Corporate Welfare and Parenting Self-Regulation as Protective Resources Against Stress and Quiet Quitting: A Moderated Mediation Model Across Mothers and Fathers

While parenthood is gratifying, it is also a significant life transition, filled with challenges and stressors that require ongoing psychological and behavioral adjustments. This study aims to: (1) verify the psychometric characteristics of the Perceived Corporate Welfare Scale (PCWS), and (2), in line with the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, investigate how corporate welfare and parenting self-regulation act as resources against perceived stress and quiet quitting. We further explored the mediating role of stress and the moderating effect of parenthood. A group of 788 Italian workers (43.5% non-parents; 29.6% moms; 26.9% dads) participated. The psychometric properties of the PCWS were tested using CFA. A moderated mediation model was estimated using Bootstrap methods (95% CI). The PCWS showed a robust one-factor structure with significant item loadings (>0.60) and satisfactory reliability (CR and AVE). Findings suggest that perceived corporate welfare and parenting self-regulation function as resources and are negatively associated with perceived stress. Perceived stress fully mediates the relationship between perceived corporate welfare and quiet quitting and partially mediates the relationship between parenting self-regulation and quiet quitting. Crucially, parenthood moderates this relationship: fathers' perceived stress has a stronger association with quiet quitting than mothers' does. Consequently, the indirect effects are also stronger for fathers. This study provides a validated tool for monitoring perceptions of corporate welfare. The results suggest that personalized interventions and an organizational culture that values parenthood are key to sustaining well-being and long-term employee engagement.