Work—Family Conflict Within the Family

To better understand the work—family interface within the family domain, this study investigated crossover effects of two types of work—family conflict among 120 participants (60 married couples), these conflicts' relations with parental self-efficacy and perceived quality of parent—child interaction, and the contribution of attributions of importance to life roles on variance in these two parental outcomes. Results indicated complementary correlations between men's and women's conflicts. That is, work family conflict of one spouse was positively correlated to family work conflict of the other spouse. Both types of conflict were negatively correlated with parental self-efficacy and perceived quality of parent—child interaction. Parents' sense of self-efficacy in their parenting role was associated with the higher value they attributed to that role and to the dual role of working parent, and with the stronger sense of commitment to the parenting and dual roles. Theoretical and practical issues are discussed.