BALANCING EMPLOYMENT AND FATHERHOOD - A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE

Fathers in dual-earner families (N = 447) participated in three studie s. The first two studies were designed to devise a brief measure of st ress experienced by employed men in dual-earner families. The resultin g Workplace/Family Stress Scale was found to be a reliable and valid m easure of this construct. An ecological systems framework was utilized for study design and analyses in the third study. This study explored contributions from various system levels to the work/family stress dy namic. Results indicated that all system levels examined (the individu al, the family microsystem, and the workplace microsystem) contributed to experienced stress, with the greatest contribution coming from the family microsystem. Implications of these findings for fathers involv ed in multiple roles and for their families are discussed.