed that 60% of working mothers reported Borderline Behaviour in their children. Abnormal behaviour consisting of hyperactivity, bad habits and social problems etc. were reported by 15% of working mothers. Children among non-working mothers reported higher levels of anxiety, and conduct problems. Significant association was found between Behavioural problems of children among working mothers and type of family, number of children, age of the child, and gender of the child. Behavioural problems in childhood may lead to limited functional capabilities in children and more serious problems in adulthood. Nurses can play a major role in diminishing Behavioral problems by providing guidance and counselling for the children and their mothers. The focus should be on addressing the emotional needs of the children during the early stages of development.