Experience Of Work-family Conflict Research Articles

A cross-national study of family-friendly policies, gender egalitarianism, and work-family conflict among working parents.

Social policies impinge on daily lives of individuals and affect how they negotiate work and family demands. To fill in the void in the international work-family literature regarding whether public family-friendly policies effectively decrease work-family conflict the present study examined multilevel effects of family-friendly policies, organizational type, and family characteristics on working parents' work-family conflict by gender using random samples of 6,878 individuals in 24 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Drawn on role stress theory, gender egalitarianism, and institutional theory this study showed that parental leave policies have greater influence on work-family conflict among men compared to women. Individual dimensions of parental leave policies on men's experience of work-family conflict impinged on workplace characteristics and family characteristics. Implementing parental leave policies with high flexibility and higher rates of income replacement may help men with working spouses or who are employed in the public sector to reduce bidirectional conflicts between work and family. Women generally were not protected by individual dimensions of parental leave policies. Instead, societal attitudes towards gender played a key role in helping women reduce bidirectional conflicts between work and family roles.

The influence of household size on the experience of work-family conflict

The influence of household size on the experience of work-family conflict

Parents' experiences of work-family conflict: Does it matter if coworkers have children?

Objective: To examine how the perception of work-family conflict relates to the share of parents in women's and men's direct coworking environments. Background: The idea of relational demography posits that individuals' relative positions within their coworking environments have an impact on their wellbeing. Depending on women's and men's parenthood status and the corresponding (dis-)similarity compared to their colleagues, this idea was applied to the perception of work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts. Method: Time-based and strain-based work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts were analyzed by gender and parenthood with random effects panel regression models using longitudinal data from the LEEP-B3-survey, a large-scale linked employer-employee survey from Germany (2012/2013 and 2014/2015; 2,228 women and 2,656 men). The composition of the respondents’ working groups was included as a moderating variable. Results: Mothers and fathers of children aged 0-11 years reported higher work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts than parents of older children and childless women and men. For mothers of children aged 0-11 years, a higher share of parents in their working groups was associated with less time-based family-to-work conflict. For fathers of children aged 0-11 years, the same associations were found for overall work-to-family conflict, strain-based work-to-family conflict as well as for all dimensions of family-to-work conflict. Conclusion: Similarity between the team members regarding parenthood seemed to reduce mothers' and fathers' perceptions of work-family conflict beyond several other characteristics of the individuals and the workplaces.

Gender and the Impact of the Transition to Work from Home

We examine the distinctiveness of female and male employees’ work-family conflict experiences as they transition to working from home (WFH) and how different experiences affect stress and job satisfaction divergently by surveying 264 employees who worked on-site before COVID-19 and were forced to transition to WFH due to the pandemic. Integrating boundary management theory, the COR theory and the job satisfaction literature, we tested gender differences in both WFC (work to family conflict) and FWC (family to work conflict) and the resulting effects on job satisfaction and stress after working from home. We find that both WFC and FWC decrease when employee worked from home, with WFC decreasing more. Besides, the surveyed employees report lower stress and higher job satisfaction when working from home. Female employees experience greater reduction in both WFC and FWC and more improvements in stress and job satisfaction than male employees. The changes in WFC and FWC after working from home have mediation effects on the relationship between gender and the changes in stress and job satisfaction. Our study provides a better understanding and prediction of the impact of working from home by focusing on exogenous transitions to WFH due to the pandemic, moving beyond self-selected samples in previous studies. Besides, our study contributes to the literatures on work-family interface and remote work by addressing the gender gap in the earlier research. Furthermore, our study has implications for organizational policies that alleviate the burden on employees, especially female employees.

Putting Families at the Center: the Role of Family System in Employee Work-Family Conflict and Voice Behavior.

Work-family conflict has become one of the most prominent challenges of modern-day work and a prominent research topic. However, the “family” in the work-family interface has been undertheorized, while research focuses on the workplace factors and individual characteristics in relation to work-family conflict (WFC). Placing the family at the center of theorizing, we adopt the Contextual Model of Family Stress (CMFS) as an overarching framework, which conceptualizes the family as a complex system comprising the family members, the environment in which they are situated, and their interactions with the environment and with one another. Guided by CMFS, we theorized WFC as a disturbance to the family’s structural and psychological contexts, which creates strain on the family well-being. Furthermore, we argued that family strain could produce strain and stress back to the focal workers, which reduces their voice behaviors at work. We further argue that workers’ work-family segmentation preference will shape their experience of WFC and moderate the indirect effect of WFC on employee voice behavior through family well-being. We collected data across two multi-wave, time-lagged surveys in America (M-Turk, N = 330) and in China (organization employees, N = 209). We found that employee-rated family well-being mediates the negative relationship between WFC and voice behavior, and the indirect relationship is stronger as the employees’ preference for segmentation is higher. The results open up a promising avenue for more nuanced inquiry into the family system framework and its role in the work-family interface.

Mindfulness buffers the deleterious effects of workaholism for work-family conflict

RationaleWorkaholism logically corresponds to the experience of work-family conflict (WFC) which is associated with a wide variety of negative employee outcomes. Finding ways to mitigate the occurrence of workaholism and/or lessen its deleterious effects on the work-family interface is practically important. Mindfulness research may hold some promise in this regard. ObjectiveWe explore the potential that mindfulness - through its association with accuracy and salience of present moment experience and disengagement from automatic thoughts and debilitating behavior - may buffer the effects of workaholic tendencies on the experience of WFC. MethodsWe use a two-study design (total n = 1022) to examine the role of dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness practice on the workaholism-WFC relationship. ResultsResults suggest that (1) trait mindfulness buffers the workaholism-WFC relationship (Study 1; n = 307), and that (2) mindfulness practice and mindfulness training similarly buffer this relationship (Study 2; n = 715). ConclusionMindfulness effectively serves as a buffer in the relationship between workaholism and WFC.

Work and Family Conflict Among Work from Home Employees during Covid-19 Pandemic

United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal No.3: Good Health and Wellbeing, ensures healthy lives through the promotion of well-being for all ages. Currently, the world is facing a global health crisis unlike any other due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Pandemic is escalating human suffering, destabilizing the global economy, and upending the lives of billions of people around the globe. Due to pandemic, work from home is the only option for most of the employees in the Education and IT sectors. Due to this unexpected change in their work and family life, conflicts arise and they struggle to balance their work and family life. In this context, this study has attempted to examine the experience of Work-Family Conflict and the Family-Work Conflict among employees who work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. An incidental sampling technique was utilized to collect the data using Google Form. Participants (N=223) responded to The Work and Family Conflict Scale (11 items), Wallach’s Organizational Culture Index (15 items), Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (12 items), scales. Results revealed that the work to family conflict factor had a negative relationship with social support and organizational culture as well as family to work conflict also had a negative association with the social support and organizational culture. organizational culture was positively related to social support. Regression analysis revealed that 28% of the variance in organizational culture and social support is influenced by work and family conflict. 31% of the demographic variables was influenced by work and family conflict.

Parental Perspectives of Work-Family Conflict and Guilt in Collegiate Athletic Trainers: A Descriptive Qualitative Design.

Work-family guilt has been reported among athletic trainers (ATs) working in the intercollegiate setting; however, it has yet to be fully explored from a descriptive, in-depth perspective. To better understand the experiences of work-family conflict and guilt of intercollegiate ATs who are parents. Descriptive qualitative study. Intercollegiate athletics. Twelve collegiate ATs (females = 6, males = 6) participated in the study. All 12 were married (12 ± 7 years) with an average 2 ± 1 children (range = 1-4). The ATs reported working 51 ± 9 hours per week and spending 11 ± 7 hours per week on household duties or chores. One-on-one interviews were conducted with all participants. An inductive descriptive coding process was used to analyze the data after saturation was met. Peer review and researcher triangulation were completed. Conflict and guilt were discussed as unavoidable given the equally demanding roles of AT and parent. The resulting guilt was bidirectional, as each role is equally important to the AT. The management theme was specifically defined by 3 subthemes: creating a separation between work and parenting roles, the benefits of having a supportive workplace, and the importance of having coworkers and supervisors with shared life experiences. The ATs experienced work-family conflict and feelings of guilt from their parental responsibilities. The guilt described by the ATs was bidirectional, as they placed high value on both their parenting and athletic training roles. Guilt was balanced and managed by reducing the spillover from the parental role into work or work into time at home. By separating roles and having supportive workplace environments, including coworkers and supervisors who had similar life experiences, ATs felt they were better able to meet work and home demands.

Effect of Job Demand and Support on Work-Family Conflict in Selected Banking Institutions in Ghana

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of job demand and job support on employees' work-family conflict. Of paramount interest was to verify whether work-family conflict differed among male and female employees in the banking sector of Ghana. Design/Methodology: This study used a descriptive survey design and a quantitative approach to collect data from banking institutions with the help of a standardized questionnaire. The independent sample t-test and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. Findings: The study results showed that job demand had a positive effect on work-family conflict while job support also had a negative effect on work-family conflict. The study also revealed no significant difference in the experience of work-family conflict among males and females in the banking sector of Ghana. Practical Implications: The study's findings indicate that for employees in the banking sector of Ghana to contribute their quota towards the competitiveness of their banks, there is the need for their work-family interface to be aligned appropriately through family-friendly policies, realistic job targets, and substantial work-resources.

COVID-19 and Work-Family Conflicts in Germany: Risks and Chances Across Gender and Parenthood.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected everyone’s daily life in one way or another, requiring a re-negotiation of existing strategies for work–life integration, not only for individuals but also within families and partnerships. To contribute to existing knowledge on work-life integration during COVID-19 in Germany, we look at gender and parenthood differences in the experiences of work-to-family (WFC) and family-to-work (FWC) conflicts. By accounting for employees’ previous conflict experiences, we were able to reveal the extent to which the current conditions contributed to differences in these conflicts. Moreover, we explored the relevance of demands and resources in the family and work spheres as a way to explain different levels of WFC and FWC across gender and parenthood. Our analyses are based on a sample of 660 employees from a German linked employer–employee panel study and a COVID-19 follow-up survey conducted in late 2020. Results revealed that work–family conflict experiences before the pandemic play an important role in current conflict perceptions. Whereas WFC were more likely to be accentuated during the pandemic, prior FWC experiences may have helped to mitigate conflicts under these new conditions. Work–family conflicts in general have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this finding applied only to conflicts in the family-to-work direction. Although such increases were not limited to parents, they were particularly high in this group. Overall, gender differences in work–family conflicts were absent, but differences were found between mothers and fathers. The need to compensate for a lack of external childcare, as well as having to work from home, increased FWC, especially among fathers. This study suggests that FWC in particular became more important during the pandemic; however, parents were not the only ones who were disadvantaged when it came to work–life integration; childless individuals likewise struggled to balance the demands of work and private life.

Experiences of Work-Family Conflict and Mental Health Symptoms by Gender Among Physician Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed increased strain on health care workers and disrupted childcare and schooling arrangements in unprecedented ways. As substantial gender inequalities existed in medicine before the pandemic, physician mothers may be at particular risk for adverse professional and psychological consequences. To assess gender differences in work-family factors and mental health among physician parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. This prospective cohort study included 276 US physicians enrolled in the Intern Health Study since their first year of residency training. Physicians who had participated in the primary study as interns during the 2007 to 2008 and 2008 to 2009 academic years and opted into a secondary longitudinal follow-up study were invited to complete an online survey in August 2018 and August 2020. Work-family experience included 3 single-item questions and the Work and Family Conflict Scale, and mental health symptoms included the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale. The primary outcomes were work-to-family and family-to-work conflict and depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms during August 2020. Depressive symptoms between 2018 (before the COVID-19 pandemic) and 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic) were compared by gender. Among 215 physician parents who completed the August 2020 survey, 114 (53.0%) were female and the weighted mean (SD) age was 40.1 (3.57) years. Among physician parents, women were more likely to be responsible for childcare or schooling (24.6% [95% CI, 19.0%-30.2%] vs 0.8% [95% CI, 0.01%-2.1%]; P < .001) and household tasks (31.4% [95% CI, 25.4%-37.4%] vs 7.2% [95% CI, 3.5%-10.9%]; P < .001) during the pandemic compared with men. Women were also more likely than men to work primarily from home (40.9% [95% CI, 35.1%-46.8%] vs 22.0% [95% CI, 17.2%-26.8%]; P < .001) and reduce their work hours (19.4% [95% CI, 14.7%-24.1%] vs 9.4% [95% CI, 6.0%-12.8%]; P = .007). Women experienced greater work-to-family conflict (β = 2.79; 95% CI, 1.00 to 4.59; P = .03), family-to-work conflict (β = 3.09; 95% CI, 1.18-4.99; P = .02), and depressive (β = 1.76; 95% CI, 0.56-2.95; P = .046) and anxiety (β = 2.87; 95% CI, 1.49-4.26; P < .001) symptoms compared with men. We observed a difference between women and men in depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic (mean [SD] PHQ-9 score: 5.05 [6.64] vs 3.52 [5.75]; P = .009) that was not present before the pandemic (mean [SD] PHQ-9 score: 3.69 [5.26] vs 3.60 [6.30]; P = .86). This study found significant gender disparities in work and family experiences and mental health symptoms among physician parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may translate to increased risk for suicide, medical errors, and lower quality of patient care for physician mothers. Institutional and public policy solutions are needed to mitigate the potential adverse consequences for women's careers and well-being.

Collegiate Athletic Trainers' Experiences With Work-Family Conflict and Work-Family Guilt Based Upon Organizational Factors.

The collegiate athletic setting has been described as having high workloads and working demands. The extensive time commitment required of athletic trainers working in this setting has been identified as a precursor to work-family conflict (WFC) and work-family guilt (WFG). Although individualized, experiences in the work-life interface can largely be affected by organizational factors (ie, elements specific to the workplace). Staff size and patient load may influence the athletic trainer's feelings of WFC and WFG, yet these factors have not been directly studied. To examine organizational factors and experiences of WFC and WFG among collegiate athletic trainers. Cross-sectional study. Collegiate setting. A total of 615 (females = 391, gender variant or nonconforming = 1, males = 222, preferred not to answer = 1) athletic trainers responded to an online survey. The average age of participants was 33 ± 9 years, and they were Board of Certification certified for 10 ± 8 years. A total of 352 participants (57.2%) worked in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, 99 in Division II (16.1%), and 164 in Division III (26.7%). Participants responded to demographic and workplace characteristic questions (organizational infrastructure, staff size, and number of varsity-level athletic teams). They completed WFC and WFG scales that have been previously validated and used in the athletic trainer population. Work-family conflict and WFG were universally experienced among our participants, with WFC scores predicting WFG scores. Participants reported more time-based conflict than strain- or behavior-based conflict. No differences in WFC and WFG scores were found among organizational infrastructures. Weak positive correlations were present between staff size and WFC scores and WFG scores. The number of athletic teams was not associated with WFC or WFG scores. Organizational factors are an important component of the work-life interface. From an organizational perspective, focusing on improving work-life balance for the athletic trainer can help mitigate experiences with WFC and WFG.

Physical activity buffers the effects of work-family conflict on work engagement through mastery recovery experience

Based on the Effort-Recovery model and the Job Demands-Resources model, this study investigated the moderated mediational process in which physical activity after work interacted with one type of work-family conflict, work-to-family conflict (work interference with family), to predict mastery recovery experience, which in turn explained work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption). Participants were 373 employees in South Korea who responded to an online survey twice with a two-day interval. Work-to-family conflict was measured on Tuesday, physical activity and mastery experience during Wednesday after work were retrospectively measured on Thursday, and three subtypes of work engagement were measured on Thursday. Our results indicated that physical activity after work moderated the relationship between work-to-family conflict and mastery experience such that the negative effect of work-to-family conflict on mastery experience was reduced in longer hours of physical activity. Furthermore, work-to-family conflict had conditional indirect effects on three subtypes of work engagement through mastery experience depending on the hours of physical activity, and the conditional indirect effect was strongest for vigor. These findings suggest that physical activity can promote recovery experience even in harsh conditions including the experience of work-family conflict, ultimately improving work engagement.

Keeping Work and Family Separate: A Serial Mediation Analysis of Social Workers’ Work–Family Segmentation, Work–Family Enrichment and Job Performance in Australia

AbstractWith increased blurring of boundaries between work and family lives, work–family segmentation has been suggested as an effective work–life strategy for social workers who are involved in complex human service work, to reduce work–family conflict and enhance work–family enrichment. Yet, numerous studies have examined social workers’ work–family conflict experiences, and only a few have focussed on social workers’ work–family enrichment experiences. Correspondingly, drawing on boundary theory, conservation of resources theory and work–family enrichment theory, we investigated how family-to-work enrichment and work-to-family enrichment help social workers to benefit from work–family segmentation to increase their job performance. Using an online survey of Australian social workers (n = 504), we tested the impact of work–family segmentation on the job performance of social workers through family-to-work-enrichment and work-to-family enrichment. The study found evidence for the positive impact of work–family segmentation in helping social workers to experience family-to-work enrichment and work-to-family enrichment, thereby enhancing their job performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for social workers, supervisors and the social service agencies are discussed.

Changes to the work-family interface during the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining predictors and implications using latent transition analysis.

Employees around the world have experienced sudden, significant changes in their work and family roles due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, applied psychologists have limited understanding of how employee experiences of work-family conflict and enrichment have been affected by this event and what organizations can do to ensure better employee functioning during such societal crises. Adopting a person-centered approach, we examine transitions in employees' work-family interfaces from before COVID-19 to after its onset. First, in Study 1, using latent profile analysis (N = 379; nonpandemic data), we identify profiles of bidirectional conflict and enrichment, including beneficial (low conflict and high enrichment), active (medium conflict and enrichment), and passive (low conflict and enrichment). In Study 2, with data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we replicate Study 1 profiles and explore whether employees transition between work-family profiles during the pandemic. Results suggest that although many remain in prepandemic profiles, positive (from active/passive to beneficial) and negative (from beneficial to active/passive) transitions occurred for a meaningful proportion of respondents. People were more likely to go through negative transitions if they had high segmentation preferences, engaged in emotion-focused coping, experienced higher technostress, and had less compassionate supervisors. In turn, negative transitions were associated with negative employee consequences during the pandemic (e.g., lower job satisfaction and job performance, and higher turnover intent). We discuss implications for future research and for managing during societal crises, both present and future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Australian parents' work-family conflict: accumulated effects on children's family environment and mental health.

Many parents struggle to balance their work and family responsibilities. Yet, little research in the field of social psychiatry has explored the emergence of work-family conflict (WFC) as an important social determinant of mental health, particularly for children. The current study used longitudinal Australian population-based data to investigate the impact of parents' accumulated experiences of work-family conflict on children's mental health. Levels of parent psychological distress, marital satisfaction and parenting irritability were examined as potential explanatory factors within the family environment. The study used five waves of data from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), a representative community sample of Australian children and their parents. Analyses were restricted to coupled, employed mothers (1903) and fathers (1584) who reported their WFC levels in all five waves. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to examine the association between accumulated experiences of work-family conflict across all time-points (AWFC) and children's mental health at wave 5. Family environment factors were assessed as possible explanatory mediators. There was a significant association between AWFC and children's mental health at wave 5. Parent psychological distress, marital satisfaction and parenting irritability were all found to significantly explain this association (accounting for 66% of the total effect). Children whose parents have ongoing or accumulated difficulties managing their work and family responsibilities are more likely to have poorer mental health. This has important implications for family-friendly work arrangements and demonstrates the need to further understand the intergenerational impacts of parents' jobs on their children's psychological wellbeing.

Broadening Work-Family Conflict Scholarship: Gig Workers' Sensemaking of Context-Grounded Pressures

Not all workers, navigating varying institutional contexts, experience work-family interface similar to a typical Western employee examined in the extant literature. In this qualitative study, drawing on institutional logics and sensemaking perspectives, we theorize the impact of institutional context on 64 App-based taxi drivers’ (ABTDs) work-family conflict (WFC) in a non-Western unconventional context. We contribute to work-family theory and practice by developing a process model that (a) identifies work and family pressures grounded in institutional context in which our participants navigated their work and family; (b) demonstrates how ABTDs make sense of context-grounded work and family pressures by interpreting them as first-order WFC and enacting them through the implementation of alleviating strategies at work or family; (c) conceptualizes first-order WFC defined as an incompatibility experienced when context-grounded pressures from one domain (e.g., work) constrain participation in the other domain (e.g., family), and (d) extends WFC to reflect how macro-level context can be manifested in workers’ WFC experiences.

Work-Family Conflict and Psychological Health Among Nurses: A Preliminary Observation

Nursing is a female-dominated profession and is commonly considered as a stressful and challenging job. The nature of the nurses’ work, which is highly demanding, brings about difficulties in balancing work and family life, further resulting in work-family conflict. Apart from workplace stressors, work-family conflict has been identified as one of the factors that can threaten nurses' psychological health. This literature review thus sought to identify the factors associated with nurses’ experience of work-family conflict and its consequences to their psychological health. Accordingly, this literature review found that nurses’ work characteristics, namely, shift work, job demand and individual factors, significantly influence work-family conflict, which may in turn affect their psychological health in several ways. Future research should focus on positive conditions or resource-based perspectives that can help nurses in reducing work-family conflict and enhancing their health and well-being.&#x0D;

The consequences of work-family conflict in families on the behavior of the child

The balancing act between work and family life can be a challenge that affects both the parents and other members of a family. This study investigates the effect of a parent’s experience of work-family conflict on the behavior of the child. Parental well-being and parenting act as mediators, as previous studies have suggested that this relationship does not run directly. Data from 969 children in the Pairfam database were analyzed using structural equation modelling. The results reveal that both directions of work-family conflict (WIF and FIW) have a negative impact on parental well-being, and only the specific negative spillover from family to work (FIW) influencing parenting performance. In addition, although good levels of well-being and adequate parenting have a positive influence on the behavior of children, the specific spillover effects from work responsibilities to the family (WIF) are apparently unrelated to parenting.

Immigrants’ experiences of work-family conflict in the U.S.: a systematic review

ABSTRACT This manuscript aims to synthesize what is known, and what is unknown, about immigrants’ experiences of work-family interaction, specifically the work-family conflict, in the U.S. A systematic review method was conducted using multiple electronic databases. After applying inclusion criteria, six studies were included. Immigrant workers across studies in this systematic review reported experiencing work-family conflict. Four categories of factors associated with immigrants’ work-family conflict were identified: (1) work-domain factors, (2) family-domain factors, (3) health outcomes, and (4) immigration, acculturation, and gender roles. In the work domain, job demands are positively associated with work-family conflict, while having job control and job support are negatively associated with work-family conflict. More domestic work demands and economic responsibilities in the family domain have contributed to work-family conflict, whereas having domestic support for childcare and housework helped mitigate work-family conflict. This review shows that work-family conflict has contributed to deteriorating physical and mental health outcomes among immigrants. Most importantly, this study reveals that immigration per se has uniquely shaped immigrants’ work-family interactions through the separation from family and community, the salience of employment, losing networks of social support, transitioning from collectivist cultures to an individualistic culture, and modified gender roles.