Influence of Border-Keepers' Support on Work-Family Enrichment of Preschool Teachers in China: The Mediating Role of Work-Family Boundary Flexibility.

Qian Peng,Chongyan Lian,Limin Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.752836

Qian Peng, Chongyan Lian + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.752836

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Abstract

Based on work-family border theory and work-home resource theory (W-HR), this paper examines the impact of border keeper’s support (organizational support and family support) on work-family enrichment and whether or how work-family boundary flexibility mediates the relationship between border keeper’s support and work-family enrichment. A sample of 504 preschool teachers in Guangdong province, China completed questionnaires. The research results show a two-way process of work-family enrichment for preschool teachers in China. Organizational support was directly and significantly correlated with work-to-family enrichment (WFE), and family support was significantly and directly correlated with family-to-work enrichment (FWE). Organizational support had no significant positive predictive effect on work boundary flexibility which has a significant positive predictive effect on WFE. Family support had a significant positive predictive effect on family boundary flexibility which had a significant positive predictive effect on the FWE. In addition, the study found that family boundary flexibility mediates the relationships between family support and FWE whereas work boundary flexibility did not mediate the relationships between organizational support and WFE. The above research results are partly consistent with the existing research, and partly inconsistent, which is related to the profound influence of traditional culture in Chinese society and the current situation of preschool teachers in China. Such findings have important implications for improving the work-family enrichment of preschool teachers.

Highlights

Work-family border theory is a theory that explains how individuals manage and negotiate the work and family spheres and the borders between them in order to attain balance
In order to further improve the rigor of the research, two methods are used to test the common method bias: (1) With Harman single factor test (Podsakoff et al, 2003), exploratory factor analysis of all variables without rotation shows that there are nine factors whose eigenvalues are greater than 1, and the variance interpretation percentage of the first common factor is 22.09%, which is far less than the critical value of 40%. (2) A more accurate single common method factor control method was used to test the common method bias, and all the measured items were loaded with a common potential factor
The results show that the average score of organizational support is 3.49 (SD = 0.505), and the average score of family support is 3.92 (SD = 0.707), which is higher than the median value of 3, indicating that the organizational support and family support of preschool teachers are at a high level, and the strength of family support is higher than organizational support; The average score of work-to-family enrichment (WFE) was 3.21 (SD = 0.858), and the average score of family-to-work enrichment (FWE) was 3.851 (SD = 0.767), which was higher than the median value of 3, indicating that the work-family enrichment of preschool teachers was at a high level, and the level of FWE is higher than that of WFE

Summary

Introduction

Work-family border theory is a theory that explains how individuals manage and negotiate the work and family spheres and the borders between them in order to attain balance Central to this theory is the idea that work and family, constitute different domains which influence each other (Clark, 2000). Numerous constructs have been offered to reflect this positive side of the work-family interface (e.g., enhancement, positive spillover, enrichment, facilitation; Wayne, 2009), one of the most comprehensive frameworks offered to date is offered by Greenhaus and Powell (2006), who define work-family enrichment as the “extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life (namely performance and affect) in the other role” Support from “border keepers” is positively correlated with work-family enrichment (McNall et al, 2010, 2014; Bansal and Agarwal, 2020)

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