Work-Family Centrality Profile and Its Moderating Role on the Effects of Work-Family Conflict

Abstract

This dissertation employs latent profile analysis to explore potential work-family centrality profiles and its associated antecedents, distal outcomes, as well as its interaction effect with work-family conflict in shaping match-domain outcomes. Stemmed from the identity theory (Stryker, 1968, 1980), work centrality and family centrality describe how central an individual places identities associated with work roles and family roles relatively to one’s overall identity, respectively. A person’s work-family centrality profiles is configured by one’s standings on work centrality and family centrality simultaneously. Two studies were conducted in this dissertation. Study 1 followed the three-step approach to latent profile analysis (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2013) to establish profile structure as well as to test the antecedents and distal outcomes of the identified profiles. Data collected from 1,680 working adults through Amazon Mechanical Turk revealed four distinct work-family centrality profiles: the unfocused profile, the moderate dual-focused profile, the moderate work-focused profile, and the high-family focused profile. Benevolence and achievement values were significant predictors of profile memberships. The four profiles also showed different levels of behaviors, attitudes, and mental health across work and family settings. Study 2 attempted to replicate the profile structure and to test a conceptual model where profiles interact with work-family conflict to predict match-domain outcomes. Target-specific psychological guilt was tested as a mediating mechanism that connects work-family conflict and its outcomes. Trait mindfulness was also examined as a potential moderator that buffer the negative effects of target-specific psychological guilt on mental wellbeing. The final sample included 168 employees. Two of the profiles from Study 1 were replicated. However, their interactions with work-family conflict were not significant. Work-to-family conflict predicted psychological guilt toward family, which predicted work withdrawal behaviors and mental wellbeing. Psychological guilt toward employer mediated the relationships between family-to-work conflict and its match-domain outcomes including family withdrawal behaviors, family satisfaction, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms. Trait mindfulness attenuated the negative effects of psychological guilt on depressive symptoms. Findings across the two studies provided insights on potential configurations of employees’ work centrality and family centrality, as well as the role of psychological guilt in the relationships of work-family conflict with its outcomes.