COMPANIES have long been aware that sick children have an impact on the professional lives of parents, who are obliged to take time off or work from home, which may then affect their efficiency. But is the converse also true? In a recent study, a team of researchers set out to assess the impact of parents' work-related stress on the health of their children.
The study, published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, suggests that parents who have a sense of control over their professional lives are less exposed to work stress and the children in their homes are less likely to be sick.
The study showed that this phenomenon was amplified by demanding jobs with very low levels of autonomy. As the study's co-author and Professor of Industrial Organisational Psychology at the University of Houston, Christiane Spitzmueller, explains, "If you can decide how you are going to do your job, rather than having that imposed on you, it is better for children".