Work and family demands and life stress among Chinese employees: The mediating effect of work–family conflict

Abstract

As two primary domains of adult life, work and family are known to influence life stress among employees. However, because most research in this area has been conducted in the Western setting, very little is known as to whether demands in the work and family domains are two key sources of life stress among employees in developing countries as well. We investigated life stresses of 239 Chinese employees, based on the work–family interface perspective. We found that work and family demands cause life stress among Chinese employees. Contrary to our expectations, work demands appear to have a lesser impact on life stress than family demands, although the difference is not substantial. Furthermore, while the effect of family demands on life stress is fully mediated by work–family conflict, work demands affect life stress both directly and indirectly through work–family conflict.

Keywords:

• China
• work–family conflict
• family demands
• stress
• work demands

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Chao Chen, Anne Tsui and Heli Wang for their comments and suggestions on the earlier version of the study. This project was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China (DAG05/06.BM35) and a grant from Hong Kong RGC Competitive Earmarked Grants (HKUST 6151/02H).