ࡗ Implications of Overwork and Overload for the Quality of Men's Family RelationshipsThis study examined the implications of men's long work hours and role overload for the quality of their relationships with their wives and their firstborn (M ϭ 15 years) and secondborn adolescent offspring (M ϭ 12.5 years) in a sample of 190 dual-earner families. Holding constant men's occupational self-direction and level of education, long hours were related to less time spent with the wife but were unrelated to spouses' love, perspective-taking, or conflict; high levels of role overload consistently predicted less positive marital relationships. In contrast, the combination of long hours and high overload was consistently associated with less positive father-adolescent relationships, a pattern that was similar for older and younger adolescents and for sons and daughters.An important and unresolved issue in the literature on work and family is whether or not the sheer amount of time people work matters for the quality of their lives off the job. In the 1990s, several widely publicized monographs in the work and family area emphasized the long hours many Americans spend on the job and the potential negative repercussions of long work hours for workers themselves and for their families (Hochschild,

This study examined the implications of family time for firstborn and secondborn adolescent offspring, mothers, and fathers in 192 dual‐earner families, defining family time as time shared by the foursome in activities across 7 days. Data were gathered in daily telephone interviews. For firstborns, higher levels of family time at Time 1 predicted less involvement in risky behavior 2 years later, controlling for Time 1 risky behavior. Longitudinal analyses predicting depressive symptoms revealed family time X parent education interactions for firstborns, fathers, and mothers, suggesting that the implications of family time depended on social class. The pattern of results suggests that family time is protective when chosen by family members but not when it represents a default use of time.

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