Multiple Roles, Role Conflict, and Sense of Meaning in Life Among Working Parents
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the contribution of multiple roles to explaining home–work conflict and sense of meaning in life (MIL) among a sample of 616 Israeli working parents. A distinction between three types of multiple roles was made on the basis of the extent of the participants’ role satisfaction, that is, satisfying roles (high role satisfaction), unsatisfying roles (low role satisfaction), and neutral roles (neutral role satisfaction). Satisfying roles contributed both directly and indirectly to the participants’ sense of MIL. Neutral roles contributed to intensifying role conflict and had an indirect impact on MIL. Moreover, the contribution of the number of unsatisfying roles to explaining the intensity of the participants’ role conflict and sense of MIL was insignificant. Men experienced more intense work–family conflict (work interfere with family and household responsibilities) than did women, but no gender differences were found for family–work conflict (family demands interfere with the work domain).
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Biographies
Liat Kulik is an Associate Professor at Bar Ilan University School of Social Work. She has a BA degree in Psychology, an MA degree in Behavioral Sciences and Management, and a Ph.D. degree in Sociology. Over the past 20 years, Prof. Kulik has engaged in practical work, research, and teaching in different areas relating to workers in organizations and the influence of work on individuals and their families. She has also published numerous articles in scientific journals on topics such as spousal power relations, gender roles at work and at home, work-family conflict, and intergenerational transmission of gender role attitudes. She is co-editor of a book Working Families–Parents in the Labor Market in Israel: Social, Legal and Economic Perspectives, which recently appeared in Hebrew. She is currently involved in public projects for promoting volunteering in Israel.
Sagit Shilo-Levin is a lecturer at the Department of Management at Bar Ilan University. She has a BA degree in Psychology, an MA degree and a Ph.D. degree in Social and Organizational Psychology from Bar Ilan University. Over the past 19 years, Dr. Shilo-Levin has engaged in teaching several courses relating social and organizational psychology, and methodological courses. Most of her research is related to gender differences at different facets of life (mainly at school and work environments). In the last four years, she became a social activist, promoting educational initiatives.
Gabriel Liberman was first trained as a computer scientist and moved to psychology and education to pursue his PhD in which he examined the effect of alternative educational programs on child performance. Since the early 1980s, as a statistical consultant and support specialist, he has been involved in numerous projects from different fields and disciplines, such as linguistics, education, social work, and marketing across several countries. He is the Associate Editor of statistical analyses for the Journal of Culture and Education (Routledge). He spends much of his free time exploring the latest statistics and computer programs. His professional interests can be found at www.data-graph.com.
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Article first published online: November 26, 2014
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