Work and Family Conflict : A Comparison between American and Mexican Women

Although many believe that work and family conflict (WFC) is a social issue, its scope is ample due to its causes and consequences. In the organizational ground, WFC has been found to affect important outcomes such as job satisfaction, commitment, and turnover. Additionally, there is a need to validate the structures that have been proposed and assess their validity in other settings. This study proposed a model where both dimensions of work and family conflict - work interfering with family and family interfering with work - mediated the effect of four life roles (i.e. career, parent, marital, and homecare) in three organizational outcomes (satisfaction, turnover intention, and commitment). The findings in this study give support to the relationship between the parental role and family interfering with work for the Mexican sample. In addition, homecare role was found to be related with family interfering with work (FIW) conflict in the U.S. sample. I also found support in the relationship between work interfering with family (WIF) and both turnover intention and commitment. On the other hand, the relationship between FIW and job satisfaction as well as turnover intention was supported in the Mexican sample