Work–Family Role Conflict and Well-Being Among Women and Men

Abstract

The main goal of the present study was to examine gender differences in the variables that explain the experience of role conflict and well-being among Jewish working mothers versus working fathers in Israel ( n = 611). The unique contribution of the study lies in its integrative approach to examining the experience of two types of role conflict: work interferes with family (WIF) and family interferes with work (FIW). The explanatory variables included sense of overload, perceived social support, and gender role ideology. The findings revealed that for women, both FIW and WIF conflict correlated negatively with well-being, whereas for men, a negative correlation with well-being was found only in the case of FIW conflict. Contrary to expectations, social support contributed more to mitigating negative affect among men than among women. On the whole, the findings highlight the changes that men have experienced in the work–family system.

Work‐life conflict and employee health: A review

“…Almost all the WLC studies that have investigated positive and negative affect over the past 5 years have employed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson et al, ). As affect can be both a state or a trait, some studies have investigated trait affect as a moderator (e.g., Cho & Allen, ) with others examining state affect as an outcome of WLC (e.g., Kulik, Shilo‐Levin, & Liberman, ). Cho and Allen () found that trait negative affectivity can strengthen the negative relationship between WFC and family dinner frequency.…”

“…For example, research has found that for women, WFC was associated with decreased levels of positive affect, and FWC was associated with increased levels of negative affect. For men, only FWC was associated with increased levels of negative affect and decreased levels of positive affect (Kulik et al, ). One explanation for why WFC did not correlate with either positive or negative affect for men could be that men give more priority to work, and as a consequence, they might expect and more readily accept WFC (Kulik et al, ).…”

Homeschooling during COVID-19: Gender Differences in Work–Family Conflict and Alcohol Use Behaviour among Romantic Couples

“…WFC arises when competing demands from work and family domains are mutually incompatible (Greenhaus and Beutell 1985) and can emerge when family interferes with work (FIW) and/or when work interferes with family (WIF) (Netemeyer et al 1996). Pre-pandemic research suggests that, consistent with traditional gender roles, women experience more FIW conflicts (Fu and Shaffer 2001;Keene and Quadagno 2004) while men experience more WIF conflicts (Fu and Shaffer 2001;Kulik et al 2016).…”

Parental Stress and Satisfaction in Parents With Pre-school and School Age Children

“…Interest in this issue emerged, largely, because of the implications of the growing incorporation of women into the labour market, and it has been focused on how work demands can hinder family life, increase childcare stress, and reduce life satisfaction at various levels (Kulik and Liberman, 2013;Kulik et al, 2015;Caro et al, 2017). However, attention has been drawn to the other possible direction of this relationship: the way in which the demands and conflicts of family life can affect, in turn, working life and, hence, increase stress and affect people's wellbeing (Moreno et al, 2009).…”

“…The initial focus on work-home and home-work conflicts in mothers has also expanded to consider how these conflicts can affect fathers (Pereira et al, 2017). This has been stimulated by the changes that have taken place in the ways of understanding and living parenthood, where the figure of the providing and distant father tends to be replaced by that of a father who is more present and involved in parenting (Kulik et al, 2015;Aguayo et al, 2016).…”