Date of Award

8-1-2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Psychology

First Advisor

Nadya A. Fouad

Committee Members

Stephen Wester, Michael Brondino, Romila Singh, Han Joo Lee

Abstract

The percentage of dual-earner families in the United States has increased significantly in the last 35 years (Boushey & O’Leary, 2009). One of the corresponding changes in family structure has been a drastic decrease in the breadwinner-housewife framework, which makes up just over 20% of the workforce in the U.S. (U.S Department of Labor, 2011). Although the breadwinner-homemaker framework of work-family balance is no longer pervasive, the majority of discussion in the work-family interface still tends to focus on women’s challenges in balancing work and family needs, likely due to traditional gender role stereotyping. Recent studies reveal that more fathers in dual-earner couples are reported to feel significantly greater work-life issues (Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2008), and yet we know little about the psychological processes that influence working men’s multiple role management.

The primary purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine how the traditional male gender norms relate to their multiple role self-efficacy; and, in turn, how that influences their job, family and life satisfaction. Additionally, this study examined whether this relationship would differ according to the traditionality of a man’s career, using Social Cognitive Career Self-Management Theory. This study empirically investigated two research questions. First, the structural model of multiple role career management for working men was examined. Second, the differences in working men’s job, family, and life satisfaction with regard to the level of their father’s involvement in family, conformity to masculinity, traditionality of career and multiple role self-efficacy were investigated using vignette experimental method.

Results from this study suggest that gaining a solid understanding of working men’s job, family, and life satisfaction can best be achieved by assessing their multiple role self-efficacy and outcome expectation, work conditions as well as paternal and masculine contextual factors. Further, this study provides the clinical, theoretical, and methodological implication that contextual variables such as conformity to masculine norms and paternal role model are critical to the multiple role management, and job, family and life satisfaction of working men.

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