Negotiating Work-Family Conflict, Job Satisfaction, and Burnout in A Sample of Rural Home Healthcare Providers

Author

Abigail Ryan Bilderback, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2013

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Rottinghaus, Patrick

Abstract

Due to the increase in dual-income families, work-family conflict has become a more prevalent phenomenon in today's society. Home healthcare workers have been previously identified as an employment group that is susceptible to high levels of burnout and low levels of job satisfaction, yet work-family conflict concerns have yet to be examined. Particularly because of the great deal of care being provided within a home, both at work and in life, this population is of particular interest for examining work-family conflict. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relationships among work-family conflict, job satisfaction, affectivity, and burnout within a sample of rural, home healthcare employees. More specifically, four distinct models are proposed which include the following variables: positive and negative affectivity, number of hours providing care for others outside of work, number of hours worked per week, family-interference with work conflict, work-interference with family conflict, job satisfaction and three facets of burnout (personal accomplishment, depersonalization, and emotional exhaustion). While models predicting job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion accounted for the most variance, all four models provided information regarding the direct, indirect and mediating relationships of the aforementioned variables. More specifically, the findings suggest that the two types of work-family conflict uniquely mediate the proposed outcome variables highlighting the importance of examining work-family conflict from a more refined perspective. Exploratory group differences are also examined. This study contributes to a gap in the literature examining individuals' experiences of work-family conflict, job satisfaction, and burnout who are employed in a specific career field. Practical, research, and theoretical implications are discussed.