128-01: Maternal Parenting Profiles and Their Relations to Dyadic Flexibility

Maternal Parenting Profiles and their Relations to Dyadic Flexibility

This study's aims were to identify subgroups of mothers based on their parenting and to examine the relation between profile membership and dyadic flexibility. Five profiles emerged: mothers with lower responsiveness, harsh parenting, and positive and neutral emotions (“Unresponsive, Less Harsh, and Less Positive”); mothers with higher warmth and lower harsh parenting (“Warm and Less Harsh”); mothers with lower responsiveness and higher harsh parenting (“Unresponsive and Harsh”); mothers with higher use of directives, autonomy support, and harsh parenting (“Direct, Responsive, and Harsh”), and mothers with higher responsiveness and positive and neutral emotions (“Responsive and Positive”). The mean level of dyadic emotional and behavioral flexibility was significantly higher for “Responsive and Positive” mothers than for other profiles. 

Objectives

- To utilize a person-centered approach to identify subgroups of mothers in a community sample based on observed and self-reported parenting behaviors.
- To examine the relation between profile membership and involvement in dyadic processes, specifically dyadic emotional and behavioral flexibility.
- To describe whether patterns of emotional and behavioral dyadic flexibility reflect thoughtful, creative, and collaborative responses or inconsistent behaviors within a dyad given a profile of maternal parenting.

Keywords: parents / parenting, parent-child relationships, interpersonal relationships

128-02: Predictors of Maternity and Paternity Leave: More Than Access to Paid Leave?

Using structural equation modeling, this study examines the financial and maternal and parental characteristics that predict the length of maternity and paternity leave in a sample of 130 dual-earner U.S. couples who were followed across their transition to parenthood. Results indicate that the lengths of maternity and paternity leave are multiply determined by both financial and maternal and paternal characteristics. Paternal age, access to paid leave, pregnancy plannedness, and views of fathers’ natural parenting instincts seem particularly important, whereas maternal job satisfaction and annual household income predict mothers’ length of leave. The model explained 14% of the variance in maternity leave and 27% of the variance in paternity leave.  

Objectives

- Explore financial and maternal and paternal characteristics that predict the length of leave.
- Extend previous research by examining couples in the same model with a longitudinal design.
- Identify potential intervention and policy implications for parental leave advocates and policymakers.

Keywords: parental leave, ,

128-03: Work-to-Family Conflict, Stress, and Parenting Attitudes of Fathers of Infants

Working parents’ ability to manage both domains of work and family has significant implications for families. Thus, work-to-family conflict (WFC) was investigated as a predictor of two fathering attitudes linked to positive outcomes for children and families: parenting self-efficacy and role_x000D_ satisfaction. Since stress can alter a parent’s well-being and the_x000D_ parent-child relationship, this study also examined whether stress mediates_x000D_ these relationships. Using a sample of fathers of infants, results indicated WFC_x000D_ significantly predicted both parenting attitudes. Stress was found to partially_x000D_ mediate the relationship between WFC and role satisfaction and fully mediate_x000D_ the relationship between WFC and parenting self-efficacy.

Objectives

- To investigate the relationship between work-to-family conflict and parenting attitudes of parenting self-efficacy and role satisfaction for fathers of infants.
- To investigate whether stress explains the association between work-to-family conflict and the fathering attitudes.
- To contribute to the literature on fathers of infants.

Keywords: fatherhood, work-family issues, parents / parenting

128-04: Twenty Years After PRWORA: Women’s Voices Describe Welfare Reform

PRWORA, the 1996 welfare reform act, ushered in a comprehensive overhaul of the American welfare system. Among many changes was a shift in policy priorities from education to work and job training. Critics cautioned that structural inequalities in labor markets and rural communities and systemic barriers like racism and gendered work opportunities could hurt some families’ attempts to climb out of poverty. We launched an ethnographic study in 1998 designed to follow women of limited resources living in remote rural communities as they navigated this policy mandated welfare exit. This presentation reports initial findings from a now 20-year follow-up with the women, allowing them to describe their experiences with the welfare policy overhaul. We share strategies for bringing their stories to policymakers.

Objectives

- To bring an ethnographic perspective to understanding the impacts of PRWORA.
- To hear women describe their lives and experiences twenty years after a mandated exit from welfare.
- To describe strategies for using qualitative narratives to influence state and local policymakers in a nonpartisan manner.

Keywords: policy, poverty, women

128-05: Parental Leave Policies and Family Sustainability: A fsQCA Analysis

Parental leave policies (Petts & Knoester 2018a, 2018b) are being established across many states without evaluation of their impacts on family sustainability (Kotsadaam & Fineras 2011). The present study measures parental policies across states according to key qualities of paid parental leave (Feldman & Gran 2016), such as pay equity and duration, to analyze whether these policies are efficacious approaches to family sustainability. We employ fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (Ragin & Fiss 2016) to study multiple causal configurations, among features of parental leave policies with characteristics of family sustainability, including dissolution, family separation, domestic violence, and health outcomes.Preliminary results indicate equitable parental leave policies are associated with family sustainability. This study will contribute to research on family sustainability and parental leave policies.

Objectives

- Evaluation of impacts of parental leave policies on family sustainability. 
- To analyze the parental leave policies from a family perspective.
- Determine whether parental leave policies are efficacious approaches to family sustainability. 

Keywords: parental leave, family sustainability, policy

128-06: Dual-Income Couples’ Use of Paid Leave and Their Second-Birth Intentions

We examines whether the utilization of paid leave is directly related to dual-income couples’ second-birth intentions. We collected data from 40 employed wives who returned to the workplace after childbirth and their employed husbands from the Central New York area. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model estimated by SEM was used to test the hypothesis that wives’ and husbands’ paid leave use are related to their own and their partner’s second-birth intentions. Results showed that husbands’ paid leave use was significantly associated with an increase in their own and their wives’ second-birth intentions. However, wives’ paid leave use was not associated with their own and their husbands’ second-birth intentions. This finding offers a broader scientific value to apply the New York experience to national policy.

Objectives

- The main objective of this study is to examine whether the paid leave is associated with second-birth intentions among dual-income couples in the New York State.
- This study built on the extant literature by further exploring the association between the use of paid leave and employed couples’ second-birth intentions.
- This study will be useful for policymakers who are interested in the revision of FMLA as well as the expansion of paid leave policy in the United States. 

Keywords: fertility, parental leave, policy