Women, work & well-being: the interface between two domains of life

Abstract

Women's well-being in their work and family lives was examined using a longitudinal design. Previous studies examining interdomain spillover—the effect of conflicts and benefits arising in one domain of life affecting psychological well-being in an alternate domain—(O'Driscoll, 2000) have inappropriately measured integral constructs. In order to assess interdomain spillover, it is necessary to measure both job-family and family-job conflict and enhancement individually and to distinguish between psychological well-being in each of these life domains (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992). In addition, studies have neglected to compare women from different family situations (catering for marital and dependent status) in their experience of interdomain conflict and enhancement. Other studies have examined a specific group of women (e.g., solo mothers) and inappropriately generalised these results to all women. In the current study, female employees (N = 371) from 23 national organisations were surveyed twice with a three month time lag. The measures of interdomain conflict and enhancement used distinguished between the domain from which the conflict or enhancement arose (i.e., job-family and family-job). Job, family, and general psychological well-being were also examined using two validated measures: General Health Questionnaire (Banks et al., 1980) and Affective Well-being Measure (Warr, 1990). Mastery and social support for both work and family domains, as well as negative affectivity and coping were also measured. The effects of interdomain conflict and enhancement on psychological well-being were investigated. ANOVA analyses were performed to examine differences between demographic groups of respondents at both times. The women were categorised into one of four groups; single women (i.e. no partners or dependents), solo women/mothers (no partner, one or more dependents), women with partners (but no dependents), and family women (have both partners and dependents). The findings support previous research; women with dependents experienced more interdomain conflict (in both directions) compared to women without dependents, and that having a partner appeared to reduce the experience of interdomain conflict. There were no differences between the groups with regards to job-family benefits, however women with partners reported experiencing more family-work benefits than women without partners. Although there were some differences between the groups on family psychological well-being, these could not be directly mapped onto the differences in the experience of interdomain conflict and enhancement. Thus, it was concluded that a third variable was influencing psychological well-being. Differences observed between demographic groups on family mastery, suggest that mastery could be this third variable. The regression analyses did not provide support for the theory of interdomain spillover. Interdomain conflict and enhancement failed to predict psychological well-being after controlling for demographic (age, partner and dependent status, number of hours worked per week), dispositional (domain specific mastery, and general negative affectivity) and situational (social support) variables. However, additional analyses demonstrated the existence of a stress-strain relationship. Theoretical and practical applications are discussed and the strengths and limitations of the study are considered. This study demonstrates that dispositional variables must be accounted for in future research in this area. Most importantly, the presence of the current glass ceiling for women in the workplace is shown to be inappropriate, as it is based only on demographic factors.