Date of Award

1-1-2009

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology

Program

Counseling Psychology

Content Description

1 online resource (viii, 93 pages) : PDF file, form

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

LaRae M Jome

Committee Members

Alex L Pieterse, Janine M Jurkowski

Keywords

Familism, Gender, Latino, Psychological Distress, Work-Family, Hispanic Americans, Work and family, Distress (Psychology), Gender in conflict management

Subject Categories

Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Psychiatric and Mental Health

Abstract

Conflicts between work and family domains have been found to negatively affect physical and psychological wellbeing. In studies with European Americans, the relationship between work-family conflict and psychological distress appears to be comparable across gender; however, research with Latinos has found that women experienced significantly more work-family conflict than men. The majority of the work-family literature has focused on work variables that contribute to or reduce work-family conflict and distress; thus, the beneficial aspects of family have been largely ignored. There is some evidence to suggest that a supportive family life could have positive effects on the work domain, thereby reducing work-family conflict. The present study extended the research on work-family conflict by investigating the function of a family-based cultural construct, familismo, in the work-family conflict-psychological distress relationship. The moderating effects of gender were also explored, with perceived adequacy of income and perceived support from family included as covariates. A sample of 225 U.S. Latino mothers and fathers who worked at least 30 hours a week and who had at least one child living in the home participated in this study. Results showed that neither familismo nor gender moderated the conflict-distress relationship as hypothesized; however, work-family conflict predicted psychological distress such that greater work-family conflict was related to greater psychological distress. There was some evidence for gender differences in that mothers reported higher rates of psychological distress than fathers. Even after accounting for family support and financial stress, difficulty balancing work and family domains was still related to psychological distress. Findings from this study are similar to previous studies on work-family conflict with predominantly European-American samples. With regard to future research, further exploration of the gender-distress link with Latinas and the mental health implications of culturally prescribed gender roles is warranted. Given that familismo was not a salient cultural construct for this sample, future research should explore other culturally relevant variables and consider including broader acculturation constructs in the study of work-family conflict in this population.

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