Unpaid Professional Work at Home and Work-Life Interference among Employees with Care Responsibilities

Employees with caregiving responsibilities often experience work-life interference (WLI), particularly when caring for either disabled persons and/or children. This study examines sample of 288 working Australians from the AWALI national survey data, who care for at least one family member or friend with long-term physical or mental illness, disability, or aging-related problems. We investigated the role of unpaid work at home in predicting WLI, based on a model that included indirect association via inferred causes for working unpaid hours at home and a conditional direct relationship based on number of children. The findings supported our prediction that unpaid work at home is positively associated with WLI but its effect is moderated by number of children. There was a conditional direct effect where employees with care responsibilities experienced a stronger relationship between unpaid hours and WLI when having more children. Further, when the perceived reason for unpaid work was excessively demanding work, the relationship with WLI was stronger. Implications for workers with multiple caregiving responsibilities are discussed.