Life satisfaction amongst working parents: examining the case of mothers and fathers in Ireland

dc.contributor.authorWalsh, Edel
dc.contributor.authorMurphy, Aileen
dc.date.accessioned2022-08-19T14:09:10Z
dc.date.available2022-08-19T14:09:10Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.date.updated2022-08-15T15:15:04Z
dc.description.abstractPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of having minor children on parents' life satisfaction. Given the demands on working parents in terms of their time and financial resources, the authors suspect a complex interaction between employment and parenthood and explore the effect of parenthood on life satisfaction of mothers and fathers, working parents and those with children of various ages. Design/methodology/approach: Data from three rounds of the European Social Survey (R3 2006/07, R5 2010/11 and R8 2016/17) are used to account for Ireland's changing economic landscape. Three ordered probit models are estimated examining parents, and mothers and fathers separately. Findings: The findings indicate that any life satisfaction benefits derived from having children appear to be eroded for working parents. There is a negative association between life satisfaction for working mothers with child(ren) aged between 5 and 12 years. Furthermore, when both parents are working, mothers' life satisfaction is also significantly reduced. Practical implications: Family policies and supports can shape the effects of parenthood on individual wellbeing and decisions regarding parenthood. Such policies need to be purposeful for working parents of school going children and consistent with economic strategy and labour market goals. Originality/value: Much of the existing economic research on individual wellbeing and parenthood are focused on the fertility decision rather than examining the factors affecting the life satisfaction of different cohorts of parents thus leading to more targeted and informed policies. Contemporary weighting methodology is employed.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationWalsh, E. and Murphy, A. (2021) 'Life satisfaction amongst working parents: examining the case of mothers and fathers in Ireland', International Journal of Social Economics, 48 (4), pp.622-639. doi: 10.1108/IJSE-05-2020-0295en
dc.identifier.doi10.1108/IJSE-05-2020-0295en
dc.identifier.endpage639en
dc.identifier.issn0306-8293
dc.identifier.issued4en
dc.identifier.journaltitleInternational Journal of Social Economicsen
dc.identifier.startpage622en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/13490
dc.identifier.volume48en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherEmeralden
dc.rights© 2021, Edel Walsh and Aileen Murphy. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcodeen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcodeen
dc.subjectLife satisfactionen
dc.subjectParentsen
dc.subjectEmploymenten
dc.subjectGenderen
dc.subjectUtility theoryen
dc.titleLife satisfaction amongst working parents: examining the case of mothers and fathers in Irelanden
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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