Mothers' work–family conflict and enrichment: associations with parenting quality and couple relationship

BACKGROUND: Employment participation of mothers of young children has steadily increased in developed nations. Combining work and family roles can create conflicts with family life, but can also bring enrichment. Work–family conflict and enrichment experienced by mothers may also impact children's home environments via parenting behaviour and the couple relationship, particularly in the early years of parenting when the care demands for young children is high. METHODS: In order to examine these associations, while adjusting for a wide range of known covariates of parenting and relationship quality, regression models using survey data from 2151 working mothers of 4- to 5-year-old children are reported. RESULTS/CONCLUSION: Results provided partial support for the predicted independent relationships between work–family conflict, enrichment and indicators of the quality of parenting and the couple relationship.