Relationships of work–family coping strategies with work–family conflict and enrichment: The roles of gender and parenting status

Abstract

This study investigated individual work–family coping strategies (WFCS). We focused on four types of coping efforts and behaviours that employees take up in order to balance their work and family life: (1) ‘Being super at work/home’, (2) ‘Being good enough at work/home’, (3) ‘Prioritizing at work/home’ and (4) ‘Delegating at work/home’. We examined the relationships between WFCS and work–family conflict and between WFCS and work–family enrichment. In addition, we investigated whether parenting status and gender relate to the use of WFCS and their potential moderator role in the linkage between WFCS and work–family conflict and enrichment. The study was based on a sample of Finnish health care and service employees (N = 2340). The results showed, first, that WFCS were related to work–family conflict and enrichment, but also that the relationships varied according to the type of WFCS and the outcome studied. For example, ‘Delegating’ and ‘Being super’ were related to higher enrichment, whereas ‘Prioritizing’ associated with higher conflict. Second, women prioritized more at home than men, whereas men prioritized more at work than women. Third, parents reported a higher use of delegation at work than non-parents. Fourth, a few relationships were moderated by parenting, for example, mothers and fathers benefited more from ‘Prioritizing at home’ in terms of higher work-to-family enrichment and ‘Good enough at work/home’ in terms of lower family-to-work conflict and higher work-to-family enrichment than non-parents.