Crossover of parents' work-family conflict to family functioning and child mental health

Abstract

We investigated potential crossover from mothers' and fathers' work-family conflict to their own and their partner's perception of inter-parental conflict and parenting irritability, and subsequent influences on children's and adolescents' mental health. Using a representative sample of Australian children (N = 3061), an autoregressive model tested four mediation paths for mother-reported child internalizing and externalizing problems (4–5 to 14–15 years), and a second model tested two mediation paths for adolescent-reported problems (8–9 to 14–15 years). Findings indicated that mothers' and fathers' parenting irritability (6–7 years) mediated the association between mothers' work-family conflict (4–5 years) and mother-reported child externalizing problems (8–9 years); and mothers' parenting irritability (12–13 years) mediated the association between fathers' work-family conflict (10–11 years) and mother- and adolescent-reported externalizing problems (14–15 years). Findings demonstrate the potential for work-family conflict to cross over to parenting, thus influencing long-term child mental health.