The Silent Threat in Women's Health: Work and Family Conflict

This study aimed to examine the level of work-family conflict and the factors affecting it among women academic and administrative staff working at the university.

The study is descriptive and cross-sectional. We collected data online from women academic and administrative staff at two different universities from December 2022 to June 2023. The data for the study were collected by using the Personal Information Form, Work-Family Conflict Scale, and Family-Work Conflict Scale.

The mean Work-Family and Family-Work Conflict Scale scores of the female university staff participating in the study were 15.40 ± 5.02 and 12.02 ± 4.76, respectively. Academic staff were found to have higher mean scores in the Work-Family Conflict Scale (U = 1942.5, p = 0.034) and the Family-Work Conflict Scale (U = 1972, p = 0.042) than administrative staff. The Work-Family Conflict Scale score was affected by the status of sharing domestic responsibilities with the spouse (χ² = 8.855, p = 0.012). Likewise, it was found that the Family-Work Conflict Scale score was affected by the presence of elderly and/or disabled individuals who were in need of help and support at home (U = 772, p = 0.030), family type (χ² = 8.013, p = 0.018), and having children (U = 2917, p = 0.028). There was a significant negative correlation between the Work-Family Conflict Scale and daily time allocated to oneself and their spouse (r = -0.163, p = 0.034; r = -0.189, p = 0.013), and a significant positive correlation between the Work-Family Conflict Scale and number of children (r = 0.185, p = 0.04), age of children (r = 0.204, p = 0.03), and daily time allocated to child/children (r = 0.250, p = 0.001).

Work-family conflict is affected by variables related to the work and family roles of university staff.