Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Works? What Doesn't?

5.0 Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Can Families Do?

Although much of the literature concerning coping has focused on individuals' attempts to cope with stressors, research attention has also been devoted to the ways in which people cope as a family unit. Since families comprise individuals with their own unique stressors, who also share common stressors, the coping responses used by individuals within a family unit are inextricably linked (Guinta & Compas, 1993). It is therefore essential to simultaneously consider coping behaviours at the individual and the family level.

The notion of family coping stems from the field of family stress research, which examines the ways in which families adjust to stressors and strains in their environment by employing the shared resources of family members and the broader community (McCubbin & McCubbin, 1987). Family coping differs from individual coping, as it goes beyond the individual psychological response to stress to examine the roles of three units of analysis: (1) the individual family member, (2) the family unit, and (3) the community of which family members and the family unit are a part (McCubbin & Patterson, 1983). Each of these units places demands on family members, but also provides various supports and resources that can be employed as the family members generate an integrated response to stressful situations. In other words, family members can pool their resources and provide mutual support in coping with stress, rather than leaving the individual to cope alone.

McCubbin (1979) was the first to specifically discuss family coping as the active process of making use of the resources available within and outside of the family to prevent stress and minimize the impacts of stress on the family. McCubbin (1979) argued that successful family adaptation to stressful circumstances requires internal family resources such as integration (i.e. family cohesiveness) and adaptability (i.e. the ability to change family roles as the situation requires) as well as the development of a range of coping strategies or behaviours.⁴⁴ In general, such behaviours are aimed at strengthening the internal organization and functioning of the family, at obtaining support from the community and society, and at diverting, reducing or eliminating sources of stress.

A number of researchers have sought to enumerate the various strategies that families employ in coping with stress. Perhaps the most comprehensive review of family coping strategies is that of Burr and Klein (1994), who compiled a list of coping behaviours and grouped them into seven categories. These categories, along with the coping behaviours followed by families that use the strategy are presented below:

• Cognitive: accept the situation and others, gain useful knowledge, change how the situation is viewed or defined (reframe the situation).
• Emotional: express feelings and affection, avoid or resolve negative feelings and disabling expressions of emotion, be sensitive to others' emotional needs.
• Relationships: increase cohesion (togetherness), increase adaptability, develop increased trust, increase cooperation, increase tolerance of each other.
• Communication: be open and honest, listen to each other, be sensitive to non-verbal communication.
• Community: seek help and support from others, fulfill expectations in organizations.
• Spiritual: be more involved in religious activities, increase faith or seek help from God.
• Individual development: develop autonomy, independence and self-sufficiency, keep active in hobbies.

Building on Hall's (1972) work on individual coping with work-family conflict, Wiersma (1994) examined coping behaviours specifically related to work-home role conflicts in dual-career families and classified the coping strategies according to the specific problem they were used to address. Based on the literature concerning dual-career couples, Wiersma (1994) identified seven dilemmas that affect dual-career couples; three related to role overload (i.e. division of domestic chores, maintaining relationships with friends and role cycling), three related to psychological role quality (i.e. sex role socialization, competition between spouses and social pressure from others), and one related to employment mobility. Wiersma (1994) then conducted an interview study to determine what types of coping strategies are used to address each of these seven dilemmas. Wiersma's (1994) coping study was unique in that it focused specifically on the stressors affecting dual-career couples and sought to identify the coping behaviours they employed to deal with these stressors.

While there have been numerous attempts to identify the coping strategies employed by dual-income families (e.g. Bird & Bird, 1986; Bird, Bird & Scruggs, 1983; Schnittger & Bird, 1990), there has been much less research concerning the effectiveness of various coping strategies in dealing with work-family conflict. The research that has been undertaken has shown that the most effective types of coping strategies for dual-career families involve active coping (i.e. problem-focused coping) that involves the support of others, and cognitive restructuring, a form of emotion-based coping that involves reframing stressful situations to view them in a more positive light (Amatea & Fong-Beyette, 1987; Elman & Gilbert, 1984; Guelzow, Bird & Koball, 1991). Padon and Buehler (1995) found that planning and cognitive restructuring buffered the impacts of role overload on emotional well-being for women, and withdrawal coping buffered the impact of role overload on physical symptoms for men. Furthermore, they found that cognitive restructuring buffered the impact of role conflict on physical symptoms for men and emotional well-being for women.

However, some coping strategies appear to have a detrimental effect on emotional and physical well-being. Guinta and Compas (1993) found that in families where husbands and wives coped with stress through avoidance (i.e. ignoring or postponing problems in the hopes that they will work themselves out), both husband and wife showed increased symptoms of emotional and physical distress. Furthermore, Paden and Buehler (1995) found that for men, coping by talking to others about problems augmented the deleterious impacts of role overload on emotional well-being.

This study seeks to expand our knowledge in this area by examining the ability of a number of coping strategies, which operate at the level of the family, to moderate role overload, work-to-family interference, family-to-work interference and caregiver strain. We also look at the impact of gender, job type and dependent care status on these relationships.

This chapter is divided into three broad sections. Data on how families cope with the stresses associated with work-life conflict are presented first. This is followed by a discussion of how effective each of these family-based coping techniques is at alleviating work-life conflict. The section concludes with an overview of the key findings with respect to family coping strategies and work-life conflict.