Guilt on the go
Work-Family Conflict Among Long-Distance Commuter Fathers
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6424113 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Liat Sheffer (Bar-Ilan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-29 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Families Relationships and Societies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2046-7435 • E-ISSN: 2046-7443 |
| Publisher | Policy Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1332/20467435y2025d000000073 |
| OpenAlex | W4414686076 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
Existing research has indicated that working parents who experience guilt stemming from work-family conflict often engage in compensatory or corrective actions to address this tension. This study explores the nuanced ways in which working fathers manage such guilt, with a particular focus on long-distance commuter fathers, who may be especially prone to guilt due to their limited physical presence at home. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 31 white-collar, long-distance commuter Israeli fathers, the study shows how the growing prominence of therapeutic discourse in everyday life serves as a cultural tool through which these fathers make sense of, and often normalise, their feelings of guilt. Within this framework, three distinct behavioural strategies emerge: compensation, containment and rejection. Together, these strategies appear to reduce the perceived need for compensatory or corrective measures, enabling fathers to sustain a narrative of involved fatherhood despite their physical absence. In doing so, they align their paternal identity with the neoliberal ideal of career self-actualisation
Everyday life · Feeling · Focus (optics) · Ideal (ethics) · Identity (music) · Narrative · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Work-Family Balance Challenges · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
| Highly cited | No |
|---|