Context: Work-life balance continues to be a focal point of athletic training research, particularly due to the job challenges and demands of healthcare providers. Despite a large body of literature, much is still unexplored, especially in the area of family role performance.
Objective: Examine the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC), family role performance (FRP) and various demographic variables among athletic trainers employed in the collegiate setting.
Design: Cross-sectional online survey.
Setting: Collegiate setting.
Patients or other participants: 586 collegiate athletic trainers (females=374, males=210, gender variant/non-conforming=1, preferred not to answer=1).
Main outcome measure(s): Data were collected through an online survey (Qualtrics) where participants responded to demographic questions and previously validated WFC and FRP scales. Demographic data were reported and analyzed for descriptives and frequencies. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to identify differences among groups.
Results: Participants mean scores were 28.19±6.01 and 45.86±11.55 for the FRP and WFC scales respectively. Mann Whitney-U tests revealed statistically different differences between men and women for WFC scores (U=344667, p=.021). Family role performance was moderately negatively correlated with WFC total score (rs[584] = -.497, p<.001) and predicted WFC scores (b=72.02, t582=-13.30, p=.001). Mann Whitney-U test demonstrated married athletic trainers (47.20±11.92) had statistically significantly higher WFC scores (U=19847.00, p=.003) than those who were not married (43.48±11.78). Mann Whitney U analysis (U=32096.00 p=.001) also found a significant difference between college athletic trainers with children (48.16±12.44) and those without children (44.68±10.90).
Conclusions: Collegiate athletic trainers experience more WFC with marriage and having children. These findings indicate that time required to raise a family and build relationships may cause WFC due to time incongruencies. Athletic trainers want to engage in their family roles, when this is limited WFC increases.
Keywords: family performance; parenthood; professional role; work-life interface.