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The Role of Maternal Employment, Role-Altering Strategies, and Gender in College Students’ Expectations of Work–Family Conflict

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Abstract

We examined the relationship between maternal employment and college students’ expected work–family conflict as well as the relationship between expected conflict and the anticipated use of family-altering and career-altering strategies. Results indicated a positive relationship between the extensiveness of maternal employment and expected work–family conflict only for men. In addition, students who expected extensive work–family conflict anticipated delaying marriage, limiting the number of children they will have, and, in the case of men, intending not to have children. There was no relationship between expected work–family conflict and the anticipated use of career-altering strategies. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Radford University, P.O. Box 6954, Radford, VA, 24142, USA

    Christy H. Weer

  2. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jeffrey H. Greenhaus

  3. Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    S. Nihal Colakoglu

  4. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

    Sharon Foley

Authors
  1. Christy H. Weer
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  2. Jeffrey H. Greenhaus
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  3. S. Nihal Colakoglu
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  4. Sharon Foley
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Correspondence to Christy H. Weer.

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Weer, C.H., Greenhaus, J.H., Colakoglu, S.N. et al. The Role of Maternal Employment, Role-Altering Strategies, and Gender in College Students’ Expectations of Work–Family Conflict. Sex Roles 55, 535–544 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9107-y

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