Work-Family Conflict among Employed Spouses: The Importance of the Compliance of Attitudes towards Marital Roles

Abstract

Scientists have been including variables of gender and attitudes towards marital roles as relevant variables in most recent research in the area of examining work-family conflict. There is also a growing emphasis on using a dyadic approach in research involving marital couples as respondents. The aim of this study was to establish whether gender differences in the work-to-family and family-to-work conflict exist and to determine the relationship between these conflicts and attitudes toward marital roles and the dyadic measure of difference between marital couples in these attitudes. There were 354 respondents (177 marital couples) from the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. They were divided based on their personal attitudes towards marital roles and the level of differences between them and their partners in these attitudes using a dyadic analysis approach. The results show no sign of gender differences in the level of both conflicts. Also, personal attitudes did not determine the differences in conflict, but the difference in attitudes between marital spouses did determine the levels of both conflicts. Those who were more similar to their spouses in their attitudes, perceived lower levels of both work-to- -family and family-to-work conflict.