Work-Family Conflict and Working Conditions in Western Europe |
| |
Authors: | Duncan Gallie Helen Russell |
| |
Institution: | (1) Nuffield College, New Road, Oxford, OX1 1NF, UK;(2) The Economic and Social Research Institute, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland |
| |
Abstract: | This article explores the influence of working conditions on work-family conflict (WFC) among married/cohabiting employees
across seven European countries. Using data from the European Social Survey, the paper first investigates the role of working
conditions relative to household level characteristics in mediating work-family conflict at the individual level. It then
considers whether perceived conflict is lower in countries with coordinated production regimes and where social policy is
more supportive of combining paid work and care demands. For men the lowest rates of WFC occurred in Denmark, Sweden and Norway,
so for men there was a distinct ‘Nordic’ effect consistent with the welfare and production regime expectations. For women,
we find paradoxically that ‘raw’ levels of work-family conflict are particularly high in France, Denmark and Sweden where
supports for reconciling work and family life are high. Our models show that the high conflict among French women can be explained
by household composition factors and so is due to higher levels of family pressures. Higher levels of conflict among Danish
and Swedish women appear to be associated with their longer hours of work. Work conditions are found to play a larger role
than family characteristics in accounting for work-family conflict, both in the country level models and in the pooled models.
While this partly reflects our focus on the spillover of work into family life, it is notable that family characteristics
have little effect in mediating work pressures. The results suggest that a policy emphasis on improving work conditions is
likely to have major leverage in reducing work-family conflict.
|
| |
Keywords: | Family and work Work-life balance Work conditions European Social Survey Job pressure |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|