Work-family conflict in a comparative context: immigrant and native workers in the U.S.

ABSTRACT

An increasing number of immigrants from the diverse cultural background are residing and working in the United States. Job demands-resources and socio-demographic characteristics have been associated with work-family conflict (WFC) among native workers; however, limited research has examined these associations among immigrant workers. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between job demands-resources, and WFC among immigrant and native workers in the U.S. Data from the National Study of the Changing Workforce was used in this research. This is nationally representative data of wage and salaried workers in the United States. Step-wise multiple regression via backward elimination was used to determine the predictors that made a significant contribution to dependent variables. Results indicate that some of the factors predicting WFC among immigrant and native workers are dissimilar. These results have implications for practitioners working with the immigrant population and also for WFC policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant workers
• time-based work-family conflict
• strain-based work-family conflict
• job demands-resources

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The term “native workers” in this research refers to workers who are not immigrants and are U.S. born workers.