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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Implications of parents' work travel on youth adjustment
Lorey A Wheeler1, Anisa M Zvonkovic2, Andrea R Swenson2
1Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 160D Whittier Research Center, P.O. Box 830858, Lincoln, NE 68583-0858, USA, 402-472-6944, lorey@unl.edu.
Abstract:
Guided by ecological, work-family spillover and crossover frameworks, this study examined mechanisms linking parental work travel (i.e., nights per year) to youth adjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing behaviours) through youth's perceptions of parenting (i.e., knowledge, solicitation) with traveller and youth gender as moderators in a sample of 78 children in 44 two-parent families residing in the United States. The findings from multilevel analyses suggested that mothers' travel nights predicted lower levels of maternal knowledge, with variation by traveller and youth gender. Mothers' and fathers' work travel and perceived parenting were predictors of youth's externalizing behaviours, whereas only fathers' work travel and perceived parenting were predictors of youth's internalizing behaviours. Tests of indirect effects indicated that maternal work travel linked to youth's externalizing behaviours through youth's perceptions of maternal knowledge. These findings add to our limited understanding of work-family issues for parents who have the unique work demand of frequently travelling.
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