Assessment of Work–Family Conflict Among Women of the Sandwich Generation

The term sandwich generation refers to the middle-aged generation who are responsible for caring elderly parents and dependent children. This situation is worse in case of working women who have job obligations along with family responsibilities. Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate level of the four-dimensional work–family conflict among working women of the sandwich generation. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 90 Malaysian working women using self-reported data. Multiple-stage simple random sampling was used to recruit women from public service departments of Malaysia. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. One-third of our respondents (33.3%) are members of sandwich generation who simultaneously provide care to elderly parents and children. However, 66.7% of women in this study are caregivers for either elderly parent or their children. The results of t-test showed that level of time-based FIW was significantly (t?=?? 2.02, p?<?0.05) higher in sandwich generation members (Mean?=?12.33, SD?=?1.95) compared to women caring for either parent or children (Mean?=?11.25, SD?=?2.58). The results of Multiple linear regression indicated that membership in sandwich generation significantly predict (b?=?0.26, p?<?0.05) FIWt after controlling for the effect of socio-demographic variables. Our findings showed that women who simultaneously take care of both elderly parent and children significantly experience higher level of time-based Family Interference into Work (FIWt). In contrast, membership in sandwich generation was not related to higher level of time-based Work Interference into Family (WIFt).     

Reflections on Kenneth Gergen’s Contributions to Family Therapy

Kenneth Gergen has made significant contributions to family therapy. This article highlights selected contributions and specifically discusses his idea of therapy as relational recovery, including the importance he places on a client??s developing relational skills that they can put into action in their everyday lives outside the therapy room. In response to this idea of therapy as relational recovery, the article presents the concept of therapy as a dialogically-structured activity in which transformation whether in meaning, understanding, thought or action is inevitable, inherent and unpredictable. Client feedback on after therapy session transformation partially illustrates this concept.     

Reflections on the Incompatibilist’s Direct Argument

The Direct Argument for the incompatibility of determinism and moral responsibility is so christened because this argument allegedly circumvents any appeal to the principle of alternate possibilities – a person is morally responsible for doing something only if he could have avoided doing it – to secure incompatibilism. In this paper, I first summarize Peter van Inwagen’s version of the Direct Argument. I then comment on David Widerker’s recent responses to the argument. Finally, I cast doubt on the argument by constructing counterexamples to a rule of inference it invokes.

Kantian Reflections on the Givenness of Zahavi’s Minimal Experiential Self

Abstract

At the core of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason was a decisive break with certain fundamental Cartesian assumptions or claims about consciousness and self-consciousness, claims that have nonetheless remained perennially tempting, from a phenomenological perspective, independently of any further questions concerning the metaphysics of mind and its place in nature. The core of this philosophical problem has recently been helpfully exposed and insightfully probed in Dan Zahavi’s book, Self and Other: Exploring Subjectivity, Empathy, and Shame (OUP, 2014). In these remarks I suggest that Zahavi’s view of what he calls ‘The Experiential Self’ defends precisely the sorts of claims to which a Kantian account of consciousness is fundamentally opposed, and while assessing the overall merits of the two contrasting outlooks is no easy matter, I side with the Kantian view.     

Who is the Hero in the Life of the Traumatized Patient? Reflections on Bodansky’s Work with Mrs. E

The vexed question of how to explain analytic success with traumatized patients like Bodansky’s Mrs. E is considered from a perspective on psychoanalytic history and the specific theory-buttressed assumptions and practices of earlier generations of analysts that led them to conclude that traumatized patients couldn’t be helped via psychoanalytic work. I then consider Mrs. E’s life with an organizing question, Who is its hero?, applying perspectives from Charles Dickens and from Fraiberg and colleagues’ work, and use these perspectives to question the theory-based assumption that Mrs. E must have somewhere had a good object experience to have a life. These perspectives allow contemplation of a saving forceful agency at Mrs. E’s core (perhaps one experienced by her as “animal”) that seems essential to understanding her successes in living. The success of her treatment in assisting her with building a life suggests that her analyst’s helping her with mirroring and, even more important, with mentalizing, contribute importantly to her life improvement. Some potential limitations of his approach to her are also implied in his account; in particular, his limited work with her intimate desires and feelings, both libidinal and aggressive.     

Young Australian Women’s Aspirations for Work and Family: Individual and Sociocultural Differences

The arguments underlying Hakim’s Lifestyle Preference Theory have initiated debate over the importance of individual preferences, versus social and structural constraints, in women’s work and family patterns. This paper investigates the role of sociocultural factors in lifestyle preferences. A total of 6,929 Australian women, aged 25–30 years, from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH), were categorised into Hakim’s Lifestyle Preference Groups, based on their aspirations for work and family. Rather than cutting across social groups, membership into Lifestyle Preference Groups was significantly related to sociodemographic variables. Further, the findings suggested that Hakim’s definition of ‘adaptive’ women may be too limited to capture the variability of the large number of young Australian women aspiring to combine paid work and family.     

Stress, Rewards, and Change in the Centrality of Women’s Family and Work Roles: Mastery as a Mediator

Although research suggests that stress and rewards experienced in a social role are associated with changes in the centrality (or personal importance) of that role over time, little attention has been given to the mechanisms that account for this relationship. This study was conducted to examine change in role mastery as a mediator in the relationship between changes in role experiences (stress and rewards) and changes in centrality among 195 women who simultaneously occupied the roles of parent care provider, mother, wife, and employee. Regression analyses indicated that increases in parent care, mother, and employee stress eroded mastery in those roles. In addition, increases in rewards were associated with a bolstered sense of mastery in each of the four roles. Mastery was found to be a mediating mechanism in the relationship between stress/rewards and centrality in one of the four roles examined, the employee role. However, changes in womens perceptions of mastery were unrelated to the extent to which women changed the importance of their three family roles. These findings extend prior research by demonstrating that mastery is a mechanism through which stress and rewards are associated with centrality in the employee role.     

Al-Ghazali’s Reflections on the Metaphysics of Metaphor in the Mishkāt al-Anwar

Mythological language is sometimes understood as a way of representing, by concrete imagery, more abstract notions. In this paper, we will pose some metaphysical questions about the possibility of such a representation. These questions will serve to motivate a brief tour of Mishkāt al-Anwār (Niche of Lights)—Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s commentary on the famous ayat al-nur (“verse of light”) of the Qur’an—wherein is discussed, among other things, how symbolic imagery is possible, and “the respect in which the spirits of the meanings are specified within the frames of the similitudes.”

How Bion’s Work on Thinking Might Throw Light on the Development of Sexuality

ABSTRACT

In preparing this article, I found I needed to take a step back from the specific topic of castration anxiety to a more general consideration of our contemporary understanding of sexuality. Being from a psychoanalytic tradition (Kleinian/Bionian) that has not foregrounded the place of sexuality, but has produced a deepening understanding of the epistemological instinct, I have explored whether one might draw on the work on thinking to contribute to a more general theory of development, and then track this through to its implications for sexuality.     

A Woman’s Place and a Man’s Duty: How Gender Role Incongruence in One’s Family Life Can Result in Home-Related Spillover Discrimination at Work

The purpose of this study was to investigate how gender role incongruence in terms of women being primary wage earners and males being secondary wage earners in their families could affect them at work. Using an experimental design and a sample of 306 college students, I explored how females who are the primary wage earners in their families and males who are the secondary wage earners are perceived and evaluated in a work setting. I proposed, and found, that female primary wage earners are seen as the least overqualified and are given lower reward recommendations than equally qualified male peers (i.e., peers with exactly the same credentials and job performance). Male secondary wage earners are seen as being the most overqualified and are given higher reward recommendations than equally qualified female peers. Results demonstrate how the lack of fit model, which has been shown to penalize women who succeed in traditionally masculine domains (Dipboye, Acad Manag Rev 10:16–127, 1985; Heilman, Res Organ Behav 5:269–298, 1983, J Soc Issues 57:657–674, 2001), can be applied to situations where gender-incongruent behavior exists in the form of women being primary wage earners in their families. I refer to this phenomenon as “home-related spillover discrimination,” named after the spillover effects that derive from societal expectations that are transferred into employment situations (Nieva and Gutek, Acad Manag Rev 5:267–276, 1980). The practical implication of this finding is that this may present a new form of sex discrimination against women that has not yet been considered. This is the first study to show how violating stereotypical roles in terms of family wage earner status can influence outcomes in work settings.     

Marriage Counsellors’ Reflections on the Counselling Process in Family Courts in India

Family courts in India were established to facilitate speedy redressal of family disputes, particularly matrimonial issues. Marriage counsellors facilitated dispute resolution based on alternative dispute resolution practices. Counselling was mandated for all couples approaching family courts due to marital discord. At present, there is a lack of literature on the process of counselling followed by marriage counsellors in the family courts. The present study used an exploratory research design to understand marriage counsellors’ perspectives on the process of counselling in family courts. Fifty-six marriage counsellors completed open-ended questionnaires on counselling assessment, goals, interventions and the influence of the presence of children on the couple counselling process. Thematic text analysis of the responses revealed a range of areas that counsellors explored, individual and relational goals that they focused on, as well as the interventions used by marriage counsellors in their work with couples. Findings suggested that there was a lack of uniformity in the counselling approaches used by marriage counsellors. Additionally, marriage counsellors reported not being equipped to address some intrapersonal and interpersonal concerns that emerged in the counselling process, despite identifying them. Based on the findings, the paper recommends the need for a unifying framework for training and practice for marriage counsellors working with couples in family courts to conceptualise couples’ concerns as well as guide their goals and interventions. The paper underscores the need for acknowledging sociocultural influences, reflective practice and client feedback in the process of counselling.     

Young Women’s Experience of Anorexia,Family Dynamics and Triangulation

The study explored the experience of triadic family relationships of six young women with a diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa alongside a consideration of their attachment strategies. The research methods employed semi-structured individual interviews, a family sculpt and use of an adapted version of the Adolescent Separation Anxiety Test (SAT). This adaptation featured a unique development for this study of photographs depicting triadic family separation and conflict situations. These attempted to offer an integrated view of their experience of anorexia and of family relationships alongside a consideration of the attachment strategies evoked. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to generate themes that captured the young women’s experience, and a modified version of the SAT protocol coding was used to explore attachment strategies. The main themes to emerge from the data were found to be: Relational distance to attachment figures, Barriers to emotional connection, and Perception of parents’ relationship. Attachment strategies were shown to influence perceptions of family relationships and of triadic processes and conflicts. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed alongside limitations of the study and indications for future research.     

Context Effects on Women’s Perceptions of Stranger Harassment

The current research suggests that perceptions of stranger harassment experiences (i.e., experiencing unwanted sexual attention in public) are altered by the context of the situation. Study one investigated which elements of the situation (context) might be most influential in increasing fear and enjoyment of the catcalling experience. Attractiveness and age of the perpetrator, time of day, and whether the victim was alone or with friends were some of the categories that were selected as influencing both fear and enjoyment. Study two used a perspective taking methodology to ask women to predict a target character’s emotions, fears, and behaviors in harassment situations that varied by context. Results mirror the sexual harassment literature and suggest that harassment by younger and attractive men is viewed as less harassing. Exploratory analyses were also conducted with women’s personal experiences with stranger harassment as well as gender differences in perceptions. Context plays a vital role in interpretation of stranger harassment.     

Organizational Work-Home Culture and its Relations with the Work–Family Interface and Employees’ Subjective Well-being

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The two studies reported in this paper aimed to present and discuss both the validation of the Work-Home Culture (WHC) scale (Dikkers et al., Work &amp;...     

A Meta-Analytic Review of the Consequences Associated with Work–Family Enrichment

Purpose

This study investigated the relationship between work-to-family enrichment (WFE) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE) with work-related, non work-related, and health-related consequences using meta-analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted a meta-analytic review of 21 studies (54 correlations) for WFE and 25 studies (57 correlations) for FWE.

Findings

We found that both WFE and FWE were positively related to job satisfaction, affective commitment, and family satisfaction but not turnover intentions. WFE was more strongly related to work-related variables, whereas FWE was more strongly related to non work-related variables. We also found that both WFE and FWE were positively related to physical and mental health. Additionally, relationships appear to depend on moderating variables including the proportion of women in the sample as well as the construct label (e.g., enrichment, facilitation, positive spillover).

Implications

Our work indicates that organizations need to consider ways to not only reduce conflict, but also increase enrichment, which will drive many important outcome variables.

Originality/value

This is the first meta-analysis on the positive side of the work–family interface.     

Some Reflections on Erikson’s Ninth Stage of Life: Introduction to the Panel on Aging

In my introduction to these three papers on the experience of aging, I begin with my observations on aging in the 9th Stage of Life (a stage added by Erik Erickson in 1984, when he himself was nearing death) by talking about my own aging, 87-year-old husband whose end of life included changes in himself that no one who knew him, including himself, would have predicted. Following these thoughts I review the excellent essays that follow, which take the perspectives of aging from both personal and professional perspectives.     

Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Black- and White-Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazines

This article represents an analysis of the sexual images of women in magazine advertisements. I examined advertisements in Black- and White-oriented, mens and womens magazines to compare the images of womens sexuality that are constructed for each specific audience. Over 600 images of women were analyzed based on seven dimensions, including function/role, relative function/authority, physical/body position, relative size/height, character traits, body view, and physical characteristics. The images of womens sexuality vary depending on the race of the intended audience and the race of the women in the advertisements. Advertisements for White audiences portray women in roles and with characteristics that suggest dependency and submissiveness, whereas advertisements for Black audiences portray women as independent and dominant. I also found that White women are objectified much more than Black women are.