Do women's provider-role attitudes moderate the links between work and family?
The authors examined the links between mothers' work qualities and their individual well-being and marital quality, as well as adolescent daughters' and sons' gender-role attitudes, as a function of mothers' provider-role attitudes, in 134 dual-earner families. In home interviews, mothers described their work, provider-role attitudes, family relationships, and mental health; their offspring reported gender-role attitudes. Women's attitudes about breadwinning were coded into main-secondary, coprovider, and ambivalent coprovider groups. Mothers' provider-role attitudes moderated the links between status indicators and mothers' depression, marital conflict, and daughters' gender-role attitudes. For example, depression and marital conflict were negatively related to coprovider mothers' earnings and occupational prestige. The same was not true for main-secondary and ambivalent coprovider mothers. These findings underscore the importance of considering employed women's interpretation of their work roles when exploring work-family links.
Helms-Erikson
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Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Stone Building, P.O. Box 26170, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina 27402-6170, USA. h_helmse@uncg.edu
Tanner
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JL
Crouter
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AC
McHale
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SM
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008603:Mental Health; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology*