Managing My Shame: Examining the Effects of Parental Identity Threat and Emotional Stability on Work Productivity and Investment in Parenting

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Greenbaum, Rebecca L.; Deng, Yingli; Butts, Marcus M.; Wang, Cynthia S.; Smith, Alexis N.
• 署名单位: Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; Durham University; Southern Methodist University; Northwestern University; Oklahoma State University System; Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000597
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1479-1497
• 关键词: work-family blending; identity threat; shame; EMOTIONAL STABILITY; Parenting

摘要

We identify parental identity threat as a blended work-family experience (i.e., when the family domain becomes a salient aspect of the work domain) that prompts working parents to attend to their parenting identities while at work. By integrating theoretical arguments related to role identities, self-conscious emotions, and identity maintenance, we propose that parental identity threat provokes working parents' shame, which then results in disparate cross-domain outcomes in the form of reduced work productivity and enhanced investment in parenting. We further explain that emotional stability serves as a first-stage moderator of the proposed mediated relationships. Specifically, working parents with higher (vs. lower) emotional stability respond to parental identity threat with weaker shame reactions that then lessen the effects onto work productivity and investment in parenting. We tested our predictions across three studies: an experiment, a multisource field study involving working parent-spouse dyads, and a time-lagged experience sampling study across 15 days also using working parent-spouse dyads. Altogether, our findings generally support our predictions. Theoretical and practical implications and future direction are discussed.