Parental Work Demands and the Frequency of Child-Related Routine and Interactive Activities

This study examined whether the frequency of child-related activities was associated with parents’ own work demands and those of their partners

Anne Roeters

2009

Child development research has shown that parental involvement does increase children’s well-being (e.g., work-family research focusing on the influence of parental work demands on the time spent with children generally found that the effects are small and inconsistent (e.g., Bianchi; Bianchi et al.;
The model fit was good with a cumulative fit index of .933 and root mean square error of appoximation of
The correlations between the partners’ involvement in child-related activities were positive. This implies that if one partner reported the frequency of child-related activities as being high, the other partner did so as well, even when family and work demands were taken into account
On the basis of the demand/response capacity approach, we predicted that parents would be less involved in child-related activities when their work demands —as indicated by employment status, paid working hours, the restrictiveness of the organizational culture and job insecurity—were higher
The time mothers spend with their children was barely affected by their own and their partners’ work demands, whereas the temporal involvement of fathers was more sensitive to both their own work demands and those of their partner
The nature of family activities appears to be relevant in this respect, as the fathers’ work demands intrude most on their involvement in basic care tasks, suggesting that fathers give the priority to interactive activities such as play with their children

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