Linking parents' work stress to children's and adolescents' psychological adjustment

Recent research indicates that parental work stress has impli-cations for the quality of family interaction and, in turn, chil-dren’s and adolescents ’ adjust-ment. Studies in two distinct genres are reviewed: investiga-tions relying on global reports of work demands, family dy-namics, and child and adoles-cent adjustment and studies focusing on within-person com-parisons of family interaction on days characterized by high and low work stress. The effects of parental work stress on chil-dren’s and adolescents ’ adjust-ment appear to be indirect. Work stress is linked to parents’ feelings of overload and strain, which in turn predict lower par-ent-child acceptance and higher conflict, processes that in turn are related to less positive ad-justment of children and adoles-cents. In the face of high work stress, withdrawing from family involvement may be adaptive in the short run but ultimately problematic. The strength of these associations depends on parents ’ personality qualities, parents ’ coping styles, and work and family circumstances