Anisa M. Zvonkovic

The occurrence and frequency of overnight job travel in the USA

This study examined to what extent gender, occupation and family situations influenced the occurrence and frequency of overnight work-related travel that US employees experienced. Unlike previous work, the data analysis allowed for differentiation of the factors associated with being in jobs with any overnight travel demand and the factors related to how frequently respondents travelled. This study particularly tested the hypotheses of occupational segregation and family demands, separately by gender. Consistent with the occupational segregation hypothesis, the occurrence and frequency of work travel varied across the types of occupation and men had a higher chance both to be in jobs with travel overnight demands and to travel more often than women did. The family demands hypothesis was supported by the findings that living with a spouse or partner and taking responsibility for a family member in need of extensive care were associated with the prevalence of work travel.

Work, Family, and Well-Being at Midlife A Person-Centered Approach

This study addressed work and family enhancement and conflict among adults at midlife (N = 125). The study included personal well-being measured 25 years earlier. Participants were classified into groups on the basis of latent class analysis. Qualitative analyses of narratives within groups enhanced understanding of the experiences of those in the groups. The first of the three groups identified by latent class analysis consisted of a fairly large number of women who seemed to have achieved balance in roles and enjoyed marital and job satisfaction. The second group, almost exclusively male, was characterized by a low degree of work and family enhancement. In the small third group, a profound lack of marital satisfaction coupled with high work and family conflict and low enhancement identified men and women with seemingly enduring low levels of well-being. Narratives largely validated the quantitative analysis but also provided additional avenues for further research.

Journeys to remain childless: A grounded theory examination of decision-making processes among voluntarily childless couples

The goal of this study was to illuminate the processes of how spouses reach an agreement to remain childless, specifically finding out what spouses do, say, and feel in the process using grounded theory methods. This study conceptualized reaching an agreement not to have children as a dyadic process. Based on in-depth conjoint interviews with 20 married couples, 3 decision-making types were identified: mutual early articulator couples, mutual postponer couples, and nonmutual couples. The decision-making processes of voluntarily childless couples included three phases, agreement, acceptance, and closing of the door as well as two driving forces of the process, the strength of conviction and the importance of the relationship. The three types of couples navigated the process differently. The implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Clergy Who Experience Trauma as a Result of Forced Termination

Forced termination of clergy is a demeaning and psychologically distressing experience. Clergy who experience a forced termination are subjected to mobbing (psychological harassment) and other activities meant to publicly or privately demean a minister in such a way that they resign their ministry position. In a purposive convenience sample of 55 ministers who had been forcibly terminated, participants scored above the known cut-off score for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and scored high on a measure of burnout and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Forced termination has been anecdotally connected to PTSD and GAD, this project sought to empirically link PTSD and GAD to the forced termination of clergy. This study raises concern for the long-term mental health effects of ministers who have been forcibly terminated and provides implications for future clinical study on this group of clergy. Findings in this research indicate there may be a process to forced termination, which could be developed into a theory on forced termination of clergy.

Children's Experiences of Time When a Parent Travels for Work

This qualitative study focuses on different ways time is experienced by children in families who face time challenges due to a family members job that required work travel. Data are from a family-level study that includes interviews of all family members over the age of 7. Using grounded theory methodology, this study illustrates ways in which job demands and family processes interact. Analysis centers on the 75 childrens perspectives from 43 families. Holding together assessments of having enough time while wanting more time with their parents, children express emotion, generally unrecognized by parents, around the topic of family time. Childrens experience of time with parents is rushed or calm, depending on the activities done in time and the gender of the parent with whom they spend time. Findings are interpreted through a feminist social constructionist lens.

Recession Jitters Among Professional Class Families: Perceptions of Economic Strain and Family Adjustments

In a follow-up study of family members who participated in a previous study of high work demands, 130 participants from 71 families responded to questions about recent changes in work and financial well-being, as well as daily family adaptations associated with the recession. The general portrait of the families who belonged to an emergent professional class was of relative stability in their work situations. Nevertheless, a substantial percentage perceived financial decline, an increase in the pace of their work, and increasingly rushed feelings at home. Respondents reported financial adjustments in their daily lives. Adjustments in expenses associated with family dining out and with leisure were especially noteworthy when participants reported the perception of financial decline. Results are discussed in light of how the experience of the current recession among families in the professional class differs from experiences of families during previous recessions.

A literature review of overnight work travel within individual, family and social contexts

ABSTRACT This paper presents results of a comprehensive literature review of empirical studies investigating travel for work and how it relates to individual lives. The paper presents information on how work travel has been operationalized in the literature. The paper describes findings concerning how feelings about travel, individual well-being, the work/family interface, family relationships and social connections have been found to be affected by work travel. The empirical articles on workers who travel have been conducted in multiple countries and via diverse methodologies, which provides richness to the findings. The lack of uniformity in how work travel has been operationalized presents challenges for drawing conclusions about the effects of work travel. Recommendations concerning how to move the field forward are presented, including uniting the employment-related literature with the family literature to provide more holistic and useful implications for the study of work travel.

Implications of parents’ work travel on youth adjustment

ABSTRACT Guided by ecological, work–family spillover and crossover frameworks, this study examined mechanisms linking parental work travel (i.e. nights per year) to youth adjustment (i.e. externalizing and internalizing behaviours) through youth’s perceptions of parenting (i.e. knowledge, solicitation) with traveller and youth gender as moderators in a sample of 78 children in 44 two-parent families residing in the United States. The findings from multilevel analyses suggested that mothers’ travel nights predicted lower levels of maternal knowledge, with variation by traveller and youth gender. Mothers’ and fathers’ work travel and perceived parenting were predictors of youth’s externalizing behaviours, whereas only fathers’ work travel and perceived parenting were predictors of youth’s internalizing behaviours. Tests of indirect effects indicated that maternal work travel linked to youth’s externalizing behaviours through youth’s perceptions of maternal knowledge. These findings add to our limited understanding of work–family issues for parents who have the unique work demand of frequently travelling.

Redefining the Roles of Parents and Social Structure in the Educational Outcomes of Cambodian Young Adults

In this article, we examine the roles of Coleman’s social capital in university attendance among Cambodian young adults, utilizing grounded theory that includes in-depth interviews with 10 purposefully selected third-year university students. Results indicate that self-motivation, parental expectations, extended family assistance, mentors’ assistance, sibling inspirations, and social norms serve as student-acquired resources that facilitate university attendance. Under Coleman’s framework, numerous studies concentrate on the role of authoritative figures (e.g., parents or parents’ networks) in children’s developmental trajectories, viewing parents as sole distributors of resources to children whose outcomes depend on what they receive—in the absence of which, their positive developmental outcomes would be negated. This study, however, provides further evidence that children are capable of assisting each other, motivating themselves, and overcoming adverse social norms to help them advance academically, in the absence or lack of parental attention and/or involvement. This study suggests that individuals’ self-motivation be integral in social capital concepts.