Exploring the Association between Different Types of Social Support with Role Stress, Work–family Conflict, and Turnover Intent among Private Prison Staff

Abstract

ABSTRACTPrivate security personnel play an important role in protecting society, including personnel who work in private prisons. Staff are critical to ensure the private prison is operated in a safe, secure, and humane manner. This study, a survey of 160 staff members at a private prison located in a Midwestern state, examined the impact that support by management, coworkers, family, and supervisors has on role stress, work–family conflict, and turnover intent. Each of the four support measures was hypothesized to have negative associations on role stress, work–family conflict, and turnover intent. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis revealed that management and supervisor support was associated with reduced role stress, work–family conflict, and turnover intent; coworker support was related to lower role stress and turnover intent; and family support was not found to have a significant association with role stress, work–family conflict, nor turnover intent.