The relationship between work-family conflict and central life interests amongst single working mothers

Abstract

This study explored the experiences of work-family conflict amongst a group of twenty single working mothers with pre-school age children. Dubin’s (1992) theory of Central Life Interests was utilised to fully understand how the differential importance of the roles played by the women informed the level and nature of the conflict experienced. A two-phase research design was employed in which questionnaire responses from the first phase formed the basis for the second phase of in-depth qualitative interviews. Results indicated that participants viewed motherhood as their Central Life Interest and that this priority could lead them to experience greater conflict between work and family demands. Although work was rated second in importance when compared to family, it was still seen as being of great significance, not only for instrumental reasons, but also for the intellectual stimulation that it provided and opportunities to exercise independence and responsibility. Opsomming Die werk-en-familie konflik-ervarings van twintig werkende enkel-moeders met voorskoolse kinders is ondersoek in hierdie projek. Dubin (1992) se teorie van sentrale lewensbelangstellings is gebruik om te bepaal hoe die belangrikheid van die twee rolle die vlak en aard van die konflik bepaal het. Die navorsing is in twee fases gedoen: ‘n vraelys in die eerste fase, opgevolg deur in-diepte kwalitatiewe onderhoude. Resultate het gewys dat die deelnemers moederskap as hul sentrale lewensbelangstelling beskou het, en dat hierdie prioriteit kon lei tot groter konflik tussen die eise van werk en familie. Alhoewel werk as ondergeskik aan familie beoordeel is, was dit nogtans van groot belang. Aan die een kant was dit vir instrumentele redes, maar dit het ook intellektuele stimulasie verskaf en geleenthede gegee om onafhanklik en verantwoordelik op te tree.

Working mothers: Family-work conflict, job performance and family/work variables

“…Since the family role has traditionally been seen as the central one for women, research on working mothers has tended to focus on the impact of work on the family, as more women take on the worker role (Simon, Kummerling & Hasselhorn, 2004;Theunissen et al, 2003;Wallis & Price, 2003). Frye and Breaugh (2004) point out that this trend has resulted in a better understanding of the work-family conflict than the family-work conflict.…”

“…The negative impact on the coping resources of single women is even greater (Verbrugge, 1993). According to Census96, there were almost 3.5 million female-headed households in South Africa (reported by Wallis & Price, 2003). Marsden, Kalleberg and Cook (1993) cite the distinction made by Hakim (1991) between two types of working women -one oriented toward a homemaker career and the other focused on work as a central goal.…”

“…Many women attempt to balance both roles and several models have been proposed which offer further insight into ways in which work and family roles interact. Wallis and Price (2003) describe three theories that are used in the literature: a) Segmentation theory -work and family are seen as distinct domains in which individuals operate in terms of time, place, attitudes, feelings and behaviour. The basic assumption here is that since energy and time are limited, resources taken up in one role means that the other role is neglected.…”

Conflict between work and nonwork roles of employees in the mining industry: Prevalence and differences between demographic groups

“…There might be various reasons why workers from different demographic groups (gender, age, language, qualifications, marital and parental status) have different experiences of work-nonwork conflict (Baca Zinn, 1990;Desrochers, Andreassi & Thompson, 2002;Donald & Linington, 2008;Duxbury & Higgins, 2001;Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999;Grzywacz & Marks, 2000;Kreiner, 2006;Nasurdin & Hsia, 2008;Wallis & Prince, 2003). Some could be individual preferences, individual personal or traditional roles, personal goals, or personal home or household situations (Day & Chamberlain, 2006;Matthews & Power, 2002;Nikandrou et al, 2008;Schulteiss, 2006).…”

Work as a central life interest for legal professionals

“…It is usually considered to be of more importance than leisure and recreation, education and church related matters (Friedlander) and in several studies was found to be ranked second only to family (e.g. Snir & Harpaz, as cited in Vigoda; Wallis & Price, 2003).…”