Parenthood, Work-Family Conflict and Well-Being: Are Work Hours a Mediating Factor ?

Delphine Remillon , Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Ariane Pailhé, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

We aim to contribute to the literature on parenthood and subjective well-being (SWB) and health by focusing on two moderators: the work-family conflict (WFC) and the work hours (WH). Our main hypothesis is that changes in the family structure modify the level of WFC and those of SWB but that this link can be moderated by an adaptation of WH. We used fixed-effect models on the two waves of a French survey. For women only, we found a strong relationship between having young children and WFC, a positive relationship between births and SWB and a negative one between young children and health, even with controls for the WFC and the WH. So the effect of parenthood on SWB was not only transmitted through WH and WFC. Long WH had a negative effect on SWB for women but part-time work was associated with poorer health status for men.

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 Presented in Session 90. Work-Life Balance, Parenthood, and Health