Childcare Responsibilities Research Articles

Exploring Individual and Family-related Characteristics of Hybrid Entrepreneurs

Abstract This research contributes to the knowledge of individuals called hybrid entrepreneurs who combine primary paid employment with secondary self-employment activity. We work with a dataset of 30 countries participating in the 2017 European Union Labour Force Survey. We conduct a multivariate analysis of individual and family-related characteristics of hybrid entrepreneurs. Our results highlight that hybrid entrepreneurs are a specific subgroup of the population of self-employed individuals. While the hybrid entrepreneurs are also a relatively heterogeneous group themselves, we show that most of them do business in the agricultural sector and live in rural areas. Their business activities seem to be on average younger than those being run by primarily self-employed individuals. This likely reflects the temporary nature of many hybrid entrepreneurship endeavours. Interestingly hybrid entrepreneurs have, on average, higher levels of education, but this finding relates mainly to those being involved in non-agricultural activities. Women are less likely to pursue hybrid entrepreneurship, which is even less likely associated with having caring responsibilities for children. Future research should provide more longitudinal insights into the family-kids related aspects of hybrid entrepreneurship.

Navigating Pandemic Moral Distress at Home and at Work: Frontline Workers’ Experiences

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline workers faced a series of challenges balancing family and work responsibilities. These challenges included making decisions about how to reduce COVID-19 exposure to their families while still carrying out their employment duties and caring for their children. We sought to understand how frontline workers made these decisions and how these decisions impacted their experiences. Methods: Between October 2020 and May 2021, we conducted 61 semi-structured interviews in English or Spanish, with individuals who continued to work outside of the home during the pandemic and had children living at home. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using abductive methods. Results: Frontline workers experienced moral distress, the inability to act in accordance with their values and obligations because of internal or external constraints. Their moral distress was a result of the tensions they felt as workers and parents, which sometimes led them to feel like they had to compromise on either or both responsibilities. Individuals felt morally conflicted because 1) their COVID-19 work exposures presented risk that often jeopardized their family’s health; 2) their work hours often conflicted with their increased childcare responsibilities; and 3) they felt a duty to their colleagues, patients/customers, and communities to continue to show-up to work. Conclusions: Our findings point to a need to expand the concept of moral distress to include the perspectives of frontline workers outside of the healthcare professions and the fraught decisions that workers make outside of work that may impact their moral distress. Expanding the concept of moral distress also allows for a justice-based framing that can focus attention on the disparities inherent in much frontline work and can justify programmatic recommendations, like increasing paid childcare opportunities, to alleviate moral distress.

COVID-19 Stressors and Latinx Adolescents' Mental Health Symptomology and School Performance: A Prospective Study.

This study addressed the need for research examining impacts of the Coronavirus-19 (COVID) pandemic on Latinx adolescents’ adjustment. Survey data for a probability sample of 547 Latinx adolescents (Mage = 13.71, SD = 0.86; 55.2% female) were collected from 2018 to 2021, including two times both prior to, and during, COVID. Independent variables assessed COVID-related household hospitalization, job/income loss, and adolescents’ increased childcare responsibility. Structural Equation Model results indicated that COVID-related increases in adolescent childcare responsibility were associated with increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms and declines in school performance. COVID hospitalization and job/income loss were associated indirectly, through childcare responsibilities, to worse adolescent outcomes. Family adversities may harm adolescents’ adjustment by burdening adolescents with responsibilities such caring for children.

Combining coaching with family life. A study of female and male elite level coaches in Norway

ABSTRACT The challenges of combining work and family life has been considered a women’s issue, also reflected in research. In recent years, scholars have argued that the work-family interface may also concern male coaches. Therefore, the present study takes both genders into account. We made qualitative interview with 13 women and six men. The findings revealed similarities as well as differences. For women, support from the spouse was decisive for taking on and maintaining the position, whereas men primarily made the decisions on their own. The responsibility for childcare was far more important among the women. The male coaches seemed more traditional, except for two younger men who gave priority to the fatherhood role. The findings are discussed in relation to a multi-level model, where individual choices/practice may be understood in relation to requirements from the organisation of sport as well as gender roles in the society at large.

Who suffered most? Parental stress and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

Objective: This study examines gender and socioeconomic inequalities in parental psychological wellbeing (parenting stress and psychological distress) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.
 Background: The dramatic shift of childcare and schooling responsibility from formal institutions to private households during the pandemic has put families under enormous stress and raised concerns about caregivers' health and wellbeing. Despite the overwhelming media attention to families’ wellbeing, to date limited research has examined parenting stress and parental psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in Germany.
 Method: We analyzed four waves of panel data (N= 1,771) from an opt-in online survey, which was conducted between March 2020 and April 2021. Multivariable OLS regressions were used to estimate variations in the pandemic's effects on parenting stress and psychological distress by various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
 Results: Overall, levels of parenting stress and psychological distress increased during the pandemic. During the first and third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, mothers, parents with children younger than 11 years, parents with two or more children, parents working from home as well as parents with financial insecurity experienced higher parenting stress than other sociodemographic groups. Moreover, women, respondents with lower incomes, single parents, and parents with younger children experienced higher levels of psychological distress than other groups.
 Conclusion: Gender and socioeconomic inequalities in parents' psychological wellbeing increased among the study participants during the pandemic.

Childcare, work or worries? What explains the decline in parents' well-being at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany?

Objective: We examine how care arrangements, general and altered working conditions, and worries influenced subjective well-being at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic for working parents in Germany.
 Background: Prior research suggests several reasons for declines in subjective well-being, particularly for working mothers. We employ Pearlin's (1989) stress process model to explore the role of parental childcare, altered working conditions and amplified worries of working parents in terms of increased stressors and modified resources to cope with the extraordinary situation.
 Method: We use data from two starting cohorts from the National Educational Panel Study and its supplementary COVID-19 web survey from spring 2020 to examine possible heterogeneities in contextual factors for individual-level changes in the well-being of working mothers and fathers.
 Results: We confirm a more pronounced decline in well-being for working mothers than fathers. Part-time work and access to emergency care reduce the gender gap in decreased well-being. Conversely, young children in the household and personal worries are associated with lower well-being for both parents. However, we cannot explain the more significant decrease in mothers’ well-being by increased childcare responsibilities or altered working conditions.
 Conclusion: A greater decline in well-being indicates a particular burden among working mothers. However, it cannot be linked solely to gendered inequalities in the changes of paid and unpaid work during the first months of the pandemic.

The Effect of Additional Childcare Roles on COVID-19 Symptom Knowledge Among Youth in South Africa

Background: As of March 2020, young people performed additional household responsibilities due to COVID-19 in South Africa. In particular, youth assisted with childcare since schools were closed. However, little is known of the impact of changing roles and additional responsibilities on young people’s ability to keep abreast of important information regarding the spread of the virus. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between additional childcare responsibilities and complete awareness of the knowledge of symptoms of COVID-19 among young people in South Africa. Methods: Using data from the South African National Income Dynamics CRAM Survey (wave 1), 710 (72.08%) young individuals (18-24 years old) who listed symptoms of COVID-19 were analysed. The study controlled for covariates as additional childcare responsibilities, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. Cross-tabulations and a binary logistic regression model were used to determine the relationship between covariates and the outcome of the knowledge of symptoms. Results: None of the respondents reported 100% knowledge of the symptoms of COVID-19 while 57.5% reported having additional childcare responsibilities. Among youth with additional childcare, 90.71% knew regarding approximately half (50%) of the symptoms. Finally, not having additional childcare roles increased the odds of knowing at least three symptoms of the coronavirus (OR= 2.36; CI: 1.227387 - 2.543323). Conclusion: Youth, especially those spending increasing time caring for children, need more access to information regarding the virus. This information is key to protecting themselves and the children in their care.

The Liminality of Multinational Muslim MotherScholaring during COVID-19: A Feminist Collaborative Autoethnography

ABSTRACT Current life in the US under the COVID-19 pandemic makes visible the fragility of supportive structures for academics with childcare responsibilities. Particularly academic mothers are left grappling with the impact of social and institutional shifts that took place due to the global pandemic. We, two early career multinational and Muslim MotherScholars, ask ourselves how these shifts are affecting our own entanglements of scholarship, job market navigation, motherhood, childcare responsibilities and routines, family traditions, and religious observation through feminist autoethnography. We used the concept of “liminal space” as our theoretical foundation. Data were collected through journal entries and analytic memos, and four vignettes were composed to (re)present the analysis. The vignettes display how Western dominant and nondominant spaces inform the ways in which the authors’ identities are interloped, muted, contested, and thrown into tension with changing social and institutional expectations during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research has implications for higher education administrators who wish to gain a glimpse into the lived experiences and barriers of their international, Muslim, mothering employees, and for MotherScholars who live through similar complex and shifting identities to see validation and representation.

Adolescent marriage and motherhood in Turkey: A qualitative study exploring determinants, impacts and opinions about preventive strategies.

This study aimed to understand the determinants of child marriages, becoming a child mother, their impacts and opinions about preventive strategies. The phenomenological research approach was adopted with one-to-one semi-structured interviews between December 2017 and May 2018. The population of the study consisted of 36 adolescent married mothers registered in the Family Health Centres. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and evaluated based on a thematic analysis was conducted. In the study, four main themes and 12 subthemes were determined. Adolescent marriages determinants occurred as patriarchal cultural norms, the perception that girls would be safe under the protection of another man, and poverty. Adolescent brides experienced partner violence and were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence in their marriage. Adolescent mothers had low maternal self-confidence, childcare challenges and were late to take on childcare responsibilities, and their children were neglected. As a result of early marriage, the participants experienced psychological problems and burnout later in their lives. Improving family-child communication, and eliminating financial inadequacies were among the opinions on prevention strategies of child marriages. The findings of this study identified the determinants and impact of adolescent marriages and revealed the problems experienced by adolescent brides and mothers. The most important contribution of this study is that it deals with the motherhood experiences. In addition, it is one of the important findings of this study that it draws attention to their neglected children's due to lack of knowledge and experience of their mothers about childcare.

Who Takes Care of the Children? Albanian Migrant Parents’ Strategies for Combining Work and Childcare in Greece

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the strategies Albanian migrant parents in Greece employ to reconcile their work and childcare responsibilities. The institutional context, the informal work setting, and the agency of the migrants all play crucial roles in their childcare arrangements. This research draws on 36 biographical interviews conducted during 2014–2016 with parents in Greece. Our findings suggest that migrants use different coping strategies to manage their work and care responsibilities. These strategies include mother-centred strategies or mothers making career sacrifices to meet their care responsibilities, shared parenting, relying on extended family and friends, delegating care to older children, leaving children to care for themselves, taking children to work, and transnational care practices. This study shows how care arrangement options were constrained and continuously shaped by migration, care, gender, and labour regimes.

Perspectives on How 1.5 Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic Have Impacted Biophysicists at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions

Perspectives on How 1.5 Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic Have Impacted Biophysicists at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions

The Biggest Challenges Resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic on Gender-Related Work from Home in Biomedical Fields-World-Wide Qualitative Survey Analysis.

(1) Background: This paper aims to present and discuss the most significant challenges encountered by STEM professionals associated with remote working during the COVID-19 lockdowns. (2) Methods: We performed a qualitative analysis of 921 responses from professionals from 76 countries to the open-ended question: “What has been most challenging during the lockdown for you, and/or your family?” (3) Findings: Participants reported challenges within the immediate family to include responsibilities for school, childcare, and children’s wellbeing; and the loss of social interactions with family and friends. Participants reported increased domestic duties, blurred lines between home and work, and long workdays. Finding adequate workspace was a problem, and adaptations were necessary, especially when adults shared the same setting for working and childcare. Connectivity issues and concentration difficulties emerged. While some participants reported employers’ expectations did not change, others revealed concerns about efficiency. Mental health issues were expressed as anxiety and depression symptoms, exhaustion and burnout, and no outlets for stress. Fear of becoming infected with COVID-19 and uncertainties about the future also emerged. Pressure points related to gender, relationship status, and ethnicities were also evaluated. Public policies differed substantially across countries, raising concerns about the adherence to unnecessary restrictions, and similarly, restrictions being not tight enough. Beyond challenges, some benefits emerged, such as increased productivity and less time spent getting ready for work and commuting. Confinement resulted in more quality time and stronger relationships with family. (4) Interpretation: Viewpoints on positive and negative aspects of remote working differed by gender. Females were more affected professionally, socially, and personally than males. Mental stress and the feeling of inadequate work efficiency in women were caused by employers’ expectations and lack of flexibility. Working from home turned out to be challenging, primarily due to a lack of preparedness, limited access to a dedicated home-office, and lack of previous experience in multi-layer/multi-scale environments.

Distinct Nausea Profiles Are Associated With Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Oncology Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Unrelieved chemotherapy-induced nausea (CIN) occurs 48% of patients undergoing chemotherapy and is one of the most debilitating symptoms that patients report. The aims of this study were to identify subgroups of patients with distinct CIN profiles and determine how these subgroups differed on demographic and clinical characteristics; severity, frequency, and distress of CIN; and the co-occurrence of common gastrointestinal symptoms. Patients (n = 1343) completed demographic questionnaire and Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale 6 times over 2 cycles of chemotherapy. Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of patients with distinct CIN profiles. Differences among these subgroups were evaluated using parametric and nonparametric statistics. Four distinct CIN profiles were identified: none (40.8%), increasing-decreasing (21.5%), decreasing (8.9%), and high (28.8%). Compared with the none class, patients in the high class were younger, had a lower annual household income, had child care responsibilities, had a lower Karnofsky Performance Status score and a higher Self-administered Comorbidity Questionnaire score, and were more likely to have received chemotherapy on a 14-day cycle and a highly emetogenic chemotherapy regimen. In addition, patients in the high class reported high occurrence rates for dry mouth, feeling bloated, diarrhea, lack of appetite, abdominal cramps, difficulty swallowing, mouth sores, weight loss, and change in the way food tastes. That 60% of the patients reported moderate to high CIN occurrence rates confirms that this unrelieved symptom is a significant clinical problem. Nurses need to evaluate patients' level of adherence to their antiemetic regimen and make appropriate referrals for physical therapy, psychological services, and dietary counseling.

Developmental Tasks During the Childrearing Stage and Second Birth Intentions among Chinese Married Women: Parenting Adaptation, Division of Childcare, and Marital Adjustment

Although the globally known one-child policy in China was abolished in 2016, the overall fertility rate in the country declined to 1.3 in 2020. In this study, we examined whether the achievement of major developmental tasks during the childrearing stage was associated with intentions to have a second child among Chinese married women. Based on family development theory, we included parenting adaptation, division of childcare responsibilities with the partner, and marital adjustment as key developmental tasks during the childrearing stage. The participants of this study were 315 married Chinese women who lived with a spouse and a child who had not yet entered elementary school. Data were collected through an online survey in February and March 2021. A multiple regression analysis of the data revealed that a lower level of economic parenting stress, a higher level of fairness in dividing childcare responsibilities with the partner, and a more positive change in their marital relationship after having the first child were associated with greater intentions to have a second child.

A Review on Effect of Smoking During Pregnancy

The early phases of a child's neurodevelopment have a major influence on their future human resources and health. On the other hand, the effects of prenatal risk factors on child neurodevelopment remain little known. This study looks at the effects of mother smoking while pregnant on baby neurodevelopment between the ages of 3 and 24 months, as well as the links to socioeconomic status (SES). The information comes from a one-of-a-kind group of South American teenagers. Smoking has a major deleterious influence on neurodevelopment, with the effects being particularly obvious in those of poor socioeconomic status. The study's results highlight the need of early interventions that begin before and continue throughout pregnancy to promote newborn development and current human capital attainment. Even when people get the best results, the majority of people still smoke while they're pregnant, even though they know that smoking can hurt them and their unborn child. The act of smoking is associated with severe stress, such as that caused by a demanding job or child care responsibilities, according to recent studies. Pregnant women who smoke do it for a variety of reasons, including controlling their weight growth or coping with negative emotions like as loss.

Supporting community health workers in fragile settings from a gender perspective: a qualitative study

ObjectiveTo explore how gender influences the way community health workers (CHWs) are managed and supported and the effects on their work experiences.SettingTwo districts in three fragile countries. Sierra Leone—Kenema and...

Predictors of negative psychosocial and health behavior impact of COVID-19 among young adults.

Given the global impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on mental and physical health, we examined young adults’ changes in mental health, intimate relationship quality, alcohol use and weight-related behaviors during COVID-19 and their correlates (depressive symptoms, resilience, social context and COVID-19-related factors). We analyzed data from a longitudinal study of 1082 young adults across six metropolitan areas (Mage = 24.76 ± 4.70; 51.8% female; 73.6% White and 12.5% Hispanic), using multivariate linear regressions for continuous outcomes (magnitude of mental health impact) and logistic regressions for categorical outcomes (decreased relationship quality, physical activity and nutrition and increased alcohol use and sedentary behavior). Of five negative mental health impacts assessed, participants reported experiencing an average of 3.54 (SD = 5.46), experiencing more correlated with increased childcare responsibilities and lower resilience. Additionally, 23.6% of those in relationships experienced negative relationship impact, 41.3% increased alcohol use, 47.2% decreased physical activity, 74.0% were more sedentary and 34.7% experienced poorer nutrition, all of which was predicted by greater depressive symptoms. Additionally, lower resilience predicted negative relationship impact and poorer nutrition and social context/roles correlated with various outcomes (e.g. relationships and alcohol use). Interventions to reduce negative health behaviors given societal stressors should address key psychosocial and situational factors, including depressive symptoms and resilience.

Women's Substance Use and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PurposeWomen are experiencing greater unemployment and increased stress from childcare responsibilities than men during the COVID-19 pandemic. Women with these experiences may be at particular risk for mental illness and increased substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the study was to assess women's substance use, mental health, and experiences of COVID-19 pandemic impacts.MethodsA national online survey was administered to adult women from September to November 2020. The survey included questionnaires assessing mental health, loneliness, intolerance for uncertainty, social support, substance use, and intimate partner violence (IPV).ResultsA total of 499 women responded; most were White, college educated, and in their mid-30s. Of the 20.24% who acknowledged at least one IPV problem, 29.7% stated that their IPV problems have gotten worse since the pandemic began, and 16.83% said that they have increased their drug or alcohol use to cope with their relationship problems. Anxiety, perceived daily impact of COVID-19, and lower self-efficacy were significant predictors of COVID-19 anxiety. Those with risky alcohol use had significantly higher anxiety (p = .028) and depression (p = .032) than those with low-risk alcohol use.ConclusionsGreater anxiety about COVID-19, greater reported changes in daily life due to the pandemic, and high-risk alcohol use are related to greater mental health–related distress among women. For some, IPV has gotten worse during the pandemic and drug or alcohol use is a coping mechanism.

Habla conmigo, daddy! Fathers' language input in North American bilingual Latinx families.

This study examines the language environments of bilingually raised Latinx infants (n=37) in mother-father families of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, with a focus on paternal parentese, a speaking style distinguished by higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. Two daylong audio recordings were collected on weekends, when both parents were at home. Paternal, maternal, and infant speech variables were quantified through automatic and manual analyses. Most infants experienced Spanish and English within child-directed speech, and language mixing was common in mothers and fathers. Adjusting for demographic variables, infants heard 50.4% less talk from men compared to women, and 43.4% less parentese from fathers compared to mothers. However, when controlling for overall speech amount, the rate of parentese use did not differ between mothers and fathers, demonstrating that, contrary to the stereotype, fathers in Latinx families adjust their speech in verbal interactions with their infants. An asymmetry emerged, where paternal parentese was associated with paternal knowledge of language development but not with paternal involvement in childcare responsibilities; the opposite was true for paternal speech amount. Controlling for maternal contributions, paternal parentese was predictive of concurrent parent-infant turn-taking and infant language vocalizations, demonstrating its important role in infant language development.

The Role of Intimate Partner Violence, Couple Dissatisfaction and Parenting Behaviors in Understanding Parental Burnout

Parental burnout (PB), a relatively new and under-studied construct, is defined as a condition resulting from chronic parenting stress. While recent research confirmed its negative associations with familial variables, such as relationship satisfaction and positive parenting practices, little is known about the role of intimate partner violence (IPV) and how it relates to parental burnout. The present study, therefore, aimed to extend existing knowledge on chronic parenting stress by 1) testing for the mediational role of couple dissatisfaction in explaining the link from IPV victimization to PB as well as the link from IPV victimization to dysfunctional parenting, and 2) investigating how specialist gender roles and parental responsibilities for child care relate to IPV victimization and PB. Data collection was part of an international collaboration on factors related to parental satisfaction and exhaustion across different countries. Self-report data from Austrian mothers (N = 121) were collected online and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that couple dissatisfaction mediates the link from IPV victimization to PB, as well as IPV victimization to dysfunctional parenting. Furthermore, only specialist gender roles were significantly related to IPV, while parental responsibilities for child care did not significantly relate to experiences of violence. Additionally, neither specialist gender roles nor parental responsibilities were significantly associated with PB in the final model. Overall, our findings connect to family models, such as the Family System Theory and Spillover Theory, underscoring the importance of couples’ relationship quality for understanding parental burnout and parenting behaviors in mothers.