Job satisfaction as a mediator between family-to-work conflict and satisfaction with family life: a dyadic analysis in dual-earner parents

Family to work conflict has received less attention in the literature compared to work to family conflict. This gap in knowledge is more pronounced during the COVID 19 pandemic, despite the documented increase in family responsibilities in detriment of work performance, particularly for women. Job satisfaction has been identified as a mediator between the family and work domains for the individual, but these family to work dynamics remain unexplored at a dyadic level during the pandemic. Therefore, this study tested the relationship between family to work conflict and job and family satisfaction, and the mediating role of job satisfaction between family to work conflict and family satisfaction, in dual earner parents. A non probability sample of 430 dual earner parents with adolescent children were recruited in Rancagua, Chile. Mothers and fathers answered an online questionnaire with a measure of family to work conflict, the Job Satisfaction Scale and Satisfaction with Family Life Scale. Data was analysed using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model with structural equation modelling. Results showed that, for individuals, a higher family to work conflict is linked to lower satisfaction with both their job and family life, and these two types of satisfaction are positively associated with one another. Both parents experience a double negative effect on their family life satisfaction, due to their own, and to their partner's family to work conflict; however, for fathers, this effect from their partner occurs via their own job satisfaction. Limitations and implications of this study are discussed, indicating the need of family oriented workplace policies with a gender perspective to increase satisfaction in the family domain for workers and their families