Telework has been promoted for decades as one of the traffic demand management policies to alleviate congestion during peak periods and reduce work-related trips, along with other benefits. However, less clear is the role played by life stages (i.e., gender, marital status and parenthood) on telework behavior. This study investigated to which extent telework frequency associated with life stages, and how these associations could be explained based on the work-life conflict perspective. Representative data were obtained from German Microcensus 2010 (N = 188,081 participants). The outcome variable was measured as ordered telework participation levels (i.e., never, infrequently and frequently). After testing for multicollinearity, a zero-inflated ordered probit regression model was applied to assess the associations between telework and family-life stages, while adjusting for individual, household, job-related and environmental characteristics. Results suggest that life stages associate with telework behavior in a complex way. Three patterns have been distinguished. Specifically, irrespective of gender and marital status, parents are less likely to telework compared to those without children. Regarding individuals without children, single individuals are more likely to telework than married ones, and males more likely than females. In contrast, for individuals with children, the partnered parents are more likely to telework than single parents, and females more likely than males. Our findings suggest that as the most important feature in family-life stages, children play a vital role in telework behavior. It not only increases both work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict, but also triggers housework re-division within couples and aggravates gender differences. Policies that support formal childcare resources could relieve the family-to-work conflict and encourage people to work at home.

远程办公已经作为交通需求管理策略之一得到了发展，以减轻高峰期的拥堵并减少与工作有关的旅行，并带来其他好处。然而，尚不清楚生命阶段（即性别，婚姻状况和父母身份）对远程办公行为的作用。这项研究调查了远程工作频率与生活阶段相关的程度，以及如何根据工作与生活冲突的角度来解释这些关联。代表性数据来自2010年德国微量普查（N = 188,081参与者）。结果变量以有序的远程工作参与水平（即从不，不频繁和频繁）进行衡量。在测试多重共线性之后，应用零膨胀有序概率回归模型评估远程办公和家庭生活阶段之间的关联，同时针对个人，家庭，与工作相关的环境特征进行调整。结果表明，生命阶段以复杂的方式与远程办公行为相关联。区分了三种模式。具体来说，无论性别和婚姻状况如何，与没有孩子的父母相比，父母进行远程工作的可能性较小。对于没有孩子的人，单身人士比已婚者更有可能从事远程工作，而男性比女性更有可能从事远程工作。相反，对于有孩子的个人，伴侣父母比单亲父母更容易进行远程办公，而女性比男性更容易进行远程办公。我们的发现表明，作为家庭生活阶段最重要的特征，儿童在远程办公行为中起着至关重要的作用。它不仅增加了家庭与家庭之间的冲突，也增加了家庭与工作之间的冲突，而且引发了夫妻内部家务劳动的重新划分，加剧了性别差异。支持正式托儿资源的政策可以缓解家庭与工作之间的冲突，并鼓励人们在家工作。