Work–Family Conflict Moderates the Relationship Between Childbearing and Subjective Well-Being

Anna Matysiak, Letizia Mencarini () and Daniele Vignoli ()

European Journal of Population, 2016, vol. 32, issue 3, No 3, 355-379

Abstract: Abstract Many empirical studies find that parents are not as happy as non-parents or that parenthood exerts a negative effect on subjective well-being (SWB). We add to these findings by arguing that there is a key moderating factor that has been overlooked in previous research, i.e. the level of work–family conflict. We hypothesize that the birth of a child means an increase in the level of work–family tension, which may be substantial for some parents and relatively weak for others. To outline such an approach, we estimate fixed-effects models using panel data from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia survey. We find that childbearing negatively affects SWB only when parents, mothers in particular, face a substantial work–family conflict, providing thus support for our hypothesis.

Keywords: Fertility; Subjective well-being; Work–family conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10680-016-9390-4

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