Working parents who are strongly commited to their jobs are perceived positively by their children, according to a University of Queensland study.
For her PhD in psychology, Dr Poppy Liossis surveyed 108 Brisbane working couples and their young children to determine how dual working households functioned as families.
She looked at working hours, time spent with children, factors influencing commitment to work and parenting, and children's perceptions of their parents - and found some surprising results.
'We assume as adults that children don't like their mothers being engaged in full-time work, but as a researcher I felt it was important to ask children what they thought,' said Dr Liossis, who is a lecturer in the Queensland University of Technology School of Social Science.
'Generally children perceived mothers more positively than fathers, and yet again mothers who were highly committed to their work. These results may be because mothers are around more or maybe working mothers who are committed to their work are happier and that contentment with their working life spills over into family life.
'Children can be very perceptive and they may be picking up on those happy feelings.'
Dr Liossis said parents were asked about the perceived consequences for children of their mothers' working, including such factors as their ability to form warm and secure relationships, their independence, likelihood of getting into trouble with the law, whether working mothers provided good role models, and whether sons of working mothers developed greater respect for women.
'The higher the perceived costs to the children, the less committed the parents were to work,' she said.
'For fathers, marital quality was a significant factor of parent commitment, that is, the better the marriage, the greater the parental commitment. Perhaps positive marital relationships provide important emotional support to fuel fathers for the task of sensitive parenting.
'Parenting styles were also examined and, interestingly, fathers who were in the more ideal - authoritative - style of parenting were found to be higher on marital quality, parent commitment and perceived their children in a more positive way than fathers in any other style of parenting.'
There were no significant differences in the hours fathers and mothers spent at work, with fathers spending an average of 48 hours and mothers 40 hours at work each week, and no significant differences in work commitment between mothers and fathers.
Forty-seven per cent of mothers and 16 per cent of fathers had flexible working hours.
'It seems that women are choosing professions which gives them more flexibility in their hours, such as teaching and nursing, and in some cases - such as nurses who work at night - this meant they were missing out on a lot of sleep,' said Dr Liossis.
The families, from 55 state and Catholic primary schools across Brisbane, had an average of two children, with the 'focus child' aged between five and eight years old.
'What the research found was that a lot of people are working hard for little money, with lots of kids and no household help,' Dr Liossis said.
'Thirteen percent of mothers and 5.5 percent of fathers were earning less than $25,000, 24 percent of fathers and 30 percent of mothers were on between $25,000 and $35,000,
28 percent of mothers and 4.8 percent of fathers were on between $35,000 and $45,000,
19.1 percent of mothers and 15.6 percent of fathers earned between $45,000 and $55,000 and only a very small percentage earned more than $55,000.
'The only couples who had nannies were in the $80,000+ salary range.Very few mothers were in high prestige jobs, and the ones that were had nannies.'
Thirty-five of the couples kept diaries over a seven-day period to establish the amount of exclusive and shared time they spent with their child.
Mothers spent more exclusive and shared time with their children than fathers over the whole week, and more exclusive time with their children on weekends.
'The exclusive time, though, is still quite low, at an average of 30 minutes for the weekend. Mothers also do nearly twice as much as fathers in childcare and household duties,' said Dr Liossis.
'Mothers from the current study have a lot on their plate, I think.'
Dr Liossis said the results of the research had many implications regarding the lifestyle of dual working parents and family interaction.
'Perhaps fathers need to be made more aware of the benefits associated with becoming more actively involved in the caretaking of children, including aspects like closer bonds with children and enhanced relationships with their wives,' she said.
For more information, contact Dr Liossis on (07) 3864 1567.
