Work-Family Conflict Chinese Style

This thesis aimed to examine work-family conflict within China by conducting two studies. This thesis utilised 536 participants, 16 of whom participated in the semi-structured online interviews of Study 1 which explored the lived experience of work-family conflict in China. A further 520 participants participated in the online questionnaire in Study 2a and b (shared the same dataset), which developed an integrated work-family conflict model applicable in China, and secondly, from a gendered-life course perspective investigated the moderating and the interaction effects of age and gender on the developed model.

Creswell’s (2013) phenomenological method guided the collection and analysis of qualitative data in Study 1. In Study 2a, R software, specifically the Lavaan package, was employed for structural equation modelling to develop and test an integrative model of work-family conflict in a Chinese context. Study 2a has been published in Current Psychology (Chen et al. (2023). Developing and testing an integrative model of work-family conflict in a Chinese context. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04431-5). Lastly, in Study 2b, Hayes' PROCESS v4.0 was utilised to examine the moderation and interaction effects of age and gender on the relationships between work-family conflict and its associated variables.

The findings of the thesis identified the dynamics peculiar to Chinese employees in the experience of work-family conflict, which included the standpoint of Chinese people towards work-family conflict (e.g., just a lived experience or a minor problem in life – Study 1), the process and outcomes of work-family conflict (e.g., family support positively related to time spent on family responsibilities; behaviour-based antecedents of work-family conflict only predicted work-to-family conflict; positive relation between work-family conflict and life satisfaction – Study 2a), and evidence that the work-family conflict within China has become skewed towards adult males (males were more prone to the impact of the antecedents of work-family conflict – Study 2b). In addition, by cross-validating, the qualitative and quantitative findings, the potential reasons why work-family conflict is considered a minor problem in life were found (i.e., female employees could not escape from family responsibilities, thereby viewing work-family conflict as an unchanged “part of life”; male employees less likely to talk about work-family conflict due to the influence of traditional masculinity).

These findings highlighted the importance of further investigating work-family conflict under different cultural backgrounds, enriched the field of work-family conflict study by broadening our understanding of work-family conflict outside the overwhelming Western perspective, and set a reminder for future work-family conflict studies shall be cautious in the selecting of Western developed theories/models when conducting work-family conflict study outside the West, since Western theories/models may not be suitable in different cultural backgrounds. Additionally, the findings of the thesis provided greater insights for policymakers, employees, employers etc., who can modify their approach, acknowledge the changing societal needs, and help address the growing, changing, and challenging work-family conflict issues.