Low Involvement and Ineffective Monitoring Link Mothers’ Work-Family Conflict and Adolescent Self-Control

Abstract

Understanding what explains the individual differences in adolescent self-control is crucial, given the importance of self-control to positive youth development. This research examines the extent to which mothers’ work–family conflict (WFC) associates with adolescent self-control via parenting (i.e., involvement, positive parenting, poor monitoring/supervision, and corporal punishment). One hundred and eighty-eight Chinese mother–child dyads participated in the research. Mothers reported on their WFC and parenting at T1, and adolescents rated their self-control 2.5 months later. Results of mediation model found that low involvement and poor monitoring/supervision linked the association between mothers’ WFC and adolescent self-control, net the effect of child sex, family socioeconomic status, and mothers’ marriage and working status. These findings suggest that boosting working mothers’ involvement and monitoring/supervision could be promising ways to nurture their adolescent children’s self-control, particularly for mothers with high WFC.

Keywords

work-family spillover parenting self-control monitoring involvement ecological system theory

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