Our research has empirically supported the long-term manifestation of the resource depletion, accumulation, and investment mechanisms which have been proposed in the conservation of resources (COR) theory but have been under-investigated in the work–life balance (WLB) literature. Specifically, we have examined how multiple work and non-work contextual demands and resources impact working mothers' WLB satisfaction and job retention via changes in their personal resources of childcare time and family finances through these three mechanisms. The use of multilevel analysis and a longitudinal design has enabled us to evaluate the effectiveness of contextual resources for WLB in consideration of both their short-term influence as transient resources via within-individual fluctuations and their long-term impact as durable resources via between-individual differences. We have tested a total of 27 hypotheses on a nationally representative British sample of 10,983 working mothers who participated in a longitudinal study over 6 years of their children's primary education. By highlighting the critical role of both childcare time and family finances in promoting working mothers' WLB satisfaction and job retention over time, our research contributes to the WLB literature that has predominantly emphasized time-based but neglected financial-based constraints and resources. We have found that working mothers may trade their childcare time for better family finances when they undertake a managerial role. Thus, becoming a manager serves as both a time-based demand and a financial-based resource for working mothers, which points to the specific rather than generic nature of contextual demands and resources.

我们的研究在经验上支持资源枯竭、积累和投资机制的长期表现，这些机制已在资源保护(COR)理论中提出，但在工作与生活平衡 (WLB) 文献中并未得到充分研究。具体而言，我们通过这三种机制研究了多种工作和非工作环境需求和资源如何通过改变育儿时间和家庭财务等个人资源来影响在职母亲的 WLB 满意度和工作保留率。多层次分析和纵向设计的使用使我们能够评估上下文资源对 WLB 的有效性，同时考虑到通过内个体波动的短期影响是短暂的资源和通过个体间差异的长期影响，因为耐久资源。我们在一个具有全国代表性的英国样本中测试了总共 27 个假设，这些样本包括 10,983 名在职母亲，这些母亲参与了子女 6 年小学教育的纵向研究。通过突出的关键作用，既保育时间和随着时间的推移，家庭财务在促进职业母亲的 WLB 满意度和工作保留方面，我们的研究有助于 WLB 文献，这些文献主要强调基于时间但忽略了基于财务的约束和资源。我们发现，职业母亲在担任管理职务时可能会用育儿时间来换取更好的家庭财务状况。因此，成为一名经理对于职业母亲来说既是基于时间的需求，也是基于财务的资源，这表明情境需求和资源具有特定而非一般的性质。