Luo Lu
Institute of Human Resource Management National Central University
Mao-Ting Hwang
Department of Psychology Fu-Jen Catholic University
Shu-Fang Kao
Department of Psychology National Taiwan University
The present study systematically examined antecedents (work demands, family demands), consequences (work satisfaction, family satisfaction, happiness), and moderators (independent self, interdependent self) of work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC). Structured questionnaires were used to survey full-time employees, and 220 were returned. Main findings are as follows: (1) Women reported higher family demands than men, but there were no differences in work demands between men and women. (2) Employees with younger children reported higher WFC and FWC. (3) Work demands in terms of working hours and workload were positively related to WFC. (4) Valuing work over family was positively related to WFC. (5) WFC was negatively related to work satisfaction, while FWC was negatively related family satisfaction. Both work satisfaction and family satisfaction were positively related to happiness. (6) Independent self buffered the adverse effect of work demands (workload) on WFC, but exacerbated the adverse effect of family demands (having young children) on FWC. On the other hand, interdependent self buffered the adverse effect of work demands (valuing work over family) on WFC.
Key words: work-family stress (WFS), work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), independent self, interdependent self, work demands, family demands, work satisfaction, family satisfaction, happiness