The Impact of Work on the Mental Health of Parents of Children with Disabilities

There is a growing literature examining the impact of work and family responsibilities on the psychological well-being of working parents (Barnett & Baruch, 1985; Barnett & Marshall, 1992; Frone, 2000; Goodman & Crouter, 2009; Grzywacz & Bass, 2003; Melchior, Berkman, Niedhammer, Zins, & Goldberg, 2007). Of par- ticular concern are families with heavier-than- average caregiving responsibilities, including parents of children with disabilities (Brennan & Brannon, 2005; Canning, Harris, & Kelle- her, 1996; Rosenzweig, Brennan, & Ogilvie, 2002). Research consistently shows that parents of children with disabilities and other excep- tional needs have heavier caregiving duties than parents of typically developing children and that they are more likely to experience mental and emotional distress (Deater-Deckard, 2004; U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser- vice, 2008), raising concern about the effects of work-family conflict on the well-being of caregivers.Research investigating the effect of work on parents of children with disabilities and health conditions is sparse; but, on balance, it suggests that working outside the home may offset the stressful effects of caregiving. The empirical evidence of caregiver-specific mental health benefits from work is, however, based primarily on small, nonprobability samples (Freedman, Litchfield, & Warfield, 1995; Gottlieb, 1997; Lewis, Kagan, Heaton, & Cranshaw, 1999; Parish, 2006; Thyen, Kuhlthau, & Perrin, 1999; Warfield, 2001, 2005). Moreover, though there has been an increase in the study of fathers in work and family research in general (Bianchi & Milkie, 2010; Hill, 2005; Levine & Pittinsky, 1997), most of the studies examining the effects of work on the mental health of parent caregivers have been conducted using mother-only samples (one exception is Warfield, 2005) or nearly mother-only samples (McDonald, Poertner, & Pierpont, 1999).In an effort to confirm the possibility of a caregiver-specific positive spillover effect, an earlier study conducted by the author of this article (Morris, 2012) used a nationally represen- tative sample of married mothers (N = 43,342) from the National Survey of American Families (NSAF) to examine the relationship between mental health, work, and caregiving. The study compared the relationship between work and mental health among mothers of children who were in poor to fair health, had disabilities, or exhibited behavior problems, and mothers of typically developing children. The findings suggested that mothers of older children with special needs do benefit more than other mothers from working outside the home. The analysis also indicated that the positive mental health effects from work were larger among caregiver mothers who worked full-time, during the day, and in executive, managerial, or professional occupations. The study reported here expands on this earlier work by using a sample of mothers and fathers as well as single and married or partnered parents, and employing a more robust analysis of the relationships between work, caregiving, and mental health. Specifically, the analysis employed a more precise defini- tion of child disability and examined of the relation between parent-role stress and mental health.CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKThe primary objective of this study was to investigate whether the relationship between work and mental health was different for parents of children with disabilities and parents of typically developing children. The study also investigated whether the associations between work, caregiver status, and mental well-being differed for mothers and fathers and among married or partnered and single parents, and whether parent-role stress and certain job conditions attenuated the relationship between work and parent mental health. In keeping with other research on the impact of work and family responsibilities on parent well-being, role theory was used to frame the analysis. …