Factors related to Work-Family Conflicts of employees in small and medium-sized businesses

Abstract

Objectives This study elucidated the relationship between work and family conflicts of employees working in small and medium-sized businesses in Japan and its association with their lifestyle and working conditions.Methods A self-report questionnaire survey was conducted with 294 employees of four small and medium-sized businesses that agreed to participate in the study. The survey included items on demographics, working conditions, lifestyle, the Japanese version of the multidimensional Work-Family Conflict Scale (WFCS), and subjective health and stress. Based on the scores of both the subscales of the WFCS, Work Interference with Family (WIF), and Family Interference with Work (FIW), participants were divided into two groups (high and low score groups). Using these scores as dependent variables, a logistic regression analysis was performed to examine factors related to the WIF and FIW.Results Of the 227 collected responses, 185 responses with no missing values were determined as valid for the analysis. Participants were 146 men (78.9%) and 39 women (21.1%) with an average age of 43.6±11.2 years. The proportion of spouses and children was about 60%. The median values of WIF and FIW were 3.0 and 2.3, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in "average working hours per day," "ease of taking vacations," "skipping or not skipping meals," and others, between the two groups of WIF, and in "ease of taking vacations" and "subjective health" between the two groups of FIW. A significant difference was found in "subjective stress." Logistic regression analysis showed that the WIF was related to "skipping or not skipping meals," "subjective stress," "average working hours per day," "age," "subjective health," and "ease of taking vacations." FIW was related to "subjective health" only and different factors were extracted.Conclusions The results of this study suggest that an acceptable lifestyle and better workplace environment is essential to reduce the WIF. Thus, employees should work fewer hours and feel comfortable to take vacations. Additionally, it is necessary to deal with stress skillfully and improve mental and subjective health to reduce FIW.