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The influence of household size on the experience of work-family conflict

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Abstract

There is a growing need to examine the influence of household size on the experience of work-family conflict, considering the changing family structure worldwide due to the decrease in fertility and mortality rate, as well as most household size studies only recognising the spouses and the number of children. Using a sample of 618 Chinese participants and a structural equation modelling in R studio, we developed and tested a model that connects household size to work-family conflict via its unique antecedents. Our findings suggested that the effect of household size was more salient in family-to-work conflict and that household size was related to the experience of work-family conflict via the time-based antecedent of family-to-work conflict. Simultaneously, our findings suggested that household size was negatively related to family interpersonal conflict in China and that family-to-work guilt was related to family-to-work conflict. The implications and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

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Availability of supporting data

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Conceptualisation: Shujie Chen; Data curation: Shujie Chen; Formal analysis and investigation: Shujie Chen; Methodology: Shujie Chen, Mei-I Cheng; Project administration: Mei-I Cheng; Resources: Shujie Chen, Mei-I Cheng; Software: Shujie Chen; Supervision: Mei-I Cheng; Validation: Mei-I Cheng; Visualisation: Mei-I Cheng; Writing – original draft: Shujie Chen, Mei-I Cheng; Writing – review & editing: Mei-I Cheng.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shujie Chen.

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Ethical approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by De Montfort University, the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Research Ethics Committee. Due to the anonymity of the online questionnaire, no consent form is needed; nevertheless, one question regarding the willingness to participate in this study was asked before completing the online questionnaire, and the participants must choose “yes” to continue. In addition, participants consent to participate in the present study by submitting the completed questionnaire.

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The authors affirm that participants of this study are aware that data will be presented in aggregate format within the study. The results may be published or presented at workshops/conferences. If this is the case, the results will be presented in aggregate format and participants’ responses will not be identifiable to you personally.

Competing interests

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Cite this article

Chen, S., Cheng, MI. The influence of household size on the experience of work-family conflict. SN Soc Sci 3, 150 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00744-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00744-1

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