More than ‘Maxed Out’: Working Parents and the Psychological Toll of Spanning Culturally Incompatible Roles

• In Event: 160 - Section on Social Psychology Paper Session. Interconnections: Social Psychology and Cultural Sociology

Abstract

Feeling ‘maxed out’ is a major source of stress for working parents; there is widespread agreement among work and family scholars that time and energy constraints hurt the well-being of working parents. The purpose of this paper is to explore another potential source of conflict for working parents that is rooted in culture and identity. Our core proposition is that working parents will find it more psychologically taxing when the cultural meanings associated with their work roles are misaligned from the cultural meanings associated with parenthood. First, we demonstrate that certain parent-worker role combinations, such as parent-lawyer and parent-laborer, are in fact judged as more culturally incompatible than others, such as parent-teacher or parent-doctor. Second, by merging perceptions of cultural incompatibility with representative survey data on adults and well-being (National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States), we find that parent–worker role incompatibility decreases well-being, even after accounting for a host of person- and occupation-level characteristics. These findings strongly suggest that abstract cultural meanings are an important lens through which to view work and family roles. The implications of this study are discussed with respect to the broader phenomenon of self in multiple roles.

Authors

• Mark Henry Walker, Louisiana State University

• Freda B. Lynn, University of Iowa

• Mary C. Noonan, University of Iowa