Higgins, Suzanne Joy (2004) Combining parenting and paid work. PhD thesis, Victoria University of Technology.

Abstract

First time parent couples are more likely to be a dual income family now than ever before. In Australia, 65% of employed women in couple families have dependant children, and in couple families with children under five years of age, 52% of mothers are in paid employment. Research consistently shows that women still take on responsibility for family chores, those unpaid jobs which are essential for maintenance of society. The aim of this study was to examine the experience of first-time parent couples when the mother returned to the paid workforce. An Australian community based sample of 141 participants (69 couples plus 3 women whose partners failed to return questionnaire booklets) were recruited into this longitudinal study for the purpose of comparing single and two-income first-time parent couples. Recruitment occurred prior to the two-income mother returning to paid work and participants were followed for ten months to determine how men and women negotiated the transition from single to two-income status. A number of variables were measured on four occasions over a ten-month period to examine the effects of the transition on each partner and compare the results between the two groups of parents. These variables included marital satisfaction, worker spillover, stress levels, parenting satisfaction, division of household labour and emotional status.

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