The role of work-family conflict in the relationship between paternal work environment and depression level

Abstract

The current study aims to examine association of the work conditions, the experienced work-family conflict and the perceived organizational support with the psychological health of married men in a family of dual-career couples with children aged 2-6. In the scope of the study, the mediating role of work-family conflict in the association of weekday working hours and perceived organizational support with depression were analyzed. The study's conceptual framework was based on the Ecological Systems Theory and Family Systems Theory that explain the environment-family-self associations from macro-level factors to micro-level family relations. The participants of the study were recruited by stratified sampling from all around Turkey in order to achieve representativeness of married and working men with children aged 2-6 (N=300). The fathers presented their working conditions, the level of work-family conflict, perceived organizational support, and depression via self-report questionnaires. The mediation effect analyses were conducted with MPLUS. The results indicated that (i) the working hours and perceived organizational support were negative whereas the work-family conflict and depression were positively associated; (ii) the working hours and work-family conflict predicted the depression levels of the fathers positively; (iii) there was a mediating role of work-family conflict in the association between working hours and perceived organizational support with depression. In the vein of this study's findings, it is possible to describe the problems of working men with young children in a traditional culture which will guide the policymakers to develop and implement family policies and training programs related to work-family conflict.