Does Overparenting Hurt Working Turkish Mother's Well-being? The Influence of Family-Work Conflict and Perceived Stress in Established Adulthood

Abstract

Although extant research demonstrates the negative impact of overparenting on child well-being, there remains a paucity of evidence on the effect of overparenting on the parents' own well-being. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of overparenting on parental well-being, and to explore the mechanisms through which overparenting influences the well-being of working mothers, particularly among established adults. Thus, we examined the serial mediation effects of perceived stress and family-to-work conflict (FWC) in overparenting and well-being linkage. With this aim, the data were collected from working mothers (N = 258) aged between 30 and 45, a period of in their lifespan generally characterized by efforts devoted to career and care. Via serial mediation analyses, the findings postulate that (a) overparenting relates to the well-being and perceived stress of working mothers, (b) perceived stress (both individually and jointly with FWC) mediates the relationship between overparenting and well-being, and (c) perceived stress and FWC serially mediate the association between overparenting and well-being. The findings provide evidence related to the well-being experiences of established adulthood women in struggling their career-and care crunch from a perspective of overparenting, stress, and family-to-work conflict.