Exploring the Work-Life Balance of High School Assistant Principals with School-Aged Children at Home

The high school assistant principal position is a complex and demanding role. Being a parent to school-aged children is also a complex and demanding role. For high school APs who have school-aged children at home, the ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance is essential to their ability to effectively fulfill both professional and personal responsibilities. This study was conducted to explore the work-life balance of high school APs with school-aged children at home and sought to identify ways in which their leadership team, family, and friends could support and promote their work-life balance as well as identify specific strategies used by high school APs to support and promote their own work-life balance.Participants included high school assistant principals from comprehensive campuses in Maricopa County, Arizona, that employ three or more full time assistant principals. Initially, all qualifying assistant principals were invited to complete a questionnaire to collect personal and professional demographic data. Based on that data, assistant principals with school-aged children at home were identified and the researcher invited high school assistant principals who were employed under a 12-month contract, resided with a partner in a committed and/or married relationship, and who had two or more school-aged children at home to participate in two focus groups, one male and one female. Each focus group was asked how fellow members of their leadership team, family, and friends support and promote their work-life balance, ways in which they could better support and promote their work-life balance, and strategies they use to support their own work-life balance. The focus group responses were transcribed, reviewed for accuracy, analyzed, and summarized. The findings of this study suggested a significant need for additional support for females in the high school assistant principal position with school-aged children at home. On a larger scale, the findings suggested an overall gap in society’s acceptance and support of females in leadership roles. There is evidence to show a significant difference in the mental and emotional load carried by males and females, specifically the responsibilities related to family and household