BRIEF REPORT

Association of Parents’ Work-Related Stress and Children’s Socioemotional Competency: Indirect Effects of Family Mealtimes

Sehyun Ju, Qiujie Gong, and Karen Z. Kramer Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Family mealtimes play an important role in promoting the physical and psychological well-being of children. However, parents’ work-related stress may impact their ability to participate in frequent family mealtimes. In dual-earner families, gendered norms may also influence parents’ shared responsibility to participate in mealtimes with their children. Prior studies have primarily focused on the mother’s role in feeding children, while the father’s participation has been relatively unexplored. We used a sample of dual- earner families consisting of heterosexual married couples with children in the United States who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort to investigate how stressors at work may affect the mother’s and father’s participation in family mealtimes and, in turn, related to the child’s socioemotional development. We tested the associations between the mother’s and father’s work-related stress on the child’s socioemotional competency from age two through preschool (age 4–5). We examined the direct and indirect effects of parents’ work-related stress on child socioemotional competency through their involvement in mealtimes. The results indicate a negative direct association between the mother’s job/financial dissatisfaction and the child’s socioemotional competency. The father’s job dissatisfaction had an adverse impact on children in terms of socioemotional competency, partially explained by the father participating less often in family mealtimes. Fathers’ job/financial dissatisfaction had a negative influence on children’s socioemotional competency, even with an increase in the mothers’ participation in family mealtimes in the absence of the fathers. The findings emphasize the importance of fathers’ involvement in mealtimes above and beyond mothers’ involvement.

Keywords: family mealtimes, father involvement, socioemotional development, work stress, financial stress

Supplemental materials: https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001147.supp

Family mealtimes provide an important space for daily interaction among family members (Fiese & Bost, 2016; Harrison et al., 2015; Jones, 2018). Past studies have highlighted the benefits of having family mealtimes on a range of child outcomes (Eisenberg et al., 2004; Harrison et al., 2015; Helton et al., 2023), such as externalizing and internalizing behaviors. However, research on the impact of parents’, especially fathers’, work-related stress on mealtime routines and child outcomes is scant. Given that dual-earner families with children are common in the United States (65.0%; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023), examining how work-related stress can affect mealtime practices is essential in promoting positive family and child development. Therefore, the present study investigates the associa- tions between parents’ adverse work conditions, their ability to frequently engage in a structured mealtime routine, and children’s

socioemotional outcomes in a sample of families with heterosexual couples with children in the United States. The study also examines the extent to which fathers’ involvement in mealtimes is associated with children’s early developmental outcomes above and beyond mothers’ involvement.

Family Mealtimes

Family mealtime as a routine provides a structured practice that emphasizes the instrumental aspect of goal achievement, role assignment, and communication (Fiese et al., 2002). In families with children, mealtimes can provide time for parental socialization of affective, cognitive, and behavioral expectations that may equip children with the required social and emotional skills (Spagnola & Fiese, 2007). Therefore, mealtime routines may render structure for family interactions that support a child’s development of social and emotional skills.

Despite the known benefits of shared family mealtimes, the ability to adopt a structured routine for mealtime interactions may be influenced by the level of support each parent’s job offers. Jacob et al. (2008) showed that family mealtimes have a protective role in mitigating the negative influence of long work hours on children’s outcomes. As such, it is essential to examine the associations between parental work and child outcomes while considering the family members’ differential capacity to have regular mealtimes

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This article was published Online First August 10, 2023. Sehyun Ju https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2753-1998 Karen Z. Kramer received funding from Grant ILLU-793-914 from the

National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sehyun

Ju, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1014 Doris Kelly Christopher Hall, 904 West Nevada Street, Urbana, IL 61801, United States. Email: [email protected]

Journal of Family Psychology

© 2023 American Psychological Association 2023, Vol. 37, No. 7, 977–983 ISSN: 0893-3200 https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001147

977

based on factors such as work hours and work shift characteristics. Parents who are presented with time and energy constraints from work-related demands might not be able to consistently engage in shared family mealtimes; thus, they may not reap the benefits of the shared time and space mealtime routines offer. However, the extent to which work stress affects mothers’ and fathers’ participation in the children’s mealtime routines remains unknown.

Theoretical Background

According to role conflict theory, interrole conflict may emerge in the work–family interface (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). The theory indicates that participation in the parent’s work role can interfere with performance in the family role. “Interrole conflict” in the work–family interface suggests that parents’ ability to fulfill responsibilities may be interrupted in light of the allocation of their time, energy, and resources as an employee (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985; R. Repetti & Wang, 2017). The impact of work-related stress extends to family life through an impact on attitudes, feelings, and behaviors (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000; R. L. Repetti & Wang, 2014; R. Repetti & Wang, 2017). Empirical evidence supports this notion showing, for example, that when parents face adverse work conditions, the stress can have a spillover effect on family relationships, including the quality of parent–child interactions (Johnson et al., 2013; Strazdins et al., 2006). Because employment stress can be ever-present in parents’ lives, adverse perceptions of working conditions may have a long-lasting impact on children’s social and emotional development.

Parental Employment and Child Outcomes

Parental employment has been considered an essential aspect of parenting (R. Repetti & Wang, 2017). Research has shown that the subjective experiences of employment, such as work-related stress, also have implications for family relationships and child outcomes (McLoyd et al., 2008; R. L. Repetti, 1994). Parents’ experiences in the work environment and parents’ attitudes toward their work have largely been found to impact children’s emotional and behavioral outcomes (R. L. Repetti & Wang, 2014). Similarly, parents’ perceptions of their work hours have been shown to predict the quality of family interactions, which highlights the importance of parents’ subjective experience of adverse work conditions on children’s outcomes (McLoyd et al., 2008). Early research on the work–family interface has focused on the

spillover effect of parental work-related stress on family interactions and child outcomes (Dinh et al., 2017; Kinnunen et al., 1996; Nelson et al., 2009). Parents’ exposure to job stressors can also lead to changes in mood, energy, and cognition, which may spill over to interactions with family members (R. L. Repetti, 1994; R. L. Repetti & Wang, 2014). Several studies have also found that work-related stress has an impact on the parent–child relationship, marked by less sensitivity in parenting (Goodman et al., 2008; R. L. Repetti, 1994). For instance, a parent’s adverse work environment, marked by long, nonstandard work hours and inflexible schedules, has been associated with less parental warmth (Strazdins et al., 2006), reduced emotional availability (Johnson et al., 2013; R. L. Repetti, 1994), and less time spent together with children (Johnson et al., 2013; Strazdins et al., 2006).

In an early study, greater parental job satisfaction was inversely associated with parents’ perception of parenting being burdensome and parent-reported problematic child behaviors (Kinnunen et al., 1996). Parental job dissatisfaction, as a source of stress, has also been found to have a crossover effect in the family, such that a parent’s higher job dissatisfaction was associated with the parent having less supportive emotional responses toward the children (Nelson et al., 2009). McLoyd et al. (2008) showed that family routines explain the link between the mother’s objective work- related demands and behavioral problems in African American children (10–12 years of age). However, despite the associations between work demands, family routines, and child outcomes, less is known about the role of co-parenting dynamics in the association between a subjective evaluation of work/financial circumstances on a preschool child’s socioemotional competency.

The Present Study

In this study, we aimed to examine the spillover of work stress into the family as it may be important for a child’s early socioemotional competency using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) data set. Specifically, we tested the associations between parental work and financial dissatisfaction at age 2 and child socioemotional competency at 4–5 years of age. We hypothesize that (1) both the mother’s and father’s work and financial dissatisfaction during the child’s infancy are negatively associated with child’s socioemotional competency at 4–5 years of age; (2) a higher frequency of family mealtimes at age 2 is associated with higher socioemotional competency at 4–5 years of age; (3) there is an indirect relationship between parental job/financial dissatisfaction and children’s socio- emotional competency through joint parent–child mealtime frequency.

Method

The current analysis includes a subsample of dual-earner families from a nationally representative sample of children born in 2001 and their parents (n = 1,408) who participated in the ECLS-B (N = 10,700). The data (Najarian et al., 2010) were collected on children’s development in multiple domains, including home, childcare, and school environment, to trace the interactions between child characteristics, family environment, and education settings from 9 months (2001–2002) to kindergarten (4–5 years of age; 2005– 2006). The current analysis includes data collected during Wave 2 (Time 1 [T1]) and Wave 3 (Time 2 [T2]) when the children were 2 and 4–5 years of age, respectively.

The sample for analysis included 1,408 children with complete data on the study variables. The participants were 53.4% male, and 54.5% of the participants identified as White, 4.9% as Black, 15.0% as Hispanic, 15.5% as Asian, 1.7% as American Indian/Alaska Native, .1% Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander, and 8.3% as multirace. On average, families were of a moderate–high socioeco- nomic status (SES; .44 above the ECLS-B sample average).

Measures

Demographic Variables

Demographic information was assessed through parent reports of child’s gender (coded 1 = male, 0 = female), race, and number of

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siblings (Supplemental Table S1). Both parents’ age, race, education levels, and work hours were obtained from parent interviews. Family SES was assessed using a standardized score created based on parent’s highest level of education, occupational prestige, and household income.

Predictor Variables

Job/Financial Dissatisfaction. The father’s and mother’s job/financial dissatisfaction at T1 was assessed using the same self-report eight-item scale when the child was 2 years old. The parents were asked to assess their degree of satisfaction with their jobs and several financial satisfaction measures. Each question was rated on a 4-point scale (1 = very dissatisfied to 4 = very satisfied). Mean composite scores were created such that higher scores indicate greater job/financial dissatisfaction (mother: α= .86; father: α= .87). Family Mealtimes. For one of the family routine measures, the

mothers were interviewed on the frequency of family mealtimes at T1. The number of days (day/week) at least one parent eats evening meals with their child in a typical week was reported. Father-Involved Mealtimes. At T1, fathers reported the

number of days they had an evening meal with their child in a typical week (day/week). Mother-OnlyMealtimes. The frequency of eveningmealtimes

a child had with the mother without the father at T1 was calculated by subtracting the frequency of father-involved mealtimes from the total number of mealtimes a child ate with at least one parent.

Outcome Variables

Socioemotional Competency. Child’s behavioral competency and social skills were evaluated by mothers at T2 on a 24-item scale that has been validated for the ECLS-B study (Najarian et al., 2010). The questions were adopted from Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (Crowley & Merrell, 2003) and the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliot, 1990), with additional items specifically formulated for the ECLS-B parent interview. Mothers were asked to evaluate how often they observed positive behavioral indicators (14 items; “Accepts friends’ ideas in sharing and playing”) and negative behavioral indicators (10 items; “Worries about things”) of the child’s socioemotional development in the past 3 months on a 5-point scale (1 = never to 5 = very often). The scores for negative indicators were reverse coded to create a mean composite score such that a higher score indicates greater socioemotional competency in children (α = .81).

Control Variables

Variables that have been found to be closely associated with the outcome variable in past studies were included in the model as statistical controls (Johnson et al., 2013; Joshi & Bogen, 2007). These incorporate demographic factors, both parents’ weekly working hours and work shifts, and parental involvement. Work Shift. The shift parents worked at T1 was also included

as a statistical control. The work shift characteristics of the mothers and fathers were separately dummy coded into 0 (nondaytime shift) or 1 (standard daytime shift), based on whether their work hours fell between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (standard daytime shift) or not (nondaytime shift).

Parental Involvement. Parental involvement of mothers (α = .55) and fathers (α = .85) was separately assessed using a 13-item measure at T1. Parents were asked to report how often they engaged in the activity depicted in each item (e.g., “help child to bed,” “give child a bath”) on a 6-point scale (1 = more than once a day, 6 = not at all). Composite scores were computed by taking the average such that a higher score indicates greater involvement.

Analysis Plan

A structural regression was conducted in the lavaan package 0.6-12 in R 4.1.2 to test mediation using the recommended bootstrap procedure for estimating standard errors (n = 1,000; Cheung & Lau, 2008). The child’s socioemotional competency was included in the model as an outcome variable. Themother’s and father’s job/financial dissatisfaction, respectively, were entered as predictors of a child’s socioemotional competency controlling for the covariates, including the child’s gender and race, number of siblings, family SES, mother’s and father’s work hours, work shift characteristics, involvement of each parent. Then, the mother-only and father-involved mealtime frequency, respectively, was entered as mediators to test whether the mother’s and father’s mealtime frequency partially explained the association between parental job/financial dissatisfaction and socio- emotional competency. We examined whether the father’s involve- ment in mealtimes was predictive of the child’s socioemotional competency above and beyond the influence of mother-only mealtime frequency and other covariates.

Results

Preliminary Analysis

Missing data analysis using Little’s Missing Completely at Random test, χ2(69) = 92.13, p < .05, was significant, indicating that the data in the analytic sample was not missing completely at random. Fathers with missing data on all father-reported measures were excluded from the analysis (Enders, 2001). The participants excluded due to missing father data do not significantly differ from the analysis sample in terms of main study variables. Missing data for model variables ranged from .0% to 2.6%, with data most frequently missing for father-involved mealtime. Full information maximum likelihood procedures were employed to handle missing values, ensuring unbiased estimation of parameters by using all available data (Enders, 2001).

Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations among the key study variables are presented in Supplemental Table S2. Children, on average, were reported to have moderate to high socioemotional competency (M = 3.61). Average mother’s (M = 2.04) and father’s (M = 2.17) job/financial dissatisfaction were low-to-moderate. On average, families had 5.95 days per week where either one of the parents had dinner with the child. Fathers reported having dinner with their child 5.65 days per week, indicating a high frequency of father-involved mealtimes. Accordingly, there was a low average frequency of mother-only mealtimes (M = .8).

The mother’s and father’s job/financial dissatisfaction, respec- tively, was inversely correlated with the child’s socioemotional competency (r = −.08, p = .002 and r = −.06, p = .019, respectively). The father’s job/financial dissatisfaction was signifi- cantly correlated with the frequency of mother-only mealtimes

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FAMILY MEALTIMES AND CHILD SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 979

(r = .06, p = .014) and father-involved mealtimes (r = −.08, p = .003). Mother-only mealtime frequency was positively correlated with the child’s socioemotional competency (r = .05, p = .043).

Path Analysis

Main Effects

The results suggest a significant direct association between the mother’s job/financial dissatisfaction at T1 and the child’s socio- emotional competency (β = −.03, SE = .02, p = .041), controlling for demographic variables, parents’work hours, work shift characteristics, number of siblings, parental involvement, and mealtime frequency (Figure 1). However, the father’s job/financial dissatisfaction was not directly related to the child’s socioemotional competency (β = −.02, SE = .02, p = .16). Interestingly, the mother’s job/financial dissatisfaction was not significantly associated with mother-only (β = −.07, SE = .06, p = .29) and father-involved (β = .09, SE = .08, p = .24) mealtime frequency, whereas the father’s job/financial dissatisfaction was positively associated with mother-only mealtime frequency (β = .15, SE = .06, p = .02) and negatively associated with father-involved mealtime frequency (β = −.23, SE = .08, p = .003). The results revealed a significant main effect such that both mother-

only mealtime frequency (β = .03, SE = .01, p < .001) and father- involved mealtime frequency (β = .02, SE = .01, p = .004) were positively associated with the child’s socioemotional competency after

accounting for other variables in the model. For every day-per-week increase in mother-only and father-involved evening mealtime frequency, the child’s socioemotional competency score increased by .03 and .02, respectively.

Indirect Effects

There were several indirect associations between the father’s job/financial dissatisfaction and the child’s socioemotional compe- tency through mealtime frequency. Mother-only (β = −.01, SE = .003, p = .04) and father-involved (β = −.01, SE = .004, p = .02) mealtime frequency partially explained the link between the father’s job/financial dissatisfaction and the child’s socioemotional compe- tency. The father’s job/financial dissatisfaction was positively associated with mother-only mealtimes with the child, which was positively related to the child’s socioemotional competency. However, the father’s job/financial dissatisfaction was inversely associated with father-involved mealtime frequency, thus showing a negative association with the child’s socioemotional competency. Mealtime frequency did not explain the association between the mother’s job/financial dissatisfaction and the child’s socioemotional competency.

Discussion

This study examined the direct and indirect associations between parents’ job/financial dissatisfaction and the children’s socioemotional

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Figure 1 Model Results: Indirect Effects of T1 (2 Years) Parental Job/Financial Dissatisfactions on Socioemotional Competency at T2 (4 Years) Through Mealtime Frequency

Father’s Job/financial

Dissatisfaction

Mother’s

Job/financial

Dissatisfaction

T1 (2y) T2 (4y)T1 (2y)

Child’s Socio- emotional

Competency

-.07(.07)

-.23 **

(.08)

.03 ***

(.01)

c1’= -.03 * (.02)

a1b1 =.002(.002)

Mother-only

mealtimes

c2’= -.02(.02)

a1b2 =.003(.003)

Father-involved

mealtimes .02

** (.01)

.09(.08)

.15 * (.07)

a1

a2

b1

b2a2b2 =-.01 * (.004)

a2b1 =-.01 * (.003)

Note. a1, a2, b1, b2, c1′, c2′ are path coefficients representing standardized estimates and standard errors (in parenthesis). The c′ path coefficients indicate the direct effects of the mother’s and father’s job/financial dissatisfaction on child socioemotional competency. Bold lines show statistically significant associations. The bold orange line indicates a signficiant direct pathway. Bold blue lines show significant indirect pathways. Estimates are statistically adjusted for the child’s gender and race/ethnicity, number of siblings, family SES, mother’s and father’s work hours, work shift characteristics, and mother’s and father’s parental involvement. Statistical controls were included in the model, but not depicted for model simplicity. T = time; SES = socioeconomic status. See the online article for the color version of this figure. * p ≤ .05. ** p ≤ .01. *** p ≤ .001.

980 JU, GONG, AND KRAMER

competency through the effect of family mealtime frequency. In line with our hypotheses, fathers whowere less satisfiedwith their jobwere less likely to be involved in mealtimes, which was then negatively associated with the child’s socioemotional competency. This relationship was present even when accounting for the frequency of mother-only mealtimes. The results support role conflict theory and suggest the importance of mealtimes as a space for interaction (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). The benefits of fathers having a lower job/financial dissatisfaction may translate into children’s favorable socioemotional outcomes. Conversely, fathers’ high job/financial dissatisfaction may have an adverse impact on the child’s socio- emotional outcomes due to the fathers’ lack of consistent participation in their children’s mealtime routines. The findings from the present study revealed that the father’s job

dissatisfaction was significantly associated with both mother-only and father-involved mealtimes. When fathers have a higher job/financial dissatisfaction, mothers may try to compensate for the lack of the fathers’ involvement in mealtimes by engaging in more frequent mealtimes with the child. This finding aligns with the literature suggesting compensatory effects between parents in childcare (Nelson et al., 2009). Interestingly, after controlling for father- involved mealtime frequency, the increase in mother-only mealtimes in response to the father’s job dissatisfaction had a positive direct influence on the child’s socioemotional competency. However, even if the mother attempts to engage inmore frequent mealtimes, children may still demonstrate lower socioemotional competency when the father has higher job/financial dissatisfaction. Although the mother may have more frequent mealtimes with the child in response to the father’s job dissatisfaction and fewer father-involved mealtimes, the mother’s own job/financial satisfaction or dissatisfaction may still spill over directly to the child’s socioemotional development. It is notable that even after accounting for the father’s

job/financial dissatisfaction, mealtime frequency, and other covari- ates included in the model, the mother’s job/financial dissatisfaction had a significant direct effect on the child’s socioemotional competency. Thus, it is important to consider how the mother may strive to compensate for the father’s lack of involvement in family mealtimes when the mother also has w

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