Title

Work-home conflict and domestic violence: A connection

Date of Completion

January 2007

Keywords

Psychology, Social|Psychology, Industrial|Sociology, Individual and Family Studies

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

This dissertation examines a model of work-family conflict and its relationship with domestic violence. Two-hundred and ninety five individuals completed online surveys. Job satisfaction, gender, gender role attitudes, type of employment and socioeconomic status were first examined as predictors of work-family conflict. Subsequent backward stepwise regression analysis revealed job satisfaction as the only predictor of work-family conflict, when all other variables were controlled. Regression analyses were again conducted to determine the moderating effect of general well-being, alcohol use, family of origin violence witnessed or experienced, communication and conflict resolution skills, and social support on the relationship between work-family conflict and domestic violence. Domestic violence was measured using the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy & Sugarman, 1996) with the following subscales: psychological aggression toward self and toward partner, physical assault to self and to partner, and injury to self and to partner. Both family of origin violence witnessed between one's caregivers and family of origin violence personally experienced were revealed as moderators of the work-to-family conflict and domestic violence relationship for the physical assault to self and injury to self subscales. The additional potential moderators were submitted to regression analyses to determine if they might, instead, be mediators of the relationship between work-family conflict and domestic violence. These analyses revealed that negative communication skills and social support mediated the relationship between work-family conflict and domestic violence for the psychological aggression to partner and psychological aggression to self subscales. This study is significant because it represents an initial attempt to examine work-family issues and domestic violence simultaneously. Suggestions for the workplace, those working with families and directions for future research are included. ^

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