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Under Pressure? Assessing the Roles of Skills and Other Personal Resources for Work-Life Strains

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  • Blunch, Niels-Hugo

    (Washington and Lee University)

  • Ribar, David C.

    (Georgia State University)

  • Western, Mark

    (University of Queensland)

Abstract

Many working parents struggle to balance the demands of their jobs and family roles. Although we might expect that additional resources would ease work-family constraints, theory and evidence regarding resources have been equivocal. This study uses data on working mothers and fathers – as well as their cohabiting partners/spouses – from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey to investigate how personal resources in the form of skills, cognitive abilities, and personality traits affect work-life strains. It considers these along with standard measures of economic, social, and personal resources, and estimates seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models of work-life strains for employed mothers and fathers that account for correlations of the couple's unobserved characteristics. The SUR estimates indicate that computer skills reduce work-life strains for mothers, that math skills reduce strains for fathers, and that the personality traits of extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability reduce strains for both parents. However, the estimates also indicate that better performance on a symbol look-up task, which tests attention, visual scanning acuity, and motor speed, increases fathers' work-life strains.

Suggested Citation

  • Blunch, Niels-Hugo & Ribar, David C. & Western, Mark, 2018. "Under Pressure? Assessing the Roles of Skills and Other Personal Resources for Work-Life Strains," IZA Discussion Papers 12055, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12055
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. David C. Ribar & Mark Wooden, 2020. "Four Dimensions of Quality in Australian Jobs," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(S1), pages 26-49, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    work-family strains and gains; cognitive abilities; skills; household resources; Australia; HILDA survey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

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