Spillover and Crossover of Work-to-Family Conflict and the Health Behaviors of Dual-Earner Parents with Young Children

Abstract

Scholars have identified an association between one's own work-family conflict and health. Yet the study of work-family intersections implicitly calls into question the roles played by multiple members in the family system. A contagion model is used to examine health behaviors and work-to-family conflict among dual-earner parents of young children—for whom role obligations are high and competing. Controlling for workplace characteristics, perceptions of both spouses' work-to-family conflict are considered. For mothers, their own work-to-family conflict was significantly and negatively associated with health behaviors until the perception of their spouse's work-to-family conflict was considered. For fathers, their own job pressure was negatively associated with health behaviors. Thus, it appears wives may be responding to what they perceive as the interference of husbands' work lives by reducing their own personal health behaviors, such as sleeping and taking time to relax, but fathers are not responding in kind.