Emotional Responses to Work-Family Conflict: An Examination of Gender Role Orientation Among Working Men and Women

Abstract

The present study tested the effect of work-family conflict on emotions and the moderating effects of gender role orientation. On the basis of a multilevel design, the authors found that family-interfering-with-work was positively related to guilt, and gender role orientation interacted with both types of conflict (work-interfering-with-family and family-interfering-with-work) to predict guilt. Specifically, in general, traditional individuals experienced more guilt from family-interfering-with-work, and egalitarian individuals experienced more guilt from work-interfering-with-family. Additionally, a higher level interaction indicated that traditional men tended to experience a stronger relationship between family-interfering-with-work and guilt than did egalitarian men or women of either gender role orientation. © 2008 American Psychological Association.