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Work-family research frequently focuses on the conflict experienced by working mothers. Using data from the National Study of the Changing Workforce ( N = 1,314), this study also examined work-family facilitation and working fathers. Ecological systems, family stress, family resilience, and sex role theories were used to organize the data and create hypotheses. Work-to-family facilitation was positively related to job satisfaction and life satisfaction, and negatively related to individual stress. Family-to-work facilitation was positively related to marital satisfaction, family satisfaction, and life satisfaction, and negatively related to organizational commitment. Working fathers reported long work hours (49 hours/week), major involvement in household responsibilities (46 hours/week), and a work culture less supportive of their family life than working mothers reported. However, working fathers reported less work-family conflict, less individual stress, and greater family satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and life satisfaction than working mothers. The results support including facilitation and gender in future work-family research.

This study explores how individuals across six family life stages (before children, transition to parenthood, youngest child preschool-age, youngest child school-age, youngest child adolescent, and empty nest) differ in their experience of the work—family interface. Data come from a global IBM work and life issues survey ( N = 41,769). Structural equation modeling was used to compare employees from six family life stages on work role factors (job hours, job responsibility, job flexibility) and family role factors (household work hours, marital status), and their relationships to work—family conflict, family—work conflict, work—family fit and four personal success measures. Meaningful differences in the means and size of the relationships among variables across family life stages provided empirical evidence of a 'life course' for the work—family interface influenced by differential exposure and differential effects of work and family role demands.

This study examines gender differences in the work—family interface across six family life stages using a global sample of IBM employees in 79 countries ( N = 41,813). Family life stage was constructed using the age of respondent and age of youngest child. Results revealed that having young children at home was the critical catalyst for gender differences in the work—family interface. The greatest gender differences were found in the central stages of life when children require more temporal and economic resources from their parents. When life stage was not considered, the first and last stages tended to offset each other, concealing major gender differences during the central stages of family life. These findings signify that life stage is an important concept to consider in research related to gender and the work— family interface. Implications to the development of work policies attentive to shifts in work—family linkages during the life course are discussed.

Twenty years ago, corporate work and family programs at International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) were seen as a means to accommodate the needs of working mothers. Today, IBM's work/life strategy is seen as a business imperative to attract, motivate, and retain key talent needed to drive success in the marketplace. To intelligently develop work/life strategies that would simultaneously meet business and personal needs, IBM conducted seven work and life issues surveys, beginning in 1986. These surveys provide a wealth of data on which dramatic change has been based. Many initiatives have been implemented related to dependent care, flexibility in when and wherework is done, and management support of employees'work/life needs. This article briefly shares IBM'swork/life experience during the past 20 years. Key results from each work/life survey are enumerated along with the substantive policies that they engendered to make IBM a global corporate work/life leader.

In this study we explore the gap between preferred and actual work situations for mothers of young children. We further examine the effects of not meeting desired work situation preferences on mothers' depression and parenting stress over time. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care (1141 families) our findings indicate up to 71 percent of mothers in this sample did not achieve their preference. After controlling for marital status, ethnicity, education, income-to-needs, perceived costs of employment, and social support, both intra-individual and inter-individual assessments of the gap between a mother's ideal and actual employment significantly predicted depression across the first three years of parenthood. Mothers' employment hours and preferences for employment predicted parenting stress, but social support buffered this effect. We tested preliminary distinctions between maternal under-employment and over-employment and discuss implications for home and work.

This study examines the influence of perceived flexibility in the timing and location of work on work‐family balance. Data are from a 1996 International Business Machines (IBM) work and life issues survey in the United States (n= 6,451). Results indicate that perceived job flexibility is related to improved work‐family balance after controlling for paid work hours, unpaid domestic labor hours, gender, marital status, and occupational level. Perceived job flexibility appears to be beneficial both to individuals and to businesses. Given the same workload, individuals with perceived job flexibility have more favorable work‐family balance. Likewise, employees with perceived job flexibility are able to work longer hours before workload negatively impacts their work‐family balance. Implications of these findings are presented.

This purpose of this case study is to relate the methods used to conduct a qualitative research project about family financial socialization designed by emerging adults, primarily employing emerging adults as the primary research participants (although some of their parents and grandparents are interviewed). A sample of 153 respondents (128 undergraduate students, 17 parents, and eight grandparents) at three universities was recruited to assure diversity. We outline and discuss our team-based approach to qualitative data collection, analysis, and coding procedures, as well as how a team of 10 undergraduate students was incorporated into this approach. We relate the challenges and benefits of using undergraduate researchers. We make the case that a group of intelligent and motivated undergraduate students can make significant scholarly contributions.

This multigenerational, qualitative research study explores family financial discussion processes that may lead to better financial preparation for emerging adults. Interviews were conducted with 90 emerging adults from three universities as well as 17 of their parents and 8 of their grandparents. Qualitative analyses revealed two major themes associated with family financial discussion processes. In parent-initiated discussions, principles were taught primarily through vertically structured (top-down) delivery. Three concepts reported across all three generations of respondents included (a) sharing financial experiences, (b) involving children in decisions, and (c) engaging in age-appropriate conversations. In child-initiated discussions, analyses revealed that financial principles were often taught in interactive, conversational, horizontal, and organic ways. Analyses identified two recurring concepts or contexts: (a) children asking financial questions and (b) child-initiated, age-appropriate conversations. These results highlight healthy processes for family financial discussion that may better prepare emerging adults for financial adulthood and reduce financial instability.

ObjectiveTo qualitatively explore the whats and hows of financial socialization in families, as reported by emerging adults and their parents and grandparents.BackgroundPrevious research has examined the positive impact of financial socialization in families as well as the negative consequences of a lack of sufficient financial education. However, there is a need to explore the breadth of parent–child financial socialization methods and topics.MethodA convenience sample of 90 emerging adults (18–30 years of age), 17 of their parents, and eight of their grandparents (N = 115) were interviewed at three diverse universities regarding what and how their parents taught them about money. Parents and grandparents were also interviewed regarding what and how they taught their children about money.ResultsThematic content coding revealed three core how themes (modeling, discussion, and experiential learning) and four core what themes (financial planning, work ethic, money management, and sharing). The themes coded most often were discussion and money management.ConclusionThe findings provide a starting point for gaining insight about how and what parents teach children about money but leave many questions unanswered that future research will need to address to build efficient and effective evidence‐based approaches for parental financial socialization in future generations.ImplicationsFamily life educators and others can use our findings to better understand how financial socialization occurs in families as a necessary step in ultimately improving financial socialization and increasing the financial capability and independence of emerging adults.

This study explores family formation–work fit (i.e., beliefs that work demands fit with desired family size) and its relation to achievement of desired family size, work–family facilitation and conflict, and marital satisfaction using a subsample ( N = 690) drawn from the nationally representative Singapore National Study of Work–Life Harmony. Results indicate that family formation–work fit was positively related to desired family size achievement. Importantly, those with desired family size achievement had more than twice as many children as those who had not achieved their desired family size. In addition, workplace schedule flexibility, work-to-family facilitation, and marital satisfaction were associated with higher family formation–work fit, while family-to-work conflict and work-to-family conflict were associated with lower family formation–work fit. These findings indicate the importance of considering family formation–work fit when studying family fertility decisions, particularly in nations with low fertility rates.

Using data from a representative sample (N = 1,026) of married workers in Singapore, this study examined potential family‐to‐work spillover relationships among marital distress, health and mental health, and work satisfaction. Results from structural equation modeling analysis showed that marital distress was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms, health, and work satisfaction. Health was not related to work satisfaction. Depression acted as an indirect link between marital distress and work satisfaction. No major gender differences emerged from the regression analysis, and approximately 40% of the variance in work satisfaction was explained by the model. Results suggest that marriage‐to‐work spillover is real and costly for families, organizations, and governments.

Most studies of fathers' participation in child care focus on fairness, or domestic democracy. What is sacrificed by fairness-focused studies of family work is attention to the developmental tasks that adult men and women face while building a life together. This article explores the developmental implications for fathers of their underinvolvement in child care using Erikson's conception of adult development and his emphasis on achieving generativity. We suggest processes by which fathers may develop generativity and outline the challenges they face in achieving it. The transition to parenthood often sets mothers and fathers on divergent developmental trajectories that may leave them in different developmental positions. Men's involvement in child care may be crucial to keeping men's and women's development synchronous and hence to maintaining satisfying relationships. A developmental perspective on men's participation in child care may also be more conducive to helping fathers increase their involvement than the domestic-democracy perspective. Directions for future research are suggested based on a developmental perspective.