The Impact of Work Stress on Family Meals and Child Development: A Study

Family meals are important for parents and children as a space for communication, socialization and bonding relationships. But it can be difficult for busy parents to balance family and work life. The Illinois team at Urbana-Champaign is exploring how parents’ work stress influences their participation in these family moments and, in turn, children’s social-emotional development.

One of the lead authors, Sehyun Ju, a researcher at the University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies, recalls that “many of us struggle to maintain the balance between work and family life. But it can be especially difficult for parents who have to care for their children after a stressful day at work. And when it comes to households where both parents work, which represent 65% of families with children in the United States, we know little about how mothers and fathers parent under the stress of work “.

The study analyzes data from more than 1,400 dual-earner families, composed of heterosexual married couples with children, collected in a nationally representative survey, aimed at tracking children’s development in family, child care environments children and school, from 9 months to kindergarten. Researchers focused on the interaction between child characteristics, family meal times, and parental job and financial dissatisfaction. The analysis finds that:

• children of parents with higher stress at work at the age of 2 years, acquired weaker socio-emotional skills at the age of 4-5 years, which are expressed through less marked positive and negative social behaviors ,
• the impacts of maternal and maternal stress differ on child development;
• the mother’s stress or her professional dissatisfaction has little or no impact on the frequency and maintenance of family meals; however, maternal stress appears directly associated with lower socio-emotional competence in children;
• on the other hand, the father’s stress or his professional dissatisfaction causes him to be less present during meals with, as a consequence, also lower socio-emotional skills in children, at the ages of 4-5 years.

“Even when the mother increases her presence at meals to compensate for the father’s absence, the child’s socio-emotional development remains negatively impacted.”

“This suggests that fathers have a unique influence, not replaceable by that of the mother.”

What implications? Future interventions aimed at supporting families should help both parents achieve a better balance between work and family life.

“Allowing both parents to be professionally less stressed and more present promotes the healthy development of the child.”

“Mothers have long been seen as the primary caregivers of children and would be expected to be there and nurture their children no matter what. The study confirms that fathers also have a key and irreplaceable role to play.”

“We must recognize the challenges families face today to encourage the implementation of consistent routines. External factors, such as the work environment and parents’ financial situation, affect family interactions and child development. Initiatives to provide a working environment and community support to promote family life would be welcome.”