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Rosalind Chait Barnett a
; Karen C. Gareis a
; Robert T. Brennan b a
Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA b
School of Public
Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
First published on: 29 April 2009
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Community, Work & Family,
Vol. 13, No. 1, February 2010, 35 41
Rosalind Chait Barnett a
*, Karen C. Gareis a and Robert T. Brennan b a
Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, Mailstop 079, 515 South Street,
Waltham, MA 02453-2720, USA; b
School of Public Health, Harvard University,
Boston, MA, USA
(Received 24 March 2008; final version received 25 November 2008)
In this study, we focus on community resources specifically, children’s school and school activity schedules, or school resource fit (SRF) as a contextual variable influencing family-role quality (FRQ) among employed parents of school-aged (grades K-12) children in a sample of 58 Boston-area couples ( N
116). We found that SRF is a significant predictor of parent-role quality (PRQ) and marital-role quality (MRQ) for mothers, but not fathers. Further, for mothers, the relationship between SRF and each FRQ indicator was mediated by the other FRQ indicator. There was no evidence of crossover effects of one partner’s SRF on the other partner’s FRQ.
Keywords: school resource fit; parent-role quality; marital-role quality; withincouple analysis; community
En este estudio, nos enfocamos en recursos comunitarios especı´ficamente en la escuela primaria/secundaria de los jo´venes y el horario de actividades escolares o recurso escolar adecuado (SRF) como variable contextual que influye en la calidad del rol de la familia (FRQ) entre padres empleados con nin˜os de edad escolar (niveles K-12) en una muestra de 58 parejas del area de Boston ( N 116).
Encontramos que SRF es un me´todo significante de prediccio´n de calidad de rol de los padres (PRQ) y la calidad de rol conyugal (MRQ) para las madres pero no para padres. Tambie´n, para madres, la relacio´n entre SRF y cada indicador FRQ es mediada por el otro indicador FRQ. No se encontro´ evidencia de efectos del
SRF de un miembro de la pareja en el FRQ del otro.
Palabras claves: recurso escolar adecuado; calidad rol de los padres; calidad rol conyugal; ana´lisis de relacio´n conyugal de la pareja; comunidad
The mismatch between parent needs and community resources is a contextual variable whose effects on family-role quality (FRQ) have not been studied. We estimate the degree of mismatch between employed parents’ schedule coordination needs and children’s school and school activity schedules (i.e., school resource fit, or
SRF) and the link between that mismatch and FRQ in 58 couples with school-aged children. We employ hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) with latent variable regression, allowing examination of within-couple effects, mediational modeling,
*Corresponding author. Email: rbarnett@brandeis.edu
ISSN 1366-8803 print/ISSN 1469-3615
# 2010 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13668800902753853 http://www.informaworld.com

36 R.C. Barnett et al .
explicit gender-difference tests, and testing of crossover effects in which one parent’s
SRF affects the other’s FRQ.
Literature review
Community assets, including school and school activity schedules, can facilitate the adjustment of working families with school-aged children. Voydanoff (2007) suggests that community contexts influence the level of resources families must expend, with consequent well-being effects. Accordingly, when SRF is high, parents need not deplete resources (e.g., cut work hours, purchase private after-school care) to cover childcare. Unexpended resources can be used to meet other aspects of the parental role and facilitate performance of the marital role.
Thus, we hypothesize that
SRF will predict higher parent-role quality (PRQ) and marital-role quality (MRQ)
(H1 and H2) .
SRF is especially likely to affect the FRQ of the parent usually the mother bearing the larger share of day-to-day responsibility for children. Mothers are held responsible for children’s cognitive development, including coordinating and supervising children’s educational activities (Dudley-Marling, 2001).
Thus, we predict that mothers’ FRQ will be more reactive than fathers’ FRQ to SRF (H3) .
Previous research suggests a strong relationship between parent and marital satisfaction. For example, Rogers and White (1998) found that marital and parenting satisfaction were reciprocally (and equally strongly) related for both parents. This suggests that contextual factors may have indirect as well as direct effects on FRQ.
That is, SRF can affect one FRQ indicator, which can in turn affect the other. Thus, when SRF is good, parents are likely to have positive relationships with children, potentially reducing one source of friction between partners, with beneficial effects on marital quality. Mediation may also run in the other direction, from SRF though
MRQ to PRQ.
Thus, we predict that each FRQ indicator will mediate the link between
SRF and the other FRQ indicator (H4) .
Finally, it is possible that when one parent’s SRF is good, the other parent’s FRQ will benefit. For example, when mothers’ SRF is high, fathers may experience higher
MRQ. Having data from both partners in each couple and employing a withincouple analysis strategy allows us to test for crossover effects of each partner’s SRF on the other partner’s FRQ (H5) .
Covariates include each parent’s negative affectivity and work hours and the couple’s household income and number and average age of children . Negative affectivity is a mood-dispositional trait to view the world negatively that can produce spuriously high correlations between cross-sectional self-report measures of predictors and outcomes (Brennan & Barnett, 1998). The other covariates have been related to marital satisfaction and are therefore controlled.
Method
Participants
As part of a larger study of how parents of school-aged children (grades K-12) in one
Boston-area city coordinate work schedules with children’s school, after-school, and transportation schedules, we interviewed both parents in 58 couples ( N 116) with

Community, Work & Family 37 school-aged children with at least one full-time employed parent; in half the couples, the other parent worked 20 hours/week, and in half the other parent worked
0 19 hours/week. Employed fathers (91.4%) worked 48.6 hours/week on average
(SD 13.0). Employed mothers (69.0%) worked 34.8 hours/week on average (SD
13.0). Household income ranged from $30,000 186,666 (Mdn $85,000).
Procedures
City residents were randomly selected from the household census to receive an introductory letter followed by telephone eligibility screening. Couples received $50 for participating in separate 45-minute in-person interviews.
Measures
The 15-item short form (Hyde & Plant, 1996) marital-role quality (MRQ) measure asked participants to rate from 1 ( not at all ) to 4 ( considerably ) how much items such as ‘good communication’ and ‘arguing or fighting’ were rewarding or of concern
(Barnett, Marshall, Raudenbush, & Brennan, 1993). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.92 in this sample.
The 35-item parent-role quality (PRQ) measure asked participants to rate from 1
( not at all ) to 4 ( considerably ) how much items such as ‘seeing your children mature and change’ and ‘having too many arguments and conflicts with them’ were rewarding or of concern (Barnett, Brennan, & Marshall, 1994). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.90 in this sample.
School resource fit (SRF) was measured using a subscale of a community resource fit measure (Gareis & Barnett, 2008). Participants rated six items (school start time; school release time; coordination of different community schools’ schedules; scheduling of school meetings, conferences, and events; scheduling of extracurricular activities; and school parent communication) on a scale from 1
( completely dissatisfied ) to 7 ( completely satisfied ). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.72 in this sample.
Covariates
Work hours included average hours/week worked at all jobs.
Household income was the natural log (to address positive skew) of annual per capita, pre-tax income.
Number and average age of children are self-explanatory.
Negative affectivity was assessed with the Trait Anxiety Scale (Spielberger, 1983). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.82
in this sample.
Analytic overview
This analysis posed three challenges: (1) each partner had two FRQ outcomes; (2) partner outcomes are correlated and thus cannot be treated as independent; and (3)
MRQ and PRQ are reciprocally related within individuals (Rogers & White, 1998).
We adopt an HLM approach, which allows both couple-level (e.g., household income) and individual-level (e.g., work hours) predictors. To address correlated outcomes, we extend the multivariate model originally proposed by Barnett et al.

38 R.C. Barnett et al .
(1993) to predict four rather than two outcomes (i.e., each partner’s PRQ and MRQ).
To address the reciprocal relationship between PRQ and MRQ, we employ the latent variable extension of HLM, a post hoc calculation using the covariances of the level-one parameters (Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997), allowing us to isolate the indirect effect of SRF on each FRQ indicator holding the other FRQ indicator constant. We also examine crossover effects from one partner to the other. As in the original model (Barnett et al., 1993), the items comprising each outcome are divided into two parallel scales, creating a ‘latent true score’ such that all correlations between each scale score for each partner are estimated free of measurement error and the relationships to predictors are estimated free from measurement error in the outcome. To facilitate the latent variable regression, SRF is also subject to a measurement model by using parallel subscales. All predictors are centered on grand means.
Results
H1 and H2 were supported for mothers, but not fathers (see Table 1): SRF predicts higher PRQ and MRQ for mothers. The gender difference is significant for PRQ
( x
2
4.50, df 1, p 0.032), but not MRQ ( x
2
1.53, df 1, p 0.213), offering only partial support for H3. However, for MRQ, the fathers’ model is not well specified; with a very large SE, the estimate lacks precision, reducing statistical power. The latent variable models show that for both parents, PRQ predicts MRQ and vice versa (see Table 2). Table 2 also shows two indirect effects for mothers: SRF predicts better PRQ, which then predicts better MRQ; SRF also predicts better
MRQ, which then predicts better PRQ. There was no such mediation for fathers; thus, H4 is only partially supported. Finally, there were no crossover effects, offering no support for H5.
Discussion
SRF is a contextual variable associated directly and indirectly with PRQ and MRQ for mothers but not fathers in working families with school-aged children, offering partial support for H1 H4. Specifically, for mothers, high SRF predicts high FRQ, and the relationship between mothers’ SRF and each FRQ indicator is mediated by the other FRQ indicator. In short, the quality of mothers’ but not fathers’ family relations is sensitive to SRF. However, the lack of findings for fathers may change in the future with their increasing role in children’s daily lives (Bond, Galinsky, &
Swanberg, 1998). The lack of crossover effects may reflect the cross-sectional nature of the data; longitudinal studies could shed light on whether these effects simply take time to emerge. Our results confirm earlier findings that PRQ and MRQ are reciprocally related (Rogers & White, 1998) in both parents. Longitudinal research could help determine which, if either, pathway is stronger.
Conceptualizing SRF as a new contextual variable affecting FRQ has theoretical and practical advantages. From a theoretical perspective, Bradbury, Fincham, and
Beach (2000) urge further identification of modifiable contextual factors impacting
MRQ; SRF is one such factor. Practically speaking, if schools can adjust school and activity schedules to maximize parents’ SRF, mothers should reap an FRQ benefit.
In fact, previous research with this sample found that for fathers, SRF predicts low

Table 1.
Regression coefficient estimates (HLM).
Mothers
Coefficient (SE) Predictor
Intercept
School resource fit
Work hours
Household income
Number of children
Children’s average age
Negative affectivity
Note: N 116 parents in 58 couples.
$ p B 0.10; * p B 0.05.
50.735
5.997*
0.050
11.642
$
2.868*
0.847*
2.081
(0.905)
(1.536)
(0.049)
(6.444)
(1.346)
(0.215)
(1.639)
PRQ
Fathers
Coefficient (SE)
49.263
1.056
0.089
4.444
2.432
0.417
6.678*
(1.301)
(3.456)
(0.067)
(6.724)
(1.815)
(0.318)
(2.901)
MRQ
Mothers
Coefficient (SE)
50.250
6.690*
0.029
0.458
0.308
0.054
2.032
(1.169)
(2.197)
(0.056)
(11.014)
(2.012)
(0.246)
(2.621)
Fathers
Coefficient (SE)
49.750
1.274
0.009
10.917
0.587
0.041
6.457*
(1.181)
(4.317)
(0.059)
(6.923)
(1.616)
(0.250)
(2.459)

40 R.C. Barnett et al .
Table 2.
Latent variable regression results.
Predictor outcome
Direct effects
Mothers
Fathers
PRQ MRQ
MRQ PRQ
PRQ MRQ
MRQ PRQ
Indirect effects
Mothers
Fathers
SRF (PRQ) MRQ
SRF (MRQ) PRQ
SRF (PRQ) MRQ
SRF (MRQ) PRQ
* p B 0.05.
Coefficient
0.694*
0.661*
0.393*
0.537*
4.217*
2.652*
0.586
0.820
(SE)
(0.173)
(0.131)
(0.098)
(0.106)
(1.858)
(1.273)
(1.879)
(2.198) psychological distress (Barnett & Gareis, in press), suggesting that both parents could potentially benefit from enhanced SRF.
As noted, a major limitation is the cross-sectional nature of this study.
Longitudinal data could determine whether there are lagged and/or cumulative effects linking SRF to FRQ for men and identify the direction of mediating pathways between SRF and FRQ. Future research should also examine more racially and economically diverse communities with varying resources for working families.
Nevertheless, the present findings indicate the importance of a newly identified contextual variable, SRF, in affecting both PRQ and MRQ.
Acknowledgements
Data for this analysis were gathered under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2003-
12-1) to the first author. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of our interviewers,
Sarah Anderson, Joyce Buni, Connie Festo, Carol Genovese, Eleanor Jacobs, and Heidi La
Bash.
Notes on contributors
Rosalind Chait Barnett, PhD, is a Senior Scientist and Executive Director of the Community,
Families, and Work Program at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center.
Alone and with others, she has published over 100 articles, 36 chapters, and seven books on work family and gender issues.
Karen C. Gareis, PhD, is a Senior Research Associate and the Program Director of the
Community, Families, and Work Program at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research
Center, where she directs research on work family issues, including employed care-giving and alternative work schedules.
Robert T. Brennan, EdD, is a statistician at Harvard University, where he focuses on applications of multilevel modeling and structural equation modeling to a variety of public health problems. Since the early 1990s he has been instrumental in developing and expanding the application of multilevel modeling to the study of marital dyads.

Community, Work & Family 41
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