Children's health and workers' productivity: an examination of family interference with work in rural America.
This article examines the association of children's health with their parents' performance in the workplace using data from a random survey sample of adults living in rural western North Carolina (N=206). Guided by the effort-recovery model, the authors hypothesized that parents whose children are more ill have poorer performance in the workplace because their parenting requires greater effort and they have less opportunity for physical and psychological recovery. Child health was unassociated with parents cutting back at work because of physical health. Poorer child health was associated with parents cutting back at work because of emotional health, and a portion of this association, as hypothesized, was explained by more limited opportunities for parental recovery. There was no evidence suggesting that associations differed by parental gender.
Grzywacz
Joseph G
JG
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1084, USA. grzywacz@wfubmc.edu
Rao
Pamela
P
Woods
Charles R
CR
Preisser
John S
JS
Gesler
Wilbert M
WM
Arcury
Thomas A
TA
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004526:Efficiency; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D017132:Workplace