Association of parents’ work-related stress and children’s socioemotional competency: Indirect effects of family mealtimes.

We examined the direct and indirect effects of parents’ work-related stress on child socioemotional competency through their involvement in mealtimes. The results indicate a negative direct association between the mother’s job/financial dissatisfaction and the child’s socioemotional competency. The father’s job dissatisfaction had an adverse impact on children in terms of socioemotional competency, partially explained by the father participating less often in family mealtimes. Fathers’ job/financial dissatisfaction had a negative influence on children’s socioemotional competency, even with an increase in the mothers’ participation in family mealtimes in the absence of the fathers. The findings emphasize the importance of fathers’ involvement in mealtimes above and beyond mothers’ involvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research