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.

Parents’ Expectations about Educational Institutions during the Pandemic: Results of Nationwide Questionnaire Research in Poland

(1) Background: The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the problem of combining work and private life. The pandemic conditions have turned out to be particularly difficult for parents who, due to changes in the organization of the education system, have been forced to reconcile their professional duties with the raising of childcare. Thanks to the recommendations for cooperation between schools and parents proposed in this study, it will be possible to reduce the risk and uncertainty of achieving common goals of the education system. (2) Methods: In the preparation of nationwide research, a questionnaire was provided to a sample of 10,331 respondents, including 7800 professional parents, in a trial form before a transition to the study of children. (3) Results: The analysis of the data showed that educational institutions should shape their activities based on cooperation with the family environment of children. (4) Conclusions: Educational institutions can help working parents in times of increased uncertainty. Parents reported that in caring for children, it would be helpful to operate educational institutions in stationary mode. Moreover, they expect increases in extracurricular and extra-curricular activities.

Estrés laboral y percepción de competencias parentales en padres que trabajan

Work stress is related to the perception of parental skills in working parents, it is a cross-sectional, associative study with correlational predictive design (Ato, López & Benavente, 2013), 177 parents participated (55.7% women), who worked at least 30 hours per week and who have children between 3 and 12 years old. The instruments used were the Inventory of the demands-control-support model (Rosario-Hernández & Rovira, 2016) and the Perceived Parental Competence Scale (Vera-Vásquez, Zaragoza-Tafur & Musayón-Oblitas, 2014). The results found show significant and positive correlations between the dimension of support with assumption of the role and shared leisure (.27). In the same way, the support dimension is positively related to school involvement (.28); as well as the dimension of control with assumption of the role and shared leisure (.22). A positive and moderate correlation was also found between work demands and hours worked (.34). It has been possible to compare the results with previous studies that reaffirm the idea that due to the amount of work commitments, the parents' stay at home is more difficult. In conclusion, people who perceive stress in their work will have a lower perception of parental competences, since they do not find a balance between the functions of both roles.

Working from Home as a Human Resource Management Strategy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Indonesian Workers' Experiences

Working from home (WFH) is a relatively new phenomenon in Indonesia, sparked by the COVID-19 outbreak. Having family members at home and being isolated from coworkers and bosses makes WFH a different work situation. WFH's physical interaction limits may also negatively impact employee performance. Therefore, this research aims to explore the experience of Indonesian workers who performed WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate how this work configuration affected employees’ performance. By utilizing phenomenology with 10 informants from several business sectors, we were able to focus on the common experiences of employees doing WFH during the pandemic. It was revealed that employees spent more time coordinating and communicating virtually during WFH, resulting in extended and even distorted work hours. Additionally, they ran into several challenges with their reliance on data to do their tasks. Then, in the absence of their supervisors, who are typically supervising of the work process, employees experienced a higher level of output control. Being at home also intensified work-family conflict, particularly for working parents. However, it was discovered that the workers' perceived flexibility was favorable when confronted with those previous conditions. Thus, while not all job objectives were met, perceived performance while working from home was comparable to working from the office. As a result, they intend to continue performing WFH, but in a hybrid way. With these findings, organizations may formulate a more comprehensive strategy for telecommuting as one of the global megatrends in human resource management (HRM).

Raising children in an technologically advanced world

“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith”. Evangelist Billy Graham.Dining together each night my father- in -law converses with us on how he was born and brought up by his parents long back. having his mother alive all hail and hearty, an old lady of 100 makes him recall his childhood each time he sees her. he flips back on how his father gave him valuable advices on lessons of life, and continues to walks on the principals that his father has imbibed on him as a young boy and he carries a strong impression of his fathers teachings, he expects that the coming generation should live a life as they then lived. childhood in itself is a sweet memory for each one of us, we all have our own bunch of memories to share. childhood is even the most correct time to mould a raw person into a fine personality. living in the 21st century world, things have seemed to be changing a lot. parenting, raising children has become a far more different aspect. since parenting is also an ethical and moral issue, perspective may vary according to the culture and civilization for different people belonging to different set ups. as health personals we too come across many cases that arise merely due to maladjustments or psychological impairments that many a times lead to serious psychiatric problems. the third important thing is that parenting as a complete process and according to the changing time parenting is not the same as it used to be in the past. in the previous years we have been undergoing tremendous technological advancement which in terms is a boon for us. our lifestyles have heavily changed, we no more live in an joined family, we all are working parents and our outlook for a settled life has changed the world around us. we all live in the a world that is modernly civilized. leaving our civilization far behind. raising kids in this advanced world is a challenge indeed. since technology has brought curses as well as boons to our lives. we need to balance them both. things may be difficult but not impossible.

Active Fathers in the United States: Caught Between De-Gendering Care and Caring Masculinities

The United States occupies a unique position among OECD countries because the US provides little policy support for working parents. Despite the resulting extreme time scarcity, US fathers perform similar amounts of child care as European fathers under more family-friendly policy conditions. Using recent national time use survey data, this paper examines whether time scarcity among American working parents, coupled with limited access to affordable child care and traditional masculine identity ideas, is associated with American fathers’ involvement in the daily care of their young children. Results show that fathers do one third of all care activities, contribute one third of the care time, and perform over one half of the 10 activities analyzed here daily. Multivariate analysis indicates that time scarcity, lack of alternative child care options, and traditional masculine identity affect the degree of fathers’ involvement in daily care activities with their under five year olds. Implications for the development of caring masculinities are discussed.

Navigating the tensions of flexible work: An exploration of the individual strategies employed by flexibly working parents

<p>The demand for workplace flexibility is growing in New Zealand. The increasing and fragmented employment participation of women has given rise to growing complexity within family lives and higher demand for flexible work. Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are intended to assist parents in managing care responsibilities, while discouraging unemployment among women in particular. Evidence linking FWA usage with positive work outcomes and reduced work-family conflict has grown in recent years. However, research also suggests a darker side to FWAs. For some, research shows that FWAs may exacerbate work-life balance (WLB) issues and negatively affect career advancement, with indications that attempts to promote WLB can come at the expense of positive work outcomes, and vice versa. As a result, less is known about the factors that shape outcomes for flexibly working parents, or indeed, the individual strategies that parents employ to promote positive outcomes while working flexibly. The complex way in which FWAs can either promote or hinder positive employee outcomes necessitates concurrent examination of the tensions between WLB and career outlooks for users of FWAs. Drawing on the experiences of 21 professional, flexibly working parents across public service organisations, this thesis finds parents navigate the tensions of flexible work using a variety of WLB, work organisation, and career-promoting strategies, with varying effects. Work intensification and efficiency strategies are shown to be commonly used by flexibly working parents for promoting positive work outcomes. However, while work efficiency appears to also promote WLB, work intensification is seen to negatively impact WLB. This research provides valuable insight into flexibly working employee strategies, hitherto largely neglected within the literature, and highlights the need for applying the life course perspective to FWA research.</p>

Navigating the tensions of flexible work: An exploration of the individual strategies employed by flexibly working parents

<p>The demand for workplace flexibility is growing in New Zealand. The increasing and fragmented employment participation of women has given rise to growing complexity within family lives and higher demand for flexible work. Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are intended to assist parents in managing care responsibilities, while discouraging unemployment among women in particular. Evidence linking FWA usage with positive work outcomes and reduced work-family conflict has grown in recent years. However, research also suggests a darker side to FWAs. For some, research shows that FWAs may exacerbate work-life balance (WLB) issues and negatively affect career advancement, with indications that attempts to promote WLB can come at the expense of positive work outcomes, and vice versa. As a result, less is known about the factors that shape outcomes for flexibly working parents, or indeed, the individual strategies that parents employ to promote positive outcomes while working flexibly. The complex way in which FWAs can either promote or hinder positive employee outcomes necessitates concurrent examination of the tensions between WLB and career outlooks for users of FWAs. Drawing on the experiences of 21 professional, flexibly working parents across public service organisations, this thesis finds parents navigate the tensions of flexible work using a variety of WLB, work organisation, and career-promoting strategies, with varying effects. Work intensification and efficiency strategies are shown to be commonly used by flexibly working parents for promoting positive work outcomes. However, while work efficiency appears to also promote WLB, work intensification is seen to negatively impact WLB. This research provides valuable insight into flexibly working employee strategies, hitherto largely neglected within the literature, and highlights the need for applying the life course perspective to FWA research.</p>