Making the Grade: Parental Work-Family Conflict through the Eyes of Teens

Elaine Marchena, University of Chicago

The intersection of work and family life has received considerable attention these past few decades. However, relatively absent from this body of research is children's perceptions of work-family conflict. In this study, we use survey data from a Sloan Study on dual earner families (N=226) to examine the relationship between adolescents' assessments of parental role management and parents' own experiences of role conflict. Further, we examine other key aspects of family life (time together, communication, relationship quality) and how these figure into adolescents' assessments. This unique opportunity to look at each parent's work experiences, as well as adolescents' perceptions, reveals two things: 1) adolescents look for particular signs that let them know parents are accommodating work to meet family needs; and 2) more then talking or spending time together, adolescents look for supportive family environments and parental closeness when assessing how well parents are balancing work and family roles.