earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of work-family conflict and spousal support resources on parenting stress among working mothers with pre-school children. This study involved a total of 232 working mothers with children enrolled in child care centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do as conducting a survey. First, the higher the work-family conflict (inter-role conflict caused by the impact of work on family life), the higher the family-work conflict (inter-role conflict caused by the impact of family life on work). Moreover, the lower the level of spousal support resources (emotional spousal support resources, instrumental spousal resources), the higher the work-family conflict and family-work conflict. The level of parenting stress was higher in working mothers experiencing greater work-family conflict and family-work conflict both and lower levels of spousal support resources for parenting. Second, the number of children and the amount of work-family conflict and instrumental spousal support resources had a statistically significant impact on parenting stress. Thus, the higher the number of children, the greater the work-family conflict, and the lower the level of instrumental spousal support resources, the higher the level of parenting stress. The findings of this study highlight the relative effects of role conflicts between work and family and of spousal support resources on parenting stress in working mothers. Husbands’ being involved in parenting, in particular, was identified as an important support function for healthy child-rearing by successfully combining career and family responsibilities.