Job Crafting and Individual Management of Work-Family Balance Across Family Stages

Past research often viewed work-family balance as static and has rarely explored how perceptions may differ across stages of life. This study adopted a family life course developmental theoretical framework to test for mean differences in work-family balance across unique family stage groups. Results indicated that mean work-family balance varied across groups, but not according to the specific patterns that were predicted. In addition, this study proposed that job crafting was a cognitive-behavioral strategy that individuals can use to alter their own levels of work-family balance. Correlational, time-lagged, and change-to-change effects provide initial support for the relationship between job crafting and work-family balance. Little evidence was found to support differences in the effect of change of job crafting on change of work-family balance across family stages, although exploratory analyses that considered family stage and gender groups suggest that the relationship between job crafting and work- family balance may not be uniform across all persons. Overall results suggest that work-family balance differs across family stage and that job crafting is related to work-family balance