Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hall
University
AND
JEFFREY H. GREENHAUS
Drexel
University
The present research investigated the conflict that women experience between
their home and nonhome roles. All of the women in the sample (N = 115) were
married and living with their husbands, had at least one child living at home,
and were college students. It was found that women who placed a similar level
of importance on work as their husbands experienced less intense conflict than
women who differed from their husbands in career orientation. In addition, the
number of children at home was positively related to a womans conflict when
her husband was highly work oriented. A womans use of reactive coping strategies was negatively related to her life satisfaction when her husband was dissatisfied with his own life.
Married women who combine family and career roles are likely to
experience conflict among their life roles (Bardwick, 1971; Hall, 1972;
Hall & Hall, 1979; St. John-Parsons, 1978; Suniewick, 1971). Furthermore, such interrole conflict can have an adverse impact on a womans
psychological well being (Cartwright, 1978; Hall, 1975; Hall and Gordon,
1973). It is important, therefore, to determine the forces that produce
interrole conflict as well as the factors that contribute to the successful
management of the conflict.
A womans husband is thought to be a critical influence on her ability
to integrate family and career roles (Bailyn, 1964; Holahan & Gilbert,
1979). We need to know, however, the conditions under which a husband
provides or withholds support for his wifes role activities.
The authors appreciate the valuable comments by two anonymous reviewers on an
earlier version of the manuscript. Correspondence should be directed to Nicholas J. Beutell,
W. Paul Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ 07079.
99
OOOl-8791/82/040099-12$02.00/O
Copyright
0 1982 by Academic
Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction
in any form reserved.
100
BEUTELLANDGREENHAUS
INTERROLE
CONFLICT
101
to deal directly with role senders and to lessen the conflict by mutual
agreement on a new set of role expectations. Type II coping (personal
role redefinition) entails changing ones attitudes and perceptions rather
than directly attempting to change the expectations themselves. Type
III coping (reactive role behavior) relies strictly on existing role behaviors
(e.g., meeting all role senders expectations) with no attempt to alter the
structural or personal definition of ones roles. Type III strategies are,
in effect, relatively passive attempts to accommodate role senders.
Prior research (Hall, 1972) suggests that Type III coping strategies are
less effective in managing interrole conflict than Type I and Type II
strategies. Yet Type III strategies, attempts to be superwomen,
are
apparently quite common among married women who participate in
multiple roles (Friedan, 1979). Therefore, it is important to understand
the antecedents and consequences of Type III coping more thoroughly.
We predict (Hypothesis 3) that the more external a womans locus of
control (Rotter, 1966), the more likely she is to use Type III coping
strategies. Since externals tend to perceive that they have little control
over their reinforcements, we would expect them to use a more passive,
reactive strategy to handle incompatible
role expectations. Although a
relationship between locus of control and coping was proposed by Hall
(1972) and was investigated among entrepreneurs facing a natural disaster
(Anderson, 1977), it has apparently not been tested among women who
experience interrole conflict.
It is also predicted (Hypothesis 4) that the scope of a womans role
involvement is negatively related to the use of Type III coping. Extensive
role demands may reduce the likelihood that a woman can ignore the
conflict or attempt to meet all expectations; that is, she may feel she
must do something to modify the incompatible
expectations. Furthermore, a womans extensive participation
in multiple roles can enhance
her sense of potency (Hall, 1975), which may encourage a less passive
stance toward role senders.
The use of Type III coping has been found to be negatively related
to a womans satisfaction with her life roles (Hall, 1972). However, we
predict (Hypothesis 5) that the negative relationship between the use of
Type III coping and overall life satisfaction is stronger for women whose
husbands are dissatisfied with their own lives than for women married
to relatively satisfied men.
A woman who engages in Type III coping tries to meet all role senders
expectations. A frustrated, dissatisfied man, however, may impose unrealistic family role pressures on his wife and may criticize any performance that fails to meet his expectations. Since it is unlikely that a
person can ever meet all role expectations, a womans reliance on Type
III coping under these circumstances may produce anger, frustration,
and ultimately
low levels of life satisfaction. Thus, the husbands dis-
102
BEUTELL
AND
GREENHAUS
INTERROLE
CONFLICT
103
104
BELJTELL
AND
GREENHAUS
13
14
02
06
09
-01
-
01
-13
12
00
20*
06
-
-07
-09
-09
-08
-01
04
- 10
03
10
03
- 19*
-
-14
-25*
-06
15
14
-07
-3o**
04
-
-05
-05
06
00
09
02
05
00
-05
-
20*
-26**
- 14
08
06
10
14
- 18
-01
-11
-
-08
14
00
-08
-08
-02
11
Note. N = 115 for all variables except conflict intensity and Type III coping (N = 79); decimals omitted
* p < .05.
** p < .Ol.
1. No. of conflicts
2. Conflict intensity
3. Husband work-role
salience
4. Wife work-role
salience
5. No. of children at
home
6. Husband life
satisfaction
7. Wife life satisfaction
8. Type III coping
9. Locus of control
10. No. of home roles
11. No. of nonhome roles
12. Importance of home
roles
13. Importance of nonhome roles
Variable
TABLE 1
Intercorrelations
among Variables
4.26
3.98
-35**
30.56
30.77
.34
9.32
2.91
1.91
2.01
17.33
79.77
1.10
3.59
12
-11
-02
06
03
04
-04
20*
03
-09
24*
13
11
-03
-24**
08
02
06
10
15*
-18
04
- 32**
12
2
c
2
1.07
.76
8
.43
4.59
.28
.70
g
S
9
z
5.51
1.24
5.18
11.47
12.38
.96
.98
SD
106
BEUTELLANDGREENHAUS
TABLE 2
Results of Multiple Regression Analyses
R2 without
interaction
Predictors
Criterion
R2 with
interaction
F for
increment
,025
.026
.88
.008
.080
5.15*
404
.069
8.13**
.009
.013
.36
.036
,155
9.88**
Note. Hypothesis number in parenthesis; WRS, work-role salience; N = 115 for analyses
predicting the number of conflicts, and N = 79 for analyses predicting contIict intensity
and wife life satisfaction.
* p < .05.
** p < .Ol.
M =
SD =
High
3.45
.92
N = 20
High
M
SD
=
=
salience
3.75
1.19
N = 12
M =
SD =
3.84
M =
SD =
3.45
1.07
N = 18
N = 23
.84
INTERROLECONFLICT
107
role salience (even if both were highly work oriented) than if they exhibited different levels of work-role salience.
Hypothesis 2 predicted that husband work-role salience would interact
with the number of children at home to predict a womans conflict. For
the total sample (Table l), the number of children at home was not
related to either the number or intensity of a womans conflicts. The
regression analyses revealed an interaction between number of children
at home and husband work-role salience predicting the number of conflicts experienced by the woman. The correlation between number of
children at home and the number of conflicts was, as predicted, significantly (p < .Ol) stronger for women with relatively high work-rolesalient husbands (r = .34, p < .Ol) than for women with relatively low
work-role-salient
husbands (r = - .12, ns).
Hypothesis 3 predicted a positive relationship between locus of control
and Type III coping, and Hypothesis 4 predicted a negative relationship
between role involvement
and Type III coping. As indicated in Table
1, Type III coping was not related to locus of control nor any of the
four role involvement
variables.
Hypotheses 3 and 4 were also tested with partial correlations between
each of the five variables (locus of control and the four role-involvement
indices) and Type III coping holding the other four variables constant.
These analyses indicated that Type III coping was related to the number
- .21, p < .05) and importance (Tpanial = -.20, p < .05) of
(rpmtial
=
nonhome roles.
Hypothesis 5 predicted that the negative relationship between Type
III coping and overall life satisfaction would be stronger for women with
dissatisfied husbands than for women with relatively satisfied husbands.
As indicated in Table 2, there was an interaction between Type III coping
and husband life satisfaction. As predicted, the relationship between
Type III coping and life satisfaction was significantly (p < .Ol) stronger
for women whose husbands were relatively dissatisfied (r = - .52, p
< .Ol) than for women whose husbands were relatively satisfied with
their lives (r = .19, ns).
DISCUSSION
Husband and wife work-role salience interacted to predict the intensity
of home-nonhome
conflict. Women who had levels of work-role salience
similar to their husbands experienced less intense conflict than women
whose work-role salience was lower or higher than their husbands.
Furthermore,
this pattern was virtually identical for employed and nonemployed women.
It is understandable why low work-role-salient
women married to low
work-role-salient
men might experience less intense conflict. Because
neither spouse places a great deal of importance on work and career,
108
BEUTELLANDGREENHAUS
accommodations
to various role demands may be more easily accomplished, thereby preventing the conflict from becoming extremely intense.
What was unanticipated,
however, was that high work-role-salient
women married to high work-role-salient
men would experience the same
level of conflict as the low-low salience group. Perhaps spouses who
are both high in work-role salience have a mutual understanding of their
partners career aspirations, values, and concerns and have worked out
a system of mutual accommodation.
Consistent with this idea, Burke,
Firth, and McGrattan
(1974) found that husbands and wives who are
similar in personality were more able to manage stressful situations than
couples with dissimilar personalities.
We are certainly not suggesting that a person should base a marital
decision on a potential spouses level of work-role salience. However,
it may be useful for spouses to discuss the possible effect of similar/
dissimilar career orientations on their work and family roles. Spouse
workshops or seminars may be appropriate vehicles for initiating and
reinforcing such discussions.
We also found that when the husband is highly work oriented, a wife
experiences more conflicts as the number of children living at home
increases. This may be an important finding in that children continue to
exert pressures on the family for many years. Because the number and
spacing of children is presumably under the control of wife and husband,
it is important that spouses consider the impact of family size on career
and family role requirements.
The number and importance of nonhome roles in which a woman
participates were negatively related to Type III coping. A longitudinal
study is needed to determine whether role involvement
influences the
choice of coping strategies or whether coping affects involvement in role
activities. Nevertheless, the data suggest that participation in important
nonhome roles does not necessarily require a woman to ignore, suppress,
or attempt to meet incompatible
expectations.
Furthermore,
the negative relationship between Type III coping and
life satisfaction was particularly strong for women whose husbands were
dissatisfied with their own lives. Perhaps a dissatisfied husband influences
his wifes feelings of competence by expecting too much and then criticizing her for poor role performance. Thus, a womans feelings of incompetence may be aroused and she is likely to be dissastisfied with her
life.
Although Type III coping was not related to a womans life satisfaction
when her husband was satisfied with his life, the use of Type III coping
requires a great deal of energy (Hall, 1972). Future research needs to
determine the long-term effects of Type III coping on a womans physical
and mental well being.
Additional research is required in a number of different areas as well.
INTERROLE
CONFLICT
109
110
BEUTELLANDGREENHAUS