Originally published here.

The study examined conflict and facilitation in work–family relations among working mothers of children with learning disorders (LD) or with typical development. The study also focused on three maternal personal resources (maternal anxious/avoidant attachment security, affect and sense of coherence) as antecedents of these work–family relations, and examined outcomes of such conflict and facilitation between the two life domains, as they affected patterns of close relationships within the family (child attachment and family cohesion). The sample included

96 mother–child dyads: 48 mothers and their children with LD; and 48 mothers and their typically developing children. Children’s ages were 8–12 years. All attended public elementary schools in urban areas of central Israel. Significant group differences emerged on mothers’ family to work conflict and on mothers’ work to family facilitation. Findings indicated that several maternal personal resources were antecedents of these relations and also contributed to differences in mother–child attachment relationships and family cohesion. Discussion focused on understanding work–family relations among these mothers of children with LD, as well as the influence of maternal personal resources on patterns of close relationships (i.e., child attachment, family cohesion).

Work–family relations (WFR)

Based on ecological system theory (Bronfenbrenner 1986) and on Super’s (1990) lifespan life space theory, which posited reciprocal interactions and influences of work and family through permeable boundaries, researchers have focused both on conflictual and facilitory relations between work and family. Conflict has been the dominant paradigm for most work–family research (Hill 2005; Parasuraman and Greenhaus 2002). Work–family conflict (WFC) is defined as an inter-role conflict stemming from incompatible pressures from work and family roles. It comprises two types of conflict: work interfering with family (W→F) and family interfering with work (F→W) (Greenhaus and Beutell 1985). Empirical evidence on working adults with families (Frone 2003) indicated the destructive results of both types of conflict on behavioural and emotional outcomes, both in the work domain (e.g., work dissatisfaction or distress, absen- teeism, poor work-related role performance) and in the family domain (e.g., family dissatisfac- tion, poor family-related role performance).

Facilitation between work and family domains is a less established concept than WFC and has been investigated far less (Carlson et al. 2006). Following Wayne, Musisca and Fleeson (2004), work–family facilitation (WFF) is defined in the current study as occurring when participation in one life role enhances performance or functioning in the other life role. Indeed, indicators of WFF correlated positively with enhanced mental and physical well-being like greater organisational satisfaction, more effort and decreased depression (Wayne, Musisca and Fleeson 2004). WFF is bidirectional: work can facilitate family, as when success at work energises the employee at home, and family can facilitate work as when support from the spouse increases employee confi- dence at work (Grzywacz and Bass 2003; Wayne, Musisca and Fleeson 2004).

Despite cumulative empirical knowledge on WFR, several relevant theoretical and empirical issues were rarely examined. For example, although the impact of children with disabilities on their parents was widely researched (e.g., Woolfson 2004), few studies examined such effects on parents’ WFR (Freedman, Litchfield and Warfield 1995; Rosenzweig, Brennan and Ogilvie

2002), and none focused on children with LD. Furthermore, relatively few studies investigated personal characteristics and resources as possible antecedents of WFR (Bruck and Allen 2003).

Therefore, as presented in Figure 1, the current study aimed to explore personal and family antecedents and family outcomes of WFR among mothers of children with LD. The four main variables included one family antecedent – raising a child with LD – and three maternal personal- resource antecedents: (a) attachment security in relationships with significant others (i.e., low avoidance/anxiety), (b) affect (i.e., low negative/positive affect), and (c) sense of coherence (SOC) (i.e., coping resources). The two outcomes of WFR comprised: the child’s close relationship with the mother (i.e., secure attachment) and the extent of connection, closeness and involvement alto- gether between family members (i.e., family cohesion).

Implications, limitations, and directions for future study

The results of this study hold theoretical and practical implications. The theoretical contribution focuses on two major issues: (a) the potential effect of children’s LD on differences in maternal WFR, and (b) the contribution of mothers’ negative affect and SOC to their WFR.

The practical implications concern the possible implementation of the current findings, when validated by further research, for developing effective interventions among employed mothers of children with LD. In light of the current findings suggesting the contribution of children’s disor- ders to their mothers’ WFR, especially those related to F→W conflict and W→F facilitation, such interventions may target an increase in maternal strategies for supporting a child with LD. These interventions may also moderate the known effects of high F→W conflicts such as work dissat- isfaction or distress, absenteeism, and poor work-related and role performance (Frone 2003). Moreover, in accordance with the current results indicating the contribution of maternal personal resources and WFR (especially the F→W facilitation measure), such interventions may focus on enhancing maternal strengths by decreasing the tendency to adopt attachment-deactivating strat- egies. Also, considering the possible potential protective factor of F→W facilitation, such inter- ventions may attempt to enhance F→W facilitation via awareness, knowledge and training skills. Further studies attempting to develop such intervention programs should examine their effective- ness in buffering the effect of children’s difficulties on mothers’ WFR and the effect of maternal WFR on children’s and families’ patterns of close relationships.

Several limitations of this study call for further research. First, this study focused on a narrow demographic sample of mothers. Both sets of mothers lived in the same urban neighbourhoods of similar socioeconomic status, volunteered to participate, and showed no significant intergroup differences on chi-square and t-test analyses of maternal age, education, and marital status. The non-significant differences between the two groups of mothers may stem from these mothers’ higher years of education. Therefore, future research should utilise other groups of mothers from different SES backgrounds, as well as fathers of children with LD, to explore whether these find- ings are true for other groups of parents. Second, conceptual matters also deserve a word of caution despite the interesting direction of the current findings. The present outcomes suggest that these mothers of children with LD may be more vulnerable to experiencing a high level of F→W conflict than mothers of children with typical development. Future research should compare the experience of parents of children with a variety of other disabilities such as mental retardation, attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder, visual or hearing impairment, or chronic physical illness. In addition, studies should examine the longevity of such perceptions over time and utilise qual- itative interview methods to elaborate on these children’s and mothers’ structured self-reports. Finally, further study would do well to focus on the individual characteristics of children with LD (i.e., verbal skills, temperament, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder), as well as parenting style and functioning.

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