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Work–Family Conflicts and Health Behaviors Among British, Finnish, and Japanese Employees

International Journal of Behavioral Medicine volume 17, pages 134–142 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Work–family conflicts are associated with poor health. However, work–family conflicts and health behaviors have been little studied.

Purpose

This study examined the associations of conflicts between paid work and family life with unhealthy behaviors among British, Finnish, and Japanese employees.

Method

Data were derived from postal questionnaire surveys among 40 to 60 years old employees from three cohorts, the British Whitehall II Study (n = 3,397), the Finnish Helsinki Health Study (n = 4,958), and the Japanese Civil Servants Study (n = 2,901). Outcomes were current smoking, heavy drinking, physical inactivity, and unhealthy food habits. Work–family conflicts were measured with eight items. Age, marital status, and occupational class were adjusted for in logistic regression analyses.

Results

Work–family conflicts had few and inconsistent associations with unhealthy behaviors in all three cohorts. In the Finnish cohort, strong work–family conflicts were associated with current smoking among men. Women with strong conflicts had more often unhealthy food habits and were more often heavy drinkers than women with weaker conflicts. Likewise, British women with strong work–family conflicts were more often heavy drinkers.

Conclusion

Although work–family conflicts were fairly prevalent in the examined cohorts, these conflicts had but few associations with the studied key health behaviors.

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Acknowledgments

MM is supported by an MRC Research Professorship. Funding organizations were not involved in the design, conduct, interpretation, and analysis of the study, nor in the review or approval of the manuscript. The Helsinki Health Study is supported by Academy of Finland (#1121748, #1129225) and the Finnish Work Environment Fund (#107187, #107281). The Whitehall II Study has been supported by grants from the Medical Research Council; British Heart Foundation; Health and Safety Executive; Department of Health; National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (HL36310), US, NIH: National Institute on Aging (AG13196), US, NIH; Agency for Health Care Policy Research (HS06516); and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Networks on Successful Midlife Development and Socioeconomic Status and Health. The Japanese Civil Servant Study has been supported by grants from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, the Occupational Health Promotion Foundation, the Univers Foundation (98.04.017), the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (03/2059), and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (2551). We thank all participating employees and all members of the Whitehall II Study, Helsinki Health Study, and Japanese Civil Servant Study groups.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 41, (Mannerheimintie 172), 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    T. Lallukka, E. Roos & E. Lahelma

  2. Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, London, UK

    T. Chandola, N. Cable & M. Marmot

  3. Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland

    E. Roos

  4. Department of Welfare Promotion and Epidemiology, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan

    M. Sekine, S. Kagamimori & T. Tatsuse

Authors
  1. T. Lallukka
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  2. T. Chandola
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  3. E. Roos
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  4. N. Cable
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  5. M. Sekine
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  6. S. Kagamimori
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  7. T. Tatsuse
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  8. M. Marmot
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  9. E. Lahelma
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Correspondence to T. Lallukka.

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Lallukka, T., Chandola, T., Roos, E. et al. Work–Family Conflicts and Health Behaviors Among British, Finnish, and Japanese Employees. Int.J. Behav. Med. 17, 134–142 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-009-9050-8

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Keywords

  • Smoking
  • Alcohol drinking
  • Physical inactivity
  • Food habits
  • Work–family conflicts
  • International