The impact of balance‐focused attitudes on job stress: Gender differences evidenced in American and Chinese samples

Abstract

Based on gender role expectations model, we examined how balance-focused attitudes would affect job stress by influencing individuals' perceptions of family interference with work (FIW), and investigated whether a gender difference would exist in the relationships among balance-focused attitudes, FIW and job stress. Using two independent samples from the United States and China, we found support for the indirect influence of balance-focused attitudes on job stress, through FIW. Participants with balance-focused attitudes experienced lower levels of job stress as they perceived less interference from family to work. As expected, such indirect effect was more pronounce among male participants, meaning that the male participants benefited more from having balance-focused attitudes. Discussion, theoretical and practical implications are provided.

Influence Of Religiosity On Stress Resistance And Social Adaptation Of Teachers

“…Studies of factors affecting stress resistance and adaptability of an individual have been conducted for a long time. The influence of personality traits, gender, social status, belonging to a certain culture, social attitudes on the perception of stress and the quality of social adaptation (Deng et al, 2018;Hamamura & Mearns, 2019;Li et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2019). As for the influence of a person's religiosity on its ability to cope with stresses, there is conflicting information.…”

Relationships on the Job and Work-Related Stress within the Third Sector in Europe

“…Due to lack of time, frequently, employees who work a lot find difficult to conciliate work with family and this limitation, even if employees are intrinsically motivated, can be stressful. Indeed, the ability to conciliate work with family activities may become an important factor in reducing work-related stress (Karkoulian, Srour and Sinan, 2016;Li, Wu and Johson, 2016); this is particularly true for women (whose percentage in the third sector is high) who generally have to care for their children and who are likely to perform most of the house/family responsibilities (Makhija, Naidu and Rakesh, 2016;Mittal and Bhakar, 2018). Finding a suitable balance between work and family is not easy; when it becomes difficult to equipoise work with family commitments, this mismatch can become a source of stress (ILO, 2012;2016) and this is likely to happen to non-profit workers.…”

Work–family conflict, wellbeing and strain: Sex differences and children at home

“…Workers with young children rate more importantly family supportive programs at the job place, underlining the impact that the number of children exerts on WFC and particularly FIW, as suggested by the impact of balance‐focussed attitudes (Li et al, 2018). Moreover, childcare without organisational support at work contributes to increase FIW and overall WFC, which for females without proper support may represent a double work schedule and increasing the likelihood of quitting to raise their children (Kinnunen & Mauno, 1998; Michel et al, 2011).…”

“…For females, the link of childcare with a higher WFC has been attributed to their greater involvement in the family realm, and to their lower ability to relax after work (Kinnunen & Mauno, 1998). In any case, caregiver and worker roles remain more independent and amenable for males than for females, while being more interdependent and conflicting for females than for males (Li et al, 2018). One of the few studies explicitly addressing the impact of the number of children in WFC, reports that females with three or more children increase in a greater extent their total workload (paid and unpaid) when compared with males (Lundberg et al, 1994).…”