Latent Transition Analysis of the Work-Family Balance of Working Mothers with a Child in Elementary School: Focus on the Effect of Antecedents on both Work-Family Balance Typology and Transition between Typologies

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to apply latent transition analysis to the work-family balance of working mothers with a child in elementary school by focusing on the effect of antecedents on both work-family balance typology and the transition between typologies. Data from 400 working mothers who participated in the eighth and eleventh waves of the Panel Study on Korean Children were used. The results can be summarized as follows. First, the latent profile analysis of working mothers whose children were in the first grade classified the work-family balance types as ‘contradictory’ or ‘beneficial’ and of working mothers whose children were in the fourth grade as ‘conflictual’, ‘contradictory’, ‘high beneficial’, ‘low beneficial’ or ‘beneficial’. Second, working mothers whose work-family balance was ‘contradictory’ or ‘beneficial’ when their children were in the first grade mostly had, respectively, a ‘low beneficial’ or a ‘high beneficial’ balance when their children were in the fourth grade. Third, the probability of being classified into each type differed according to subjective happiness and marital conflict in the first grade, and marital conflict and social support in the fourth grade. Moreover, marital conflict and social support were significant in the transition between the types of work-family balance. The study showed that the types of work-family balance differed for each time point for individual working mothers. The study also highlighted the importance of parenting-related personal, family and social factors in determining the work-family balance type and transition between types.