Gender differences in work-family conflict and mental health among employed Australian parents: findings from the HILDA survey.

AIMS: This study aims to examine the longitudinal associations between work-family conflict (WFC) and mental health among working parents. Specifically, we investigated whether within-person changes in WFC and family-to-work conflict (FWC) are associated with changes in mental health. METHODS: Data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey were used to employ within-person fixed effects regression analysis to examine associations between WFC and mental health in working-age adults (18-64 years) with parental responsibilities for children ≤14 years. The outcome, general mental health and overall psychological well-being, was assessed using the Mental Health Inventory-5 scale as a continuous variable with scores ranging from 0 to 100. Both dimensions of WFC, measured as continuous variables ranging from 1 to 7 with higher scores indicative of greater conflict (work-to-family and family-to-work), were interrogated, as were gender differences. Exposures, outcome and covariates were assessed repeatedly across the 21-year follow-up period. RESULTS: A total of 7,265 participants (46,564 observations) across waves 2001-2021 who were working-age parents engaged in paid employment with children ≤14 years, with at least two waves of data and non-missing data were included in the analyses. Mean (SD) duration of follow-up was 6.1 (3.7) years and 6.7 (4.2) years for mothers and fathers, respectively. A total of 49.6% of participants were female, and the mean baseline age was 35 years for both mothers and fathers. Increasing WFC was negatively associated with mental health in women (β coefficient = -1.25 [95% CI: -1.45, -1.05]) and men (β coefficient = -1.21 [95% CI: -1.40, -1.02]). Increasing FWC was associated with worse mental health in women (β coefficient = -1.09 [95% CI: -1.33, -0.85]) and men (β coefficient = -1.51 [95% CI: -1.75, -1.28]). CONCLUSIONS: Changes in both WFC and FWC over time are associated with changes in mental health for women and men. More attention needs to be devoted to identifying and implementing strategies to enable working parents to cope with or reduce WFC.