Major changes are occurring in the work force today and the impact is being felt in millions of workplaces and homes throughout the country. Both men and women are experiencing problems associated with combining work and family. The most prevalent pressures family members experience in balancing work and family are overload and conflict due to multiple roles.
The focus of this project was to examine the interface of work and family in the Western United States. Specifically, the project studied the changing work patterns of families and how these changes impact family functioning. Changes in the work pattern include increases in dual earner families and mothers working outside the home, displacement of workers, and underemployment.
The immediate goal of the project was to gain a better understanding of the critical linkages between work, stress, and family life. The long term goal is to assist families in their work and family decisions as they confront a changing society.
Understanding how life at the place of employment, family functioning, and children's school and care settings are linked can help us to understand how to help parents and children flourish in their development. While we often like to compartmentalize our roles and pretend that we can leave behind concerns from different arenas of our life, what happens in one arena does connect with what is happening in another arena. MORE
When coordinating marriage with employment, couples often do not realize the complex nature of domestic labor and this causes them to stumble in their coordination of family and employment obligations. MORE
This website is a compilation of information compiled from studies conducted by the following researchers:
To contact the Researcher, click on their name For their departmental affiliation, click on the link For information on their specific research, click on the title of their study
Dr. Anisa Zvonkovic
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences,
Oregon State University
Work and Family Life When Breadwinners are Periodically Absent from HomeDr. Gary Kiger
Dr. Pam Riley
Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology,
Utah State University
Helping Dual-Earner Couples Balance Work & Family ResponsibilitiesDr.Nancy Wanamaker
Dr. Cynthia Schmiege
School of Family and Consumer Sciences,
University of Idaho
Family and Work LinkagesDr. Alicia Cook, Human Development and Family Studies,
Dr. Peggy S. Berger, Department of Family and Consumer Studies,
Colorado State University
Predictors of Emotion: Work and Household Labor Among Dual Earner CouplesDr. Robert L. Del Campo
Department of Family and Consumer Sciences,
New Mexico State University
Work and Family StressDr. Brenda Bryant
Department of Human and Community Development,
University of California, Davis
Families and Work
This project was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, through Agricultural Experiment Stations at a group of land-grant univerisities. Funds for the creation of this website were provided by the CYFAR initiative.
CYFERNet is a registered trademark of the National Children, Youth and Families at Risk Initiative.