Measurement Issues in Work–Family Research

Th e relationships between work and family, or work and nonwork domains, have become one of the focal interests of occupational health psychologists. However, along with the growth of the fi eld comes the proliferation of diff erent constructs and measures. In this scenario, the use of diff erent measures creates potential concerns for generalizability. In this chapter we aim to help by identifying the key considerations in work-family measurement. We begin with a brief description and defi nition of the main constructs in work-personal life research: workfamily confl ict and the work-family positive relationship (enrichment, facilitation, and positive spillover). We suggest various measures for each construct, describing their major strengths, discussing their weaknesses, and indicating how frequently they are used in scholarly research and have been published in academic journals. Finally, we discuss important issues relative to item construction and response scales that researchers should take into account when choosing a measure or adapting it.