Naslov
Predictors of work-family facilitation in parents of children with disabilities living in Croatia

Autori
Šimunić, Ana ; Stewart, Lisa ; Brown, Theresa ; Ljubičić, Marija ; Tokić, Andrea ; Ombla, Jelena ; Nikolić Ivanišević, Matilda ; Slišković, Ana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, prošireni sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
21st EAWOP CONGRESS BOOK OF ABSTRACTS / - , 2023, 2242-2243

Skup
21st EAWOP CONGRESS - The Future is Now: the changing world of work

Mjesto i datum
Katowice, Poljska, 25.05.2023. - 28.05.2023

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Children with disabilities ; Work-family facilitation ; Importance of professional life

Sažetak
The topic of integrating work and family roles has been researched to a lesser extent on the population of parents of children with disabilities, although it was shown that this group of employees experiences higher levels of conflict between work and family roles in both directions (negative spillover of work demands into the family domain and family demands into the work domain) compared to employees who have typical family obligations (e.g. Stewart, 2013). Brown and Clark (2017) reviewed 54 scientific papers that dealt with the balance of work and family roles of working parents of children with disabilities up to 18 years of age and pointed out numerous individual/family and work-organizational factors that can explain the (im)balance. However, the authors themselves warn about the lack of serious quantitative research in the area. Also, there is a lack of research on the positive aspects of work-family integration, that is, how being employed facilitates family life and vice versa. Additionally, the original papers in this review come from countries with very heterogeneous organizational policies aimed at balancing work and family roles, so national research on this topic is necessary. Thus, the aim of this research was to examine the predictive value of several individual/family and work-organizational factors in explaining work-to-family (WFF) and family-to- work facilitation (FWF) in working parents of children with disabilities up to 18 years of age in the Croatian context. A total of 572 working parents (90.4% female and 9.6% male between 23 and 66 years of age) filled out an online set of self- assessment questionnaires. The set of predictors considered for each dependent variable were: 1) gender, age, level of education, size of place of residence ; 2) personal protective factors (optimism, self- efficacy, posttraumatic growth - personal strength and appreciation for life) ; 3) emotional regulation strategies ; 4) family and personal life characteristics (satisfaction with family financial status, number of children, age of oldest child, number of children with disabilities, level of disability, parental stress, social support in the family, and managing leisure time - enjoying and relaxing during free time) ; 5) work-organizational characteristics (satisfaction with personal income, working full time or not, in shifts or not, private or public sector, management position, work-time flexibility and predictability, work control, psychological work demands, and social support at work) ; 6) the importance of self-realization through professional life. The examined predictors were selected based on a previous qualitative study on parents of children with developmental disabilities in the Republic of Croatia. Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. All the sets of predictors significantly explained the variance of the dependent variables, except work characteristics and importance of professional life realization for FWF. In the final step, WFF (37.4% of variance) was predicted by greater self-efficacy, a higher tendency towards positive reassessment, managing leisure time, working in shifts, having higher control and social support at work, and greater professional life importance. FWF (48.7% of variance) was predicted by a greater tendency towards planning, greater personal strength and life appreciation, greater number of children, lower parental stress, and more social support in the family domain. Additional analyses showed that WFF and FWF were positively correlated with assessments of mental health and satisfaction with life. The main limitations of the study include assessment subjectivity and impossibility of making causal inferences. Also, we were not able to collect a representative sample of the given population of parents and to include enough varieties (e.g., men). The research results imply that there are certain specificities in the integration of work and family roles in employees with children with disabilities that should be considered and further studied. Accordingly, findings of such studies should be integrated into practices of promoting these employees’ work-life balance and well-being, which is beneficial for the organization, family, and society in a whole.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija

POVEZANOST RADA