Work-family and family-work conflict and stress in times of COVID-19

Natasha Saman Elahi; Ghulam Abid; Francoise Contreras; Ignacio Aldeanueva Fernández

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.951149

Work-family and family-work conflict and stress in times of COVID-19

Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 11:13:951149. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.951149. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Natasha Saman Elahi¹, Ghulam Abid², Francoise Contreras³, Ignacio Aldeanueva Fernández⁴

Affiliations

¹ Superior College Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan.
² Department of Business Studies, Kinnaird College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan.
³ School of Management and Business, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia.
⁴ Department of Economics and Business Administration, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the spillover impact of work-family/family-work conflict and stress on five major industrial sectors (education, textile, hospitals, banks, and retail stores), during the first wave of Covid-19. The purpose of this cross-sectional study is twofold; firstly, to test a hypothesized model where work-family/family-work conflicts are related to stress and where stress could exert a mediating role in such relationships. Secondly, we seek to explore the presence of these conflicts and stress in each of the five major industrial sectors and evaluate if there are significant differences between them, identifying the sociodemographic characteristics associated. Two questionnaires were applied to 748 employees from the selected industries. According to our results, stress predicts both types of conflict and also exerts a mediator role. It was primarily found that the five sectors are significantly different regarding the work-family/family-work conflicts and stress. Findings and implications are discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; balance work-family; family–work conflict; spillover impact; stress; work–family conflict.