Parental experience and distress: the protective role of self-care and employment flexibility on parenting practices in parents of adolescents

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify whether the coping strategy of active self-care, and the coping resource of employment flexibility were moderators of the relationships between parental distress and parenting practices, and parental experience and parenting practices, in parents of adolescents. Method: This research was part of a larger study conducted by the Parenting Research Centre who surveyed a representative sample of 2600 Victorian parents on their parental concerns, approaches, and experiences using computer-assisted telephone interviews. Results: Results demonstrated that employment flexibility and active self-care significantly moderated the relationship between a demanding parental experience and autonomy-supportive parent-child communication, and that active self-care moderated the relationship between the belief parenting comes naturally and negative parenting. It was concluded that both coping indicators had protective effects on parenting practices, through interacting with parental experience. Conclusions: Practical implications of this research include enhancement of parental interventions by lending evidence that both self-care and employment flexibility promote parent-child communication and protect against more aversive parenting behaviours.