Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 5 · Licensed source edition
Workplace Resocialization After Parental Leave as a Site of Work/Life Paradox in Three Boundary-Setting Contexts
Originally published 2025-09-09 · Behavioral Sciences
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) · DOI 10.3390/bs15091224 ↗
Working-family evidence
Work, care and the whole person.
Explores identity, time and conversation boundaries during re-entry, giving parents’ own negotiation of professional identity a central place.
Directly examines work and family life, parenting, caregiving or employment policies for families.
Editorial reading guide · Independence
Can a returning parent decide how work and family identity fit together?
Explores identity, time and conversation boundaries during re-entry, giving parents’ own negotiation of professional identity a central place.
Study context
16 US employees describing their return after parental leave.
Age / stage: Adult working parents after leave.
Read with three questions
- How did identity, time and topic boundaries create tensions?
- What did the authors mean by control, resistance and paradoxical responses?
- Which organizational norms could be made explicit rather than left for a parent to negotiate alone?
Keep the limits in view
A small qualitative sample supports conceptual insight rather than population rates or proof that a boundary-setting strategy improves wellbeing.
The text below is the original article’s licensed repository edition. Its wording is not rewritten. Use the Paper Agent beside the text to locate evidence; open the source for figures, tables and complete context.
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Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Emily A. Godager; Sarah E. Riforgiate (2025). Workplace Resocialization After Parental Leave as a Site of Work/Life Paradox in Three Boundary-Setting Contexts Behavioral Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091224
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-05. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.