Socioeconomic inequalities in self-rated health: role of work-to-family conflict in married Korean working women

ABSTRACT

Little evidence exists on the role of work-to-family conflict (WFC) in explaining socioeconomic inequality in self-rated health (SRH). We examined the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and SRH and tested the mediating effect of WFC in the association between SES and SRH among married Korean working women. A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the 2014 Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Family. Participants were 3,226 women. Three SES indicators were used: income as measured by income-to-needs ratio; education categorized into college vs. noncollege education levels; and occupation classified by white vs. pink/blue-collar occupations. Lower levels of all the SES indicators were significantly associated with poor SRH and higher levels of WFC. The higher levels of WFC were also significantly associated with poor SRH. In the relation between SES and SRH, WFC showed a partial mediating effect for income (z = −4.13, p < .001) and full mediating effects for education (z = −3.79, p < .001) and occupation (z = −4.59, p < .001). WFC played a mediating role in explaining socioeconomic health inequality among married Korean working women. Workplace strategies focused on alleviating the WFC levels of socioeconomically disadvantaged married women may be crucial for improving their health status.

KEYWORDS:

• Work–life balance
• socioeconomic status
• well-being
• women’s health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. NRF-2014R1A2A1A11050974).