It seems reasonable to expect any conflict between our work and home lives to cause problems in both environments, but the extent of the impact was quantified in a recent paper that was published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

The study looked specifically at the way our work life balance impacts our children, and specifically the level of control we have over our working life.

“If you can decide how you are going to do your job, rather than having that imposed on you, it is better for children,” the researchers explain.

Providing control

So what can be done to give people that control? The researchers collected data from both affluent and low-income parents and children in Nigeria to assess both the work patterns of the parents and the school performance of the children.

Interestingly, the responses of participants didn’t really seem to differ regardless of whether they lived in dire poverty or relative affluence.  It seemed like economic resources were not as big a buffer as the researchers originally thought they would be.

Far more influential were feelings of control and autonomy in the workplace.  This accounted far more for the differences that emerged between the health outcomes for children and the work-life conflicts of the parent.  Central to this difference was something the researchers refer to as ‘self-regulatory resources’, which generally means the level of self-control parents can utilize in their parenting.

High stress resulted in lower self-control, which was linked to worse health outcomes for children.  The study found that our parenting style changes fundamentally when we’re stressed compared to when we’re coping well.

“At lower levels of job autonomy,” the researchers explain, “employees likely have to rely more on self-regulatory resources to compensate for the impact of limited control over one’s job on one’s personal life. At higher levels of job autonomy, freedom and more decision-making opportunities are likely to motivate the person to engage; however, self-regulatory resources would be less needed.”

Lack of autonomy

This impact was biggest when both the demands of the job were very high, and the level of control and autonomy in that job were low.  It’s an area the researchers believe provides a clear marker for future interventions to address the issue.

This could include helping any parents in the workforce take a few minutes to recharge and create a buffer between the work and home environments.  It could also include things such as mindfulness.

Plus, of course, workplaces can do a lot more to increase the autonomy and control people have over their work.  Autonomy is something that has come up as beneficial in a wide range of ways, so this is perhaps the most sensible place to focus any attention.

This research reminds us that these efforts would not only have an impact in the workplace, but far beyond it too.