Work–Family Conflict in Dual-Earner Couples: Within-Individual and Crossover Effects of Work and Family

Abstract

Three hundred ninety-nine dual-earner couples participated in a field study examining the effects of work and family variables on work–family conflict. The effects of own (i.e., within-individual) and partners’ (crossover effects) work and family involvement, career salience, perceived flexibility of work schedule, and partners’ work–family conflict on individuals’ work–family conflict were examined. Results indicated significant relationships between the study variables and individuals’ work–family conflict, consistent with previous research. Furthermore, and of most interest to the present study, partners’ work–family conflict accounted for a significant amount of variance in both males’ and females’ work–family conflict. Post hoc exploratory analyses further revealed that crossover effects accounted for a significant amount of variance in work–family conflict over and above the within-individual effects, suggesting that future research on work–family conflict use the couple as the unit of analysis.