Multiple Roles, Role Conflict, and Sense of Meaning in Life Among Working Parents

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the contribution of multiple roles to explaining home–work conflict and sense of meaning in life (MIL) among a sample of 616 Israeli working parents. A distinction between three types of multiple roles was made on the basis of the extent of the participants’ role satisfaction, that is, satisfying roles (high role satisfaction), unsatisfying roles (low role satisfaction), and neutral roles (neutral role satisfaction). Satisfying roles contributed both directly and indirectly to the participants’ sense of MIL. Neutral roles contributed to intensifying role conflict and had an indirect impact on MIL. Moreover, the contribution of the number of unsatisfying roles to explaining the intensity of the participants’ role conflict and sense of MIL was insignificant. Men experienced more intense work–family conflict (work interfere with family and household responsibilities) than did women, but no gender differences were found for family–work conflict (family demands interfere with the work domain).