Work-Family Conflict scale

Description

This measure, (Work-Family Conflict) developed by Kopelman, Greenhaus, and Connolly (1983), uses eight items to assess the extent of the inter role conflict that occurs be­ tween work and family roles (work-family conflict). Grantley and Cropanzano (1998) suggest that by reversing the wording of the items so that the stressor is family demands, the measure can also be used to describe the spillover of family responsibilities to work roles (family-work conflict).

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values for the eight-item measure of work-family conflict ranged from .78 to .90 (Adams et al., 1996; Goff, 1990; Grantley & Cropanzano, 1998; Thomas & Ganster, 1995; Wallace, 1999).

Validity

Work-family conflict correlated positively with job involvement, work role conflict, work role ambiguity, work time demands, family role conflict, and family time demands. It correlated negatively with social support from work and family, family satisfaction, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction (Adams et al., 1996; Carlson & Perrewe, 1999). When both the work-family conflict items and the items reworded to assess family-work conflict were examined in a factor analysis, two distinct factors were found with the items loading appropriately on the separate factors.

Source

Thomas, L. T., & Ganster, D. C. (1995). Impact of family-supportive work variables on work-family conflict and strain: A control perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(1), 6-15. Items were taken from the appendix, 15. Copyright © 1995 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

Items

Responses are obtained using a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree.

  1. My work schedule often conflicts with my family life.
  2. After work, I come home too tired to do some of the things I’d like to do.
  3. On the job, I have so much work that it takes away from my other interests
  4. My family dislikes how often I am preoccupied with my work while I’m at home
  5. Because my work is demanding at times I am irritable at home
  6. The demands of my job make it difficult to be relaxed all the time at home
  7. My work takes up time that I’d like to spend with my family
  8. My job makes it difficult to be the kind of spouse or parent that I’d like to be
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