Contributions of a supportive work environment to parents' well-being and orientation to work

Am J Community Psychol. 1989 Dec;17(6):755-83. doi: 10.1007/BF00922737.

Abstract

Examined the joint and unique contributions of informal social support in the workplace and formal, family-responsive benefits and policies provided by employers to the job-related attitudes and personal well-being of employed parents with a young child. Eighty married men, 169 married women, and 72 single women with a preschool child completed a survey concerning social support from co-workers and supervisor, utilization of family-responsive benefits and policies, readiness to leave the employer for additional benefits, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role strain, and health symptoms. Among the findings: (a) Fathers and mothers expressed equal levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but mothers reported more role strain and health symptoms; (b) nearly 48% of married women's organizational commitment was accounted for by measures of support in the workplace; (c) informal social support at work was significantly more important to men's well-being than that of women; and (d) formal, family-responsive policies appeared more consequential for the prediction of women's role strain, perhaps because of women's greater responsibility for adjusting work life to meet the demands of family roles.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Absenteeism
  • Adult
  • Child, Preschool
  • Employee Performance Appraisal
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Job Satisfaction*
  • Male
  • Parent-Child Relations
  • Parents / psychology*
  • Role
  • Salaries and Fringe Benefits
  • Single Parent / psychology
  • Social Environment*
  • Social Support*