Work-family conflict and enrichment and perceived health: Does type of family matter?

Abstract

The present study examined work-family conflict and enrichment and perceived health (stress symptoms, life satisfaction) according to the following family types: 1 = two-parent families with 1–2 children, 2 = two-parent families with 3 or more children, 3 = single-parent families with 1 or more children, 4 = childless co-habiting/married couples. We also studied whether work-family conflict and enrichment show direct and interaction (buffering) effects on perceived health, and whether these effects vary by family type. Empirically, the study was based on a heterogeneous sample of Finnish employees (N = 5097). The results showed that parents reported more family-to-work conflict, family-to-work enrichment and work-to-family enrichment compared to childless couples. Moreover, single parents scored lower in life satisfaction than the other groups and childless couples reported stress symptoms more often than parents. However, work-to-family conflict did not differ by family type. Work-family conflict and enrichment, in both directions, related to perceived health: high work-family conflict associated with poorer and high work-family enrichment with better perceived health. Family-to-work enrichment buffered against family-to-work conflict in relation to perceived health. However, this buffering effect did not vary by family type, nor did it occur in the work-to-family direction.

Keywords:

• work-family conflict
• work-family enrichment
• perceived health
• family types
• direct and moderator effects