Playing Roles in Work and Family: Effects of Work/Family Conflicts on Job and Life Satisfaction Among Junior High School Teachers

The relationship between work-family conflict and job burnout among primary and secondary school teachers: the role of depression and cognitive reappraisal

Background

Primary and secondary school teachers are a high-risk group for job burnout, and how to alleviate their job burnout has become an increasingly urgent issue. Previous studies have paid less attention to the differential effects of the bidirectional interaction between work and family on the job burnout of the teachers. This study aim to explore the different impact of work-family conflict and family-work conflict on job burnout among primary and secondary school teachers, as well as its underlying mechanisms.

Methods

This study selected 2,184 primary and secondary school teachers in China (Mage = 37.26; SD = 9.40) as participants using a random sampling method. Using the SPSS Process 4.0 macro plugin constructed a moderated mediation model, the study explored the relationships between two different forms of work-family conflict, depression, cognitive reappraisal, and job burnout.

Results

The study results indicated that both forms of work-family conflict were significantly positively related to the job burnout, and this relationship was influenced by the mediating role of depression. Furthermore, cognitive reappraisal moderated the relationship between depression and job burnout.

Conclusion

This study revealed the potential pathways influencing job burnout among primary and secondary school teachers in the Chinese cultural context. Focusing on and alleviating work-family conflicts for primary and secondary school teachers is crucial for mitigating their occupational burnout. Additionally, teachers should also carefully and reasonably use cognitive reappraisal as an emotional regulation strategy to adjust the impact of depression on occupational burnout.

How work-family conflict affects knowledge workers' innovative behavior: a spillover-crossover-spillover model of dual-career couples

Purpose

Innovative behavior is a microfoundation of an organization’s innovation. Knowledge workers are the main creators of innovations. With the boundaries between work and family becoming increasingly ambiguous, the purpose of this study is to explore how the work–family conflict affects knowledge workers’ innovative behavior and when such a conflict arises.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the theoretical model, this study collected data from a time-lagged matched sample of 214 dual-career couples. The data were analyzed with the bias-corrected bootstrapping method.

Findings

The results of this study showed that work-to-family conflict had not only a direct negative effect on knowledge workers’ innovative behavior but also an indirect effect through spouses’ within-family emotional exhaustion and knowledge workers’ family-to-work conflict. If wives’ gender role perceptions are traditional, then the indirect serial mediating effect is weakened, but if such perceptions are egalitarian, then the mentioned effect is aggravated.

Practical implications

In terms of organizational implications, managers could alter their approach by reducing detrimental factors such as work–family conflict to improve knowledge workers’ innovative behavior. Emotional assistance programs for both knowledge workers and their spouses can be used to prevent the detrimental effect of work–family conflict on innovative behavior. As to social implications, placing dual-career couples into a community of likeminded individuals and promoting their agreement on gender role identity will greatly reduce the negative effects of work–family conflict.

Originality/value

Starting from the perspective of the behavior outcome of knowledge management, this study advances the existing knowledge management literature by enriching the antecedents of knowledge workers’ innovative behavior, illuminating a spillover–crossover–spillover effect of work–family conflict on knowledge workers’ innovative behavior and identifying the boundary condition of this transmission process.

The Effect of Work Stress on the Well-Being of Primary and Secondary School Teachers in China

Primary and secondary school teachers face increasing work stress, and more attention needs to be paid to their well-being. The present study was conducted to analyze the influence of work stress on the well-being of such teachers in China, and to explore the effects of family-work conflict and a self-transcendent meaning of life. A total of 562 primary and secondary school teachers completed questionnaires assessing work stress, family-work conflict, and a self-transcendent meaning of life (including grasping the meaning of failure and detachment from success or failure) as potential predictors of well-being. Work stress negatively predicted teachers' well-being; family-work conflict mediated this relationship and a self-transcendent meaning of life moderated it. The results of this study can be used as a reference for education departments seeking to intervene to prevent teachers from developing well-being problems from the perspective of a self-transcendent meaning of life.

Internal Structure of the Work-Family Conflict Questionnaire (WFCQ) in Teacher Teleworking

The interference between family and work roles has led to the development of scales for their measurement. However, instrumental studies of work-family conflict have not been conducted in the context of teacher teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, the objectives of this study were set to obtain evidence of the internal structure and fairness of the Blanch and Aluja Work-Family Conflict Questionnaire, as well as its association with job satisfaction and other sociodemographic variables. A total of 235 Peruvian school teachers between the ages of 24 and 72 years (M = 43.79 and SD = 9.67) responded to the scale using the online form. The analysis employed the non-parametric item response theory modeling (Mokken scaling analysis). The structure of two correlated factors was confirmed: work conflict in the family (WCF) and family conflict in the work (FCW). Both dimensions were invariant with respect to sex group and educational level. The association of both dimensions with job satisfaction was theoretically convergent, and the gender of the teachers slightly moderated this relationship. The reliability was adequate for group research. Finally, the instrument can be useful in the organizational context of teachers who telework.

The occupational anxiety of teachers caused by China's 'double reduction' policy-a study based on the grounded theory

Teachers' occupational anxiety is a kind of negative emotional state of teachers, which is prevalent in Chinese teachers. Unfortunately, in the existing research, teachers' occupational anxiety caused by China's 'double reduction' policy has not been paid attention to. Based on the grounded theory, this study conducted in-depth interviews with 45 in-service primary and junior high school teachers, and used NVivo 12 to process recording materials. Through a series of steps such as open coding, axial coding and selective coding, we found that the core feature of teachers' occupational anxiety caused by the 'double reduction' policy was that the implementation of the 'double reduction' policy was incomplete matching the actual educational ecology. Then we constructed a theoretical model of the formation mechanism of teachers' occupational anxiety caused by the 'double reduction' policy. The study showed that due to the influence of teachers' own personality characteristics and incomplete match between external factors, although teachers insisted on self-adjustment, it was difficult to fundamentally solve the teachers' occupational anxiety caused by the 'double reduction' policy.

"Ideal employees" and "good wives and mothers": Influence mechanism of bi-directional work-family conflict on job satisfaction of female university teachers in China

Work and family are two important areas in people's life, and the relationship between them will have an important impact on the attitudes and behaviors of employees in an organization. In the context of Chinese culture, the organization hopes to have an ideal employee, and the family hopes to have a good wife and mother. Based on the resource conservation theory, this paper examines the relationship between bi-directional work-family conflict and job burnout, perceived organizational support and job satisfaction by using latent variable path analysis method with 527 Chinese female university teachers as subjects. The results showed that: (1) Work-family conflict, family-work conflict and job burnout could negatively predict job satisfaction, while perceived organizational support could positively predict job satisfaction, (2) Job burnout played a partial mediating role in the process of work-family conflict and family-work conflict affecting job satisfaction, and the effect values were - 0.220 and - 0.168, and (3) Perceived organizational support played a moderating role in the first half of the mediating effect of "work-family conflict → job burnout → job satisfaction" and "family-work conflict → job burnout → job satisfaction," and the moderating mediating index was 0.015 and 0.010. The study contributes to a better understanding of the relationships among bi-directional work-family conflict, job burnout, perceived organizational support, and job satisfaction among female university teachers. Our findings highlight potential avenues for interventions by university administrators in the context of Chinese culture aimed at balancing work and family and improving job satisfaction among female university teachers.

To help others or not: A moderated mediation model of emotional dissonance

This article proposes a moderated mediation model of emotional dissonance. In the model, emotional leadership negatively affects emotional dissonance, which, in turn, negatively affects helping behavior. Furthermore, the negative effect of emotional dissonance is assumed to be moderated by work-family conflict. Direct effects from both emotional leadership and work-family conflict to helping other behavior are also considered. Previous studies have neglected the mechanism of emotional dissonance, but this paper fills the gap with a moderated mediation model of emotional dissonance. This article not only provides an incremental contribution to the emotional dissonance literature but also suggests means by which companies might enhance employe helping behaviors in order to achieve greater organizational efficiency.

Influence of Work-Family Conflict on Turnover Intention of Primary and Secondary School Teachers: Serial Mediating Role of Psychological Contract and Job Satisfaction

OBJECTIVE

Based on conservation of resource theory and social exchange theory, to explore how work-family conflict can directly and indirectly influence turnover intention, with psychological contract and job satisfaction as a mediator.

METHODS

A total of 505 valid data were collected on primary and secondary school teachers by using work-family conflict questionnaire, turnover intention questionnaire, psychological contract questionnaire and job satisfaction questionnaire from 3 provinces in China. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the discriminant validity and common method bias between the four variables through AOMS, the PROCESS macro for SPSS (Model 4 and Model 6) were applied to examine the mediating effect of psychological contract and job satisfaction.

RESULTS

Work-family conflict showed a direct and positive influence on turnover intention; psychological contract was shown to play a mediating role between work-family conflict and turnover intention; job satisfaction was shown to play a mediating role between work-family conflict and turnover intention; and psychological contract and job satisfaction was shown to play a serial mediating role between work-family conflict and turnover intention.

CONCLUSION

Work-family conflict of primary and secondary school teachers will directly lead to turnover intention. Psychological contract and job satisfaction can reduce the positive influence of work-family conflict on turnover intention. School administrators should help teachers reduce work-family conflict and take effective measures to improve psychological contract and job satisfaction, so as to reduce turnover intention.