The role of gender, work family conflict, and gender role attitudes in daily parental wellbeing

Abstract

Abstract A typical day or week looks very different for modern fathers and mothers, where women still fulfil more family responsibilities. While, gender differences in subjective well-being are widely documented, gender is rarely considered to explain fluctuations in daily well-being. We addressed this gap while also considering related concepts like the work-family conflict and gender role attitudes. Participants (individual parents) completed a baseline questionnaire covering sociodemographic background, work-family conflict, and gender role attitudes. Additionally, they filled out daily well-being surveys four times a day over a one-week period. Sixty-eight participants (75% women, age: M  = 37.6 years) and 1352 datapoints from the daily surveys were analysed using multilevel modelling. Daily well-being increased over the survey period and women reported better well-being compared to men. More liberal private gender role attitudes were related to better cognitive well-being. Greater work-family conflict, irrespective of direction, was related to lower daily well-being. Gender and particularly related frameworks like the work-family conflict are important explanatory factors in not only overall but also daily well-being.