The purpose of this study was to examine the development of work and family plans in young adults, and to clarify the long-term stability, prevalence, and consequences of anticipated work-family conflict. The study utilizes Super’s model of career development and social cognitive career theory, as well as research on current work-family interface, as a framework for understanding the period of anticipating and planning for multiple role integration that occurs between adolescence and adulthood. A sample of 48 male and 52 female college students assessed two years prior completed self-report questionnaires measuring work, marriage, and parenting experience; anticipated work-family conflict; and multiple-role planning. Results of this study suggest that students desire both a career and a family, and recognize potential challenges of a multiple-role lifestyle. Such recognition of anticipated work-family conflict varies by conflict domains and measurement methods, but remains stable over two years. Results also suggest that anticipated work-family conflict does not mediate the relationship between experience and planning; instead, marriage experience predicts planning directly. Implications for the findings are discussed as are suggestions for directions of new research concerning anticipated work-family conflict and planning for multiple roles.

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experience of being in a romantic relationship with a couples therapist. Fourteen spouses participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive phenomenology and themes were identified through meaning units. A majority of spouses experienced ambiguity on whether aspects of their couple relationship were influenced by their therapist partner’s profession or their therapist partner’s personality. Aspects of the therapist partner’s career did spillover into the couple’s relationship, such as limited time spent together, finances, confidentiality, and their therapist partner’s relationship expertise. Spouses talked about the benefits of their therapist partner’s expertise to their couple relationship, such as their therapist partner’s advice and relational skills. At the same time that spouses wanted their therapist partner’s expertise to be present in the couple relationship, spouses also did not want their therapist partner to be their therapist. Nevertheless, spouses felt pride and protectiveness of their therapist partner’s profession. Spouses helped their therapist partner by supporting, listening, and encouraging their partner’s profession. Clinical implications and directions of future research were addressed. / Master of Science

Work and family are the most important spheres of human¡¦s life. These two spheres are not independent of each other. Work-family conflict arises when negative attitudes intrude into the other domain, or when experiences and intense involvement in one domain interfere with active participation in the other domain. It may cause absenteeism or turnover intentions. However, employees whose organizations provided work-family support report less work-to-family conflict. Telework is a common work-family supportive strategy. Teleworkers can periodic work out of the principal office, one or more days per week either at home, in a client¡¦s site, or in a teleworker center and aided by computer and telecommunication. Moreover, SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) is another popular work arrangement nowadays. Comparing with teleworkers, they are self-employed. Although combining work and family may help employees balance their work and family, the blurring of the boundary always make them feel even they are home they can¡¦t get away from work. The aim of this study is to gain an understanding of the work-family conflict, sex division of labor, job involvement and work-family conflict of these working-at-home employees. Below are the discoveries of this thesis: 1.The boundary between work and family is dynamic. When the life cycle of work and family changes the boundaries also changes. 2.Homeworkers did perceive work-family conflicts. Within six types of work-family conflicts, time-based work-to-family conflicts, strain-based work-to-family conflicts and strain-based family-to-work conflicts were the biggest problems for them. 3.The reasons why they choose working at home were work-related. Even women with children didn¡¦t work at home for family-related reasons. Moreover, almost all couples shared responsibility for housework. But working at home was not the only reason for the change of the sex division of labor. 4.Almost all homeworkers admitted that their job involvements were too high. The high job involvements might due to their work values, family values and family support.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990.

The purpose of this study was to explore working single mothers’ work-life balance in order to better understand how employers can assist them. Role theory, role conflict theory, and spillover theory were utilized to examine how working single mothers experience work-life balance and how they perceive it. In this study, the researcher sought to discover, analyze, and report work-life balance experiences of working single mothers through extended narrative accounts, which answer the following research questions: 1. In what ways do working single mothers strive to attain work-life balance? 2. What challenges do working single mothers encounter that affect their ability to obtain work-life balance? 3. How do working single mothers believe their employers’ policies, practices, and attitudes impact their ability to balance work and family responsibilities? Narrative inquiry was the best research approach for this study because it allowed the individuals to narrate their own stories. The methods of collecting data for this study consisted of a basic demographic questionnaire and in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The data analysis revealed four main themes and several subthemes highlighting the strategies, challenges, and employers’ contributions to the work-life balance of working single mothers.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Work and family are the central and salient domains in an individual's life. Juggling work and family life have always been a challenge for many employees and families (Hammer et al., 2005). However, with the increased interest in the construct of workfamily enrichment, more attention was given to the positive influences across the life domains. Grzywacz and Butler (2005) found that work-family enrichment improved mental and physical well-being. The objective of this study was twofold; (i) to explore and add to existing research done on work-family enrichment and (ii) investigate the relationships between workfamily enrichment, psychological health and subjective wellbeing of employees within a financial services organisation in South Africa. Three hundred and forty seven questionnaires were administered and one hundred and sixty eight completed questionnaires were returned. Purposive sampling was used to select employees to participate in the study. Data was collected by a self-developed biographical questionnaire, Calson, Kacmar, Wayne, and Grzywacz's (2006) Enrichment Scale, General Health Questionnaire developed by Kalliath, O'Driscoll and Brough (2004) and the Personal Wellbeing Index developed by the International Wellbeing Group (2006). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data and to interpret the descriptive and inferential statistics. Specifically the Pearson Moment Correlation analysis and the T-Test was used. The results indicated that a relationship between work-to-family enrichment and psychological health exist. There was a significant relationship for family-to-work enrichment and psychological health. Furthermore, results indicated a significant relationship between work-to-family enrichment and subjective wellbeing. A significant relationship between family-to-work enrichment and subjective wellbeing was also found. However, no significant differences were found for gender for both work-to-family and family-to-work enrichment. Future considerations, theoretical implications and recommendations for organisations are discussed.

This work represents one of the first detailed views on psychological aspects of work-family relationship in our country. I was interested in the relationships between various factors from work and family domains and the part they have in predicting work-family and family-work conflict. The aim of the reseach was to investigate direct relations of variables representing objective engagement of the individual in work and family areas. From the variables influencing the individual on the work side of the work-family interface we focused on work load, work hours, frequency of business trips and work status of the employee as antecedents of WFC. On the family side of the border we were interested in the influence of factors of primary childcare and household resposibilites, family work hours, number and age of children on FWC. Besides, we also focused on direct and mediation role of family-friendly organizational culture, family-friendly benefits used, work/family salience and sense of control over one's work on the relationship between objective role engagement variables and WF interference. We tested for differences between groups of individuals according to sex, partner and parental status and also how work, family, demographic and family-friendly org. culture variables relate to the forms of WFC....

This paper aims to explain how the interplay between formal and informal institutions affects the potentially gendered outcomes of political reforms. The case of the Chilean parental leave reform of 2011 is used as an example of a political reform addressing gender equality. Within the framework of historical institutionalism analysis of formal and informal institutions are made separately to proceed to merge the two and discuss how they interact with each other and affect the outcomes of the reform. The formal institution is studied by analyzing the construction of the reform itself and the informal institutions are studied by analyzing interviews with parents making use of this reform.                       The results of this research show that both formal and informal institutions follow a historical pattern of social norms placing the responsibility of childcare on mothers. Formal institutions seems to follow a certain path dependency in the way they are created and informal institutions affect and counteract the small possibilities to change given by the formal institution. Possible indications of critical junctures challenging this path dependency were however found and show a potential period of significant adjustment in informal institutions and the reform might be seen as an example of change.

This thesis is a comparative study of academic mothers in China and the UK. It takes as its point of departure the proposition that academic mothers can be successful in combining academic work and motherhood. Drawing on the sociological approach of separate spheres, it addresses issues concerning how motherhood is constructed by academic mothers in the two different countries and how academic mothers make commitments to both academic work and family responsibilities in different contexts. By comparing academic mothers' experiences of juggling work and family between different cohorts and different countries, the thesis examines the interrelated issues that academic mothers confront, such as competition and pressure in academic work, advantage of the flexibility of academic work, childcare facilities and social support in the two countries, the priorities between work and children, what is good mothering, etc. Academic mothers' own perceptions of their double roles as an academic as well as a mother suggest that these two worlds are closely related to each other in spite of dilemma and conflicts they have in combining the two. By manifesting academic mothers' achievements in and contributions to both the public and private spheres, the thesis concludes that mothers can be successful in an academic career.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between female counselors’ work-family conflict and their demographic (i.e., ethnicity, age, educational level, and annual household income), occupational (i.e., ethnicity, age, educational level, and annual household income), and family (i.e., marital/partner status; number of children at home under the age of 18; age of youngest child; care of elderly, ill, or disabled family members; source of support; and support) characteristics. Super’s (1990) Life-Space Life-Span theory provided a framework to understand female counselors’ engagement in multiple roles in work and family and the conflict that can result in two directions: work interfering with family (WIF), and family interfering with work (FIW) (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992). Female counselors were contacted through electronic email communication in which they received a link to access the online survey that totaled 51 questions. Female counselors from the state of Louisiana and Alabama participated in the survey for a sample size of 266. Pearson’s correlation indicated significant relationships for WIF and the following variables: (a) annual household income, (b) hours per week spent in employment, (c) counseling license, (d) workplace flexibility, (e) autonomy, (f) marital/partner status, and (g) source of support. For FIW, significant relationships were found for the following variables: (a) autonomy; (b) number of children at home under the age of 18; (c) age of the youngest child; (d) care of elderly, ill, or disabled family members; (e) hours per week spent in home chores and errands; and (f) support. Autonomy and hours per week spent in employment significantly predicted female counselors’ WIF scores. Autonomy; age of the youngest child; care of elderly, ill, or disabled family members; and support predicted female counselors’ FIW scores.