Staff View: Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children

Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children

Past studies reported that working parents with special needs children are understudied and experience more challenges. They sought ways to prioritise family over work and avoid long hours, but they received limited support that helped them cope with responsibilities. No doubt, various family-frien...

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Main Authors:	Sheilla Lim, Omar Lim, Ross Azura, Zahit, Ida Juliana, Hutasuhut, Surena, Sabil
Format:	Proceeding
Language:	English
Published:	2023
Subjects:	H Social Sciences (General)
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47397/1/IQRC%202023%20E-Program%20Book.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47397/ https://www.qramalaysia.org/conference
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id	my.unimas.ir-47397
record_format	eprints
spelling	my.unimas.ir-473972025-01-24T03:24:16Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47397/ Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children Sheilla Lim, Omar Lim Ross Azura, Zahit Ida Juliana, Hutasuhut Surena, Sabil H Social Sciences (General) Past studies reported that working parents with special needs children are understudied and experience more challenges. They sought ways to prioritise family over work and avoid long hours, but they received limited support that helped them cope with responsibilities. No doubt, various family-friendly policies such as childcare assistance and parental leave were aggressively introduced by organisations but may not suit them due to intense care and more long-term minding needed than other parents. The objectives of this study are to explore: (1) these parents’ perceptions of work-life balance experiences and the issues and challenges in navigating their daily hassles to ensure a feasible work and family, and (2) identify the various influences of parental gender role on raising children with special needs and the social convoy that best support them in their relationships with coworkers, families, and communities. In this descriptive qualitative study, thematic analysis was conducted on data collected during semistructured, face-to-face interviews. Twelve (12) working parents of children with special needs in Sarawak were recruited using purposive sampling. The findings from the study show how working parents juggle their commitments to their families, careers, and self-care, and how parental gender role and social convoy affect their work-life balance. The findings also demonstrate that this group struggles with a myriad of work and non-work obligations while caring for themselves, parental gender roles, and the exact social convoy that they identify with and receive help from. The findings help to deeply understand the actions they take to overcome obstacles and cope in challenging and difficult situations. From a practical perspective, this study propels researchers to disseminate a comprehensive framework to practitioners as a form of direction in developing and improving work-family practices, and policies, and forming company laws in government and private organisations. 2023-11-24 Proceeding PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47397/1/IQRC%202023%20E-Program%20Book.pdf Sheilla Lim, Omar Lim and Ross Azura, Zahit and Ida Juliana, Hutasuhut and Surena, Sabil (2023) Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children. In: 11th International Qualitative Research Conference (IQRC) 2023, 24-25 November 2023, DoubleTree by Hilton, Putrajaya Lakeside, Malaysia. https://www.qramalaysia.org/conference
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building	Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://ir.unimas.my/
language	English
topic	H Social Sciences (General)
spellingShingle	H Social Sciences (General) Sheilla Lim, Omar Lim Ross Azura, Zahit Ida Juliana, Hutasuhut Surena, Sabil Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children
description	Past studies reported that working parents with special needs children are understudied and experience more challenges. They sought ways to prioritise family over work and avoid long hours, but they received limited support that helped them cope with responsibilities. No doubt, various family-friendly policies such as childcare assistance and parental leave were aggressively introduced by organisations but may not suit them due to intense care and more long-term minding needed than other parents. The objectives of this study are to explore: (1) these parents’ perceptions of work-life balance experiences and the issues and challenges in navigating their daily hassles to ensure a feasible work and family, and (2) identify the various influences of parental gender role on raising children with special needs and the social convoy that best support them in their relationships with coworkers, families, and communities. In this descriptive qualitative study, thematic analysis was conducted on data collected during semistructured, face-to-face interviews. Twelve (12) working parents of children with special needs in Sarawak were recruited using purposive sampling. The findings from the study show how working parents juggle their commitments to their families, careers, and self-care, and how parental gender role and social convoy affect their work-life balance. The findings also demonstrate that this group struggles with a myriad of work and non-work obligations while caring for themselves, parental gender roles, and the exact social convoy that they identify with and receive help from. The findings help to deeply understand the actions they take to overcome obstacles and cope in challenging and difficult situations. From a practical perspective, this study propels researchers to disseminate a comprehensive framework to practitioners as a form of direction in developing and improving work-family practices, and policies, and forming company laws in government and private organisations.
format	Proceeding
author	Sheilla Lim, Omar Lim Ross Azura, Zahit Ida Juliana, Hutasuhut Surena, Sabil
author_facet	Sheilla Lim, Omar Lim Ross Azura, Zahit Ida Juliana, Hutasuhut Surena, Sabil
author_sort	Sheilla Lim, Omar Lim
title	Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children
title_short	Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children
title_full	Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children
title_fullStr	Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children
title_full_unstemmed	Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children
title_sort	balancing work and family life for parents with special needs children
publishDate	2023
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47397/1/IQRC%202023%20E-Program%20Book.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/47397/ https://www.qramalaysia.org/conference
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score	13.23648

Balancing Work and Family Life for Parents with Special Needs Children

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