The Relationship between Gender Attitudes, Work-family Spillover, and Distress in Employed Mothers:

Mothers Employed Full-time or Part-time

Abstract

　　This study examined the relationship between distress, gender attitudes, and work-family spillover in employed mothers with pre-school children. Distress was measured with 2 instruments, a self-report of parental anxiety and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Parents of 2─6 year-old children (mothers employed full-time, n=121; mothers employed part-time, n=124) completed questionnaires. According to path analysis, mothers' work-family spillover functioned as a mediator between fathers' gender attitudes and mothers' distress (GHQ-28 and parental anxiety) only for mothers who were employed full-time but not for mothers who were employed part-time. Fathers' gender attitudes also directly affected parental anxiety in mothers who were employed full-time and they directly affected the GHQ-28 in mothers who were employed part-time. These results suggest that fathers’ gender attitudes are key to dual-career families and that different forms of employment should be considered to reduce distress in employed mothers.