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Gender, work-home conflict, and morbidity amongst white-collar bank employees in the United Kingdom

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Abstract

Most research on work-home conflict focuses solely on women. This study compares men and women’s perceptions of the extent to which paid work interferes with family life, and examines associations between work-home conflict and health. Data were collected from 2,176 full-time white-collar employees of a British bank. We did not find any significant gender differences in perceptions of work-home conflict. However, predictors of work-home conflict did vary by gender; having children and being in a senior position were more strongly related to work-home conflict for women than for men, while working unsociable hours was more important for men than for women. Work-home conflict was strongly associated with reporting fair or poor self-assessed health, a high number of reported physical symptoms and minor psychological morbidity (GHQ-12). These associations were equally strong for men and women. Our results suggest that work-home conflict is a problem for men as well as women.

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Correspondence to Carol Emslie.

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Emslie, C., Hunt, K. & Macintyre, S. Gender, work-home conflict, and morbidity amongst white-collar bank employees in the United Kingdom. Int. J. Behav. Med. 11, 127–134 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1103_1

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