The Dynamics and the Context of Working Parents' Emotional Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to reconstruct the emotional experiences of working parents facing the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, related to the blurring of temporal and spatial boundaries between professional work and private life. The authors argue that the work-family configuration is a crucial factor mediating the macro-social (global) crisis and the emotional condition of individuals. The theoretical framework of the present analyses includes the boundary theory and work-family border theory, enriched with selected assumptions of the sociological theories of emotions located on the border of the interactionist and cultural approaches. The paper's empirical basis involves the authors' research, including in-depth interviews with parents of at least one child under 12 years of age who worked profes-sionally at home due to the pandemic. The conclusions from the research make it possible to describe how the global processes result in the transformation of professional work and family life, leading to an emotional destabilization of individuals. Moreover, the authors take a stand in the discussion on the boundary theory, describing the relations between professional work and private life in light of an increasing complexity, fluidity, and uncertainty of contemporary connections between them. © by the author, licensee University of Lodz, Poland.