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Dual-Income Families in the New Millennium: Reconceptualizing Family Type

Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Sean Lyons

University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Christopher Higgins

Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

The problem and the solution. To assist employees in their pursuit of balance, human resource development practitioners must recognize that different family types face different challenges and require different approaches to promoting work—family balance. Early research in this area defined family type very simply: Both partners worked for pay outside the home or both partners had careers. Changes in the demographic profile of families and in the nature of work have rendered this typology obsolete. This article proposes a new, expanded conceptualization of family type that recognizes four family types: dual-career, dual-earner, new-traditional, and status-reversal.

Key Words: work—life conflict • family type • theory

Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 9, No. 4, 472-486 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1523422307305488


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