The development of a new measure for work-family research: Community resource fit

Abstract

We describe the development and validation of a quantitative measure of community resource fit; i.e., satisfaction with the extent to which community resources meet the needs of working families of school-aged children. The measure has good psychometric properties, and preliminary results suggest that the measure warrants further study. The measure is composed of six moderately intercorrelated subscales assessing resource fit in the areas of work, public transportation, school, school transportation, after-school programs and after-school transportation resources. We found interesting patterns of results linking community resource fit, especially in the areas of work and school resource fit, to a variety of quality-of-life and well-being outcomes among employed parents of school-aged children. These outcomes include work-to-family and family-to-work conflict and enhancement, psychological distress, job–role quality, likelihood of losing or leaving one's job and likelihood of leaving one's line of work.

Nous décrivons le développement et la validation d'une mesure quantitative qui traite des ressources de la communauté en fonction des disponibilités de ses services, considerant le degrés de la satisfaction des besoins des familles appartenant à la force de travail, ayant en charge des enfants scholarisés. Cette mesure a de bonnes propriétés psychométriques; les resultats préliminaires exigeant une étude plus approfondie. La mesure se compose des six paramètres suivants: (1) lieux de travail, (2) transports publics, (3) écoles, (4) transports d’élèves, (5) activités après les heures d’école, (6) transports pour les activités en question. Ces points existent en corrélation avec les ressources et les disponibilités de la communauté. Nous avons trouvé des modèles intéressants liés a ces ressources, spécialement dans le rapport travail et la disponibilité des écoles. Ils déterminent le bien-être et la qualité de vie pour les parents qui travaillent ayant en charge des enfants scholarisés. Ces résultats mettent en lumière les conflits: travail famille, détresse psychologique, acquisition de statut professionnel, danger de perdre son emploi, possibilité de le quitter, ou changement dans sa trajectoire professionnelle.

Keywords:

• community
• work–family
• school-aged children
• psychological distress
• job–role quality

Keywords:

• communauté
• travail famille
• enfants scholarisé
• détresse psychologique
• qualité du statut professionnel

Acknowledgements

Data for this analysis were gathered under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2003-12-1) to the second author. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of our interviewers, Sarah Anderson, Joyce Buni, Connie Festo, Carol Genovese, Eleanor Jacobs and Heidi La Bash.

Notes

1. Response scale ranged from 1 (completely dissatisfied) to 7 (completely satisfied); respondents could also answer ‘not applicable’ or ‘don't know’.

2. We suggest dropping items 26 and 27 in the interests of shortening the measure.

3. We suggest combining items 30 and 33, items 31 and 34, and items 32 and 35 into three items about the availability, scheduling and reliability of transportation ‘to and from after-school activities’ in the interests of shortening the measure.