Children’s Life Satisfaction: The Roles of Mothers’ Work Engagement and Recovery from Work

Being a working mom is the new world trend that is related to women's power. Women have shown that they can be both mothers and be successful in their professional life. There are also some studies that proved this outcome. I want to mention an article named ‘Children’s Life Satisfaction: The Roles of Mothers’ Work Engagement and Recovery from Work’ written by Saija Mauno, Riikka Hirvonen, and Noona Kiuru.

This study focuses on the positive work–family interface by examining whether, and specifically via which pathways, mothers’ positive work-related experiences are linked to their children’s (median age 12 years) and their own life satisfaction. Its aim is to examine whether mothers’ positive work-related experiences, work engagement, and recovery from work, (and also via which pathways) are indirectly linked to their children’s life satisfaction via mothers’ perceived life satisfaction and closeness with their children. Additionally, it is based on the spillover and crossover models of work–the family interface with a particular focus on the positive interface, as this is a gap in the existing research.

Before the analyzing part, it would be nice to mention some psychological constructs:

1)    Work engagement: Refers to a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterized by three related dimensions: vigor (a desire to invest energy in one’s work, including energy, effort, and persistence), dedication (feelings of pride, inspiration, and enthusiasm regarding one’s work) and absorption (a sense of being engrossed in one’s work, whereby such immersion creates a feeling of time passing quickly) (e.g. Culbertson et al. 2012; Mauno et al. 2010; Schaufeli et al. 2006; Schaufeli and Salanova 2010).

2)    Recovery from work: Refers to a process enabling an individual to replenish his/her physical and mental resources that have been depleted at work, constituting one key factor for occupational well-being and work performance (e.g. Fritz et al. 2010; Sonnentag 2001; Sonnentag and Fritz 2007).

3)    Mother’s outcome:

1.    Life satisfaction: Captures an individual’s overall cognitive appraisal of her/his subjective well-being and quality of life (Diener 1984; Diener et al. 1999), also predicting many positive subsequent health and behavioral outcomes (Erdogan et al. 2012; Park 2004).

2.    Closeness with the child: Refers to the extent to which parents show affective warmth, support, responsiveness, and positive involvement with their children (Aunola and Nurmi 2005; Driscoll and Pianta 2011; Galambos et al. 2003) and is essentially more social. The attachment theory (Bowlby 1982; Driscoll and Pianta 2011) is also related to closeness.

4)    Child’s outcome:

1.    Child’s life satisfaction: Refers to the child’s cognitive appraisal of his/her subjective well-being (Diener 1984; Diener et al. 1999). A child’s life satisfaction is a personal resource established in childhood, which also has notable positive long-term consequences across the lifespan (Park 2004; Proctor et al. 2009).

Theoretical Frameworks

There are a few theoretical frameworks that are used in this article.

1)    Spillover Model: An employee’s experiences at work are transferred to his/her overall and family life, causing parallel experiences in these domains (Edwards and Rothbard 2000; Lambert 1990).

2)    Crossover Model: Captures the essence of such a spillover process at an inter-individual level, signifying that emotions, feelings, and other experiences, both positive and negative, are transmitted between significant others, that is, between couples or between parents and children (Bakker and Demerouti 2013; Bakker et al. 2009, 2013; Kinnunen et al. 2013, 2014; Westman 2001; Westman et al. 2009).

Crossover occurs basically because emotions are contagious in close relationships, causing ripple effects, the idea of which is stressed in the emotion contagion theory (Hatfield et al. 1994).

Hypothesis

H1: Mother’s work engagement and recovery from work, representing two different indicators of positive work-related experiences, spill over into her own life satisfaction and positive parenting experiences assessed via closeness with her child. This is about concerning the Spillover Model.

H2: Mother’s work engagement and recovery from work related to her child’s life satisfaction as reported by the child via the mother’s life satisfaction and closeness with the child as mediators. This is about concerning the Crossover Model.

Research Design

Two-informant design; a dyadic design that reports from mothers and children is used. Because dyadic designs are valuable in examining all emotional phenomena, such as moods, effects, or well-being, which are contagious, and having effects beyond an individual (Hatfield et al. 1994).

One informant design, the spillover approach, is used to measure the link between work engagement and happiness level at home.

Measurements

Work engagement: Assessed with three items derived from the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (Schaufeli et al. 2006). The items were ‘‘How often do you feel strong and vigorous at work?’’ (vigor), ‘‘How often do you feel happy when you are working intensely?’’ (absorption), and ‘‘How often are you enthusiastic about your job?’’ (dedication). The items were answered on a seven-point Likert scale (0 = never; 6 = daily).

Recovery from work: Assessed with a question (‘‘How well have you lately recovered from work-related stress after a working day/a shift?’’). Answers were given on a five-point Likert scale (1 = clearly worse than usual; 5 = clearly better than usual).

Life satisfaction (both mother and child): Assessed with the Finnish version of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985). The scale consisted of five items (e.g. ‘‘I am satisfied with my life’’; ‘‘So far I have gotten the important things I want in life’’) each answered on a five-point Likert scale (1 = completely disagree; 5 = completely agree).

Mother’s closeness with the child: Mothers were asked to rate their closeness with their children using a five-item closeness with the child subscale of the short Finnish version of the Child Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS; Driscoll and Pianta 2011). The closeness with the child subscale assesses parents’ perceptions of warmth, affection, and open communication in their relationship with their child. The five items (e.g. ‘‘I have a close, warm relationship with my child’’) were answered on a five-point Likert scale (1 = not at all; 5 = completely true)

Additionally, the authors also used some control variables (mothers’ age, education, family type, and child’s gender).

Analyzing The Data

Intra-class correlations and design effects for the study measures are calculated. The intra-class correlation coefficients at the classroom level varied from. 004 to. 08. The design effects varied from 1.04 to 1.87.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to examine the relationships between the mother’s positive work-related experiences, the mother’s life satisfaction, and closeness with the child, and the child’s life satisfaction.

The factor structure of the latent constructs was examined by testing the hypothesized five-factor measurement model against several alternative measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

The alternative models were compared with the five-factor model using the Satorra-Bentler scaled v2 difference test. Correlations between the latent factors were investigated.

A structural model was estimated to examine predictive associations between the latent constructs via SEM analysis. Control variables were added to the structural model as a final step.

Mediation of the mother’s work-related experiences on the child’s life satisfaction via the mother’s life satisfaction and closeness with the child was analyzed using the Bootstrapping procedure to obtain indirect effects and their 95% confidence intervals (MacKinnon et al. 2004).

All models were estimated with maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (MLR). Chi-square values (v2 ), comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) were used to evaluate model fit.

Findings

There is a significant correlation between:

·      Mom’s life satisfaction and work engagement

·      Mom’s life satisfaction and recovery from work

·      Mom’s life satisfaction and closeness with the child

·      Mom’s life satisfaction and child’s life satisfaction

·      Mom’s closeness with the child and child’s life satisfaction

·      Mom’s work engagement and closeness with the child

No direct correlation between:

·      Mom’s recovery from work and closeness with the child

Additional implications:

·      Job resources are all good promoters (Mauno et al. 2010; Schaufeli and Salanova 2010) for work engagement and they should be increased in all workplaces to ensure flourishing and engaged employees. They also affect family responsibilities too.

·      Family-friendly workplaces may be beneficial for working mothers as they are still chiefly responsible for children’s welfare.

·      From the perspective of recovery from work; certain specific recovery strategies may have positive reflections on other family members, as this study showed. It is crucial to leave work behind while not working for child’s health and spending family time in an efficient way.

Personally, I totally agree with the issue that workplaces should be family-friendly places both for mothers and fathers. Actually the main point about working in family-friendly workplaces is that, if the worker becomes happy, his/her perspective to own life will be positive too. This will affect all of the relationships of her/him; not just the family relationships, but also friend relationships and importantly person’s self relationships like being happy inside, inner peace etc. Lastly, if a mother is happy inside, she cares her child deeply and positively. And this is important for the child’s sense of self, emotional and personality developments.

Resource

Mauno, S, Hirvonen, R, Kiuru, N. (2017). Children’s Life Satisfaction: The Roles of Mothers’ Work Engagement and Recovery from Work. Springer Science; Business Media Dordrecht; J Happiness Stud (2018) 19, 1373–1393.