單親家長工作與家庭平衡之研究─檢視正式與非正式支持系統之性別差異

Abstract

本研究旨在探討單親就業家長所面臨之工作與家庭平衡問題，並就性別觀點，針對男女單親家長所具有之正式與非正式支持系統差異進行檢視，以進一步探究影響支持其工作與家庭角色平衡之因素。本研究之方法，係以育有未滿18歲未成年子女之十一位單親就業家長為研究對象，包含五位男性與六位女性，採用深度訪談法進行質化資料分析。主要研究結果如下：\n\n一、工作與家庭平衡概況方面：無論男女單親家長均面臨較高的工作與家庭平衡困境，但女性單親家長因家庭角色影響工作角色之程度較男性單親為高，而男性單親家長因工作角色影響家庭角色之程度則較女性單親為高。\n\n二、工作與家庭平衡支持方面：非正式系統中，男性單親獲得工作與家庭角色平衡支持的程度較女性單親為高；正式系統中，男性單親在企業職場獲得較高工作角色支持，而女性單親則是在政府社會服務與結構性非正式系統中獲得較高的工作與家庭平衡支持。\n\n三、工作與家庭平衡能力之影響因素方面：托顧服務及請休假制度均有助於單親家長取得家庭角色之平衡，工作彈性化措施則有助於單親家長取得工作角色之平衡；此外，傳統父系社會觀念直接影響男女單親家長取得非正式系統對支持家庭角色平衡之性別差異，職業取向則間接影響男女單親家長取得企業職場支持工作角色平衡之性別差異。\n\n 最後，根據上述研究結果，本文參考歐美先進國家之友善單親相關政策與方案，嘗試對政府之社會與勞動部門、非營利之單親服務機構及企業組織，就政策面與實務面分別提出相關改善建議，以供未來研究政策規劃與執行之參考。\n\n\n關鍵詞：單親家長、工作與家庭平衡、友善家庭政策、社會支持系統、性別差異

The purpose of this study is to investigate the work and family balance challenges of employed single parents in Taiwan. From the gender perspective, this study also examines the differences between single fathers and single mothers in formal and informal support systems. Further, this thesis explores the impact of the factors which support the single parents to balance their work and family roles. Adopting in-depth interview, this study interviews employed single parents who raise children under 18, including five fathers and six mothers. The main findings of this research are as follows:\n\n1. Both single fathers and mothers face higher work-family balance difficulties, but single mothers’ family-work conflicts are higher than single fathers, while single fathers’ work-family conflicts are higher than single mothers.\n\n2. Single fathers have more informal support resources to the balance of work and family roles than single mothers, and also get more support on job than single mothers from companies. Instead, single mothers get more resources from government’s social services and structured informal system to balance work and family roles than single fathers.\n\n3. Family care service and leave program are both useful to help single parents to obtain the balances between work and family, and the measures of work flexibility are helpful for single parents to balance their job roles. In addition, under the informal systems, the patriarchal concept of traditional Chinese society affects gender differences directly in terms of single parents’ balance of family roles. On the other side, career orientation affects gender differences indirectly to obtain the balance of job roles in companies.\n\n According to the study, this thesis makes some suggestions on policy planning and implementation for government`s social and labor departments, nonprofit organizations as well as companies.\n\n\n\nKeywords: single parent, work and family balance, family-friendly policies, social support system, gender difference