Making Up for Lost Time: When and How Time-Based Work-to-Family Conflict Motivates Parenting

Although previous research shows work-to-family conflict detracts from parenting time, extant literature offers little theoretical guidance or empirical data regarding when or why parents make up for time deficits created by work-to-family conflict. This study draws on action-regulation theory to examine when and under what conditions parents are motivated to compensate for time-based work-to-family conflict events. Two experimental vignette studies show that parents sequence their work-family responsibilities, and that sequencing is underpinned by motivation to compensate for family time deficit. On days when work-to-family conflict occurs, parents feel less obligated to interact with their adolescent children on that same day, but more obligated to interact with their adolescent children the following day, as compared to days with no work-to-family conflict. Further, we find evidence that future compensation efforts are largely explained by the motivating emotion of guilt. Study 2 findings further suggest that when partners contribute a higher portion of childcare labor, work-to-family conflict is less strongly tied to cognitive (perceptions of family goal attainment) and emotional (guilt) motivational states. Overall, our study reveals work-to-family conflict is but one experience in the motivational ebb and flow of managing goals to succeed at work and as a parent, and that couple-level norms can alter parent reactions to work-to-family conflict events.