Single Parents and the Work Setting: The Impact of Multiple Job and Homelife Responsibilities

Abstract

This article examines the impact of combined work and family responsibilities on single parent employees. Data were collected on a written questionnaire from 293 employees parent and nonparent single and married of a large New England corporation. Results indicate that parent employees but particularly single female parents were at risk for high job-family role strain and reduced levels of well being. In spite of increased strain however single parents exhibited high levels of job satisfaction and no significant differences in absenteeism. Single female parents experience the greatest amount of difficulty with their situation not because of their marital/parental status but because that status leaves them at highest risk for high role strain which is the major factor related to decreased emotional well-being. Single male parents however possibly because they do not have their children living with them full-time do not evidence the same level of work and family related stress that the other parent categories do. Single male parents spent the greatest number of hours at work had the highest salary levels and had the lowest levels of depression of all categories. The lower well-being of single female parent employees appears to be related primarily to high levels of job-family role strain the result for the most part of spending an average of 75 hours per week trying to balance both job and family responsibilities with little financial or emotional assistance. Less than 20% of the group studied conformed to the traditional model of husband at work and wife at home. As women become more of a force in the labor market and as mens home responsibilities increase companies will need to provide creative family support benefit packages to compete successfully in the job market.