| The goal of this quantitative study was to examine the construct of work-family conflict within the lives of low-wage, nonprofessional direct care workers and the extent to which this shaped their experiences of psychological stress and life satisfaction. This study affirms the experience of work-family conflict in the lives of nonprofessional, low-wage direct care workers (N = 338) from diverse backgrounds working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the New York metropolitan and suburban areas. Results indicated that work-family conflict is associated with lower life satisfaction and increased psychological stress in this cohort. The study describes surprising results that included no association between work-family conflict and the predictors: gender, age, relationship status, hours worked, and job schedule. However, care work demand was shown to be a predictor of work-family conflict and when combined with work-family conflict, produced psychological stress. Care work demand is an innovative aspect of this study design and provides important insights in to the extent and complexities of care work responsibilities undertaken by the research participants. Multi-regression analysis indicated that care of children in the United States, financial care of transnational children, the care of adults with health problems or disabilities, and eldercare all contributed to higher care work demand in this population; however, the care of dependent adults predicted the highest level of care work demand. Other findings included the association between age and life satisfaction, but multivariate analyses indicated that the positive effects of aging on life satisfaction were diminished by higher levels of work-family conflict. The findings of this study underscore the need for scholars to carefully engage in methodological procedures and modify traditional work-family conflict models so as to acknowledge the complex nature and acute circumstances of the low-wage, nonprofessional workers and, thus, ensure their inclusion in the work-family and vocational psychology discourse. |
