Labor Force Participation, Family Adjustment and Parental Stress in Chinese Families: A Gendered View.

This study explored how parents' employment status influenced family adjustment and parental stress in urban China. Based in a large city in South China, we surveyed 17,459 parents of children from fourth to sixth grade in 49 schools in 2021. Results showed that for fathers, employment had a positiv...

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Publicado en:Journal of Child & Family Studies Vol. 34; no. 10; pp. 2552 - 2565
Autores principales: Zhou, Huiquan, Wang, Xiaotao, Li, Mei
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Oct2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct2025
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      pub: Springer Nature
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        atl: Labor Force Participation, Family Adjustment and Parental Stress in Chinese Families: A Gendered View.
      aug:
        au:
          Zhou, Huiquan
          Wang, Xiaotao
          Li, Mei
        affil:
          https://ror.org/036trcv74 School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
          https://ror.org/036trcv74 School of Sociology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
          https://ror.org/01rxvg760 School of Social and Behavioral Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
      su:
        China
        Gender role
        Psychology of fathers
        Fatherhood
        Work-life balance
        Sex distribution
        Culture
        Psychological adaptation
        Parenting
        Family relations
        Father-child relationship
        Gender inequality
        Psychology of mothers
        Psychological stress
        Metropolitan areas
        Child care
        Mother-child relationship
        Motherhood
        Employment
        Scale analysis (Psychology)
        Cronbach's alpha
        Descriptive statistics
        Comparative studies
        Regression analysis
      sug:
        subj:
          Gender role
          Psychology of fathers
          Fatherhood
          Work-life balance
          Sex distribution
          Culture
          Psychological adaptation
          Parenting
          Family relations
          Father-child relationship
          Gender inequality
          Psychology of mothers
          Psychological stress
          Metropolitan areas
          Child care
          Mother-child relationship
          Motherhood
          Employment
          China
          Scale analysis (Psychology)
          Cronbach's alpha
          Descriptive statistics
          Comparative studies
          Regression analysis
      keyword:
        Family adjustment
        Gender
        Labor force participation
        Parental stress
        Studies in Human Society Sociology Other Studies In Human Society
        Family adjustment
        Gender
        Labor force participation
        Parental stress
        Studies in Human Society Sociology Other Studies In Human Society
      ab: This study explored how parents' employment status influenced family adjustment and parental stress in urban China. Based in a large city in South China, we surveyed 17,459 parents of children from fourth to sixth grade in 49 schools in 2021. Results showed that for fathers, employment had a positive association with perceived family adjustment, which in turn could reduce parental stress. However, for mothers, employment had a negative association with perceived family adjustment, resulting in increased parental stress. Furthermore, for employed fathers, weekly working hours had little association with their parenting. For employed mothers, the longer they worked, the worse their family adjustment, and the higher their parental stress. This suggest that despite the government's promotion of gender equality, traditional gender role ideologies still expect women to take on child care duty, regardless of their employment status. Now that the country is facing declining fertility rate and the government is aggressively encouraging couples to have more children, to avoid placing more childcare burden on women, as well as to allow men to enjoy quality time with their child, a change in gender role ideologies, needs to happen at personal, organizational, and societal level. Highlights: Employment is positively associated with father's family adjustment, which in turn reduces father's parental stress Employment is negatively associated with mother's family adjustment, which in turn increases mother's parental stress For employed fathers, weekly working hours has little association with their parenting. For employed mothers, the longer they work, the worse their family adjustment, and the higher their parental stress.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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