Modern societies have witnessed a prominent increase in dual-income households, with many women simultaneously undertaking career and motherhood. Despite their participation in paid work, working mothers are normatively expected to disproportionately shoulder childcare responsibilities, leading to heightened conflicts between their dual roles and compromised well-being outcomes. In this context, the present research examined the acceptance of mixed emotions as a psychological factor that improves working mothers’ work-life well-being outcomes by alleviating identity conflict. Study 1 employed a cross-sectional design to test the proposed mediation among full-time working mothers in China (Study 1a) and the United States (Study 1b). The findings revealed that personal and perceived social acceptance of mixed emotions were indirectly associated with positive work-life well-being outcomes through lower identity conflict across both cultures. Study 2 experimentally manipulated perceived social acceptance of mixed emotions (high vs. control vs. low) by presenting a mock newspaper article about Americans’ acceptance of mixed emotions to examine its causal relationship with identity conflict among full-time working mothers in the U.S. The manipulation indirectly influenced identity conflict by shaping perceptions of social acceptance of mixed emotions, providing causal evidence for the link between perceived social acceptance of mixed emotions and identity conflict, as well as its downstream effects on working mothers' work-life well-being.
