The Influence of Household Size on the Experience of Work-Family Conflict

There is a growing need to examine the influence of household size on the experience of work-family conflict, considering the changing family structure worldwide due to the decrease in fertility and mortality rate, as well as most household size studies only recognising the spouses and the number of children. Using a sample of 618 Chinese participants and a structural equation modelling in R studio, we developed and tested a model that connects household size to work-family conflict via its unique antecedents. Our findings suggested that the effect of household size was more salient in family-to-work conflict and that household size was related to the experience of work-family conflict via the time-based antecedent of family-to-work conflict. Simultaneously, our findings suggested that household size was negatively related to family interpersonal conflict in China and that family-to-work guilt was related to family-to-work conflict. The implications and recommendations for future studies are discussed.