Parental employment and the parent -child relationship: Understanding the work -family experience.

The rise in women's labor force participation is one of the most profound changes that have impacted American families in the 20th century. Given the rapidness and extent of this social change, the question of how women's labor force participation affects parent-child relationships and family well-being has spurred considerable debate and controversy among researchers, journalists and the public. In spite of the large amount of research conducted on this topic, even the research literature does not reveal a consistent pattern of results. Thus, we still do not have a clear picture as to how relationships between parents and children are impacted by parental employment. The central question asked in this dissertation is: how are parent-child relationships affected by parental employment? In order to address this question, I propose and utilize an integrative theoretical approach in my analyses that allows me to focus on the interplay of parental employment patterns, family characteristics, and the meaning and significance of work for parents in order to provide a broad context to the work-family experience. The data for this dissertation are from a longitudinal intergenerational panel study of families in the Detroit Metropolitan Area, which tracked a cohort of women and their children for 18 years between 1962 and 1980. This dissertation builds upon existing research in the area of work and family in three ways. First, parental employment is measured on a variety of dimensions such as work history over time, wages, and the timing of employment events in order to provide a richer, multi-dimensional conception of employment patterns. Second, I incorporate both maternal and paternal employment into this study for the purpose of investigating the interplay of these two factors on children's well-being. Third, I incorporate interpretive measures that capture the meaning and significance work has for parents. Throughout this dissertation, I demonstrate that the impact of parental employment on children's well-being is a complex interplay of external work characteristics, employment patterns of both parents, and their beliefs and expectations regarding work.Ph.D.DemographyIndividual and family studiesSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/124747/2/3163760.pd