Work Characteristics and the Preventive Health Behaviors and Subjective Health of Married Parents with Preschool Age Children

The current study examines how job demands and resources are associated with preventive health behaviors and subjective health outcomes among a sample of married, working parents with young children (N = 144), a group for whom free time is limited and work-family obligations are high and competing. Of the job demands and resources considered here (work hours, work pressure, face time norms, job flexibility, and coworker support), all but face-time norms were significantly associated with the dependent variable in at least one of the statistical models. Job demands and resources were more useful in models examining subjective health outcomes (feeling worried or stressed, feeling overwhelmed, and feeling healthy and energetic) than models examining preventive health behaviors (days of adequate exercise, sleep, and healthy diet). For working mothers, the combination of work hours and job flexibility was important across models, whereas for working fathers, coworker support was influential. Implications of these findings are discussed.