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Work-To-Family Conflict and Life Satisfaction: the Moderating Role of Type of Employment

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Abstract

Work-to-family conflict has been consistently found to be one of the factors impacting workers’ life satisfaction. Prior research has also highlighted how type of employment (self-employed versus employee) impacts life satisfaction. No prior research, however, has examined how type of employment moderates the association between work-to-family conflict and life satisfaction. This study adds to the existing literature by examining whether the relationship between work-to-family conflict and life satisfaction is moderated by type of employment. Using data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 3204), the study finds that work-to-family conflict is negatively correlated with life satisfaction, and that this negative correlation is stronger for those who are self-employed. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by highlighting the moderating effect of type of employment, and therefore deepens the understanding of the relationship between work-to-family conflict and life satisfaction.

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Notes

  1. Spillover refers to “the transfer of mood, energy, and skills from one sphere to the other” (Grosswald 2015, p.32). Negative work-family spillover occurs “when strains and conflicts in one domain (work or family) negatively affect one’s mood and behavior in the other domain” (Roehling et al. 2005, p.841).

  2. Job control is defined as “having authority over job performance that allows the employee to decide how and when a job task is completed, as well as having the control over the use of the employee’s initiative and skills on the job” (Nordenmark et al. 2012, p. 2). Job demands refer to “factors that are related to time pressure, mental load and coordination responsibilities, such as work-hours, working at a short notice, job insecurity and being a supervisor” (Nordenmark et al. 2012, p. 2; Annink et al. 2016, p. 574).

  3. Specifically, results suggest higher job pressure associated with owning a business among small business owners and lower levels of job pressure among independent contractors (Prottas and Thompson 2006). Given these differences, future research can benefit from distinguishing between these two categories of self-employment. Another study by Binder and Coad (2013) found that only those who move from regular employment into self-employment experience an increase in life satisfaction (i.e., opportunity-driven self-employment) whereas those who move from unemployment to self-employment (i.e., necessity-driven self-employment) are not more satisfied than their counterparts who move from unemployment to regular employment. This suggests the need to distinguish between opportunity-driven and necessity-driven self-employment, as argued in some recent research (Annink et al. 2016).

  4. This might help explain why some research found that self-employed women experience a higher level of work-family balance (compared to traditionally employed women), whereas there was no difference in work-family balance between self-employed men and traditionally employed men (Nordenmark et al. 2012).

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  1. Department of Sociology, William Paterson University of New Jersey, 300 Pompton Road, 465 Raubinger Hall, Wayne, NJ, 07470, USA

    Deniz Yucel

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Yucel, D. Work-To-Family Conflict and Life Satisfaction: the Moderating Role of Type of Employment. Applied Research Quality Life 12, 577–591 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-016-9477-4

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