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...among 230 Israeli high school teachers. Further expanding WFC research, the authors assessed WFC effects on burnout and vigor. Results indicated that [right arrow] F conflict was related to generic variables and more so to distinctive teaching characteristics (e.g., investment in student behavior and parent-teacher relations). Both W [right arrow] F and F [right arrow] W predicted burnout, whereas only F [right arrow] W predicted vigor. Implications for WFC research and occupational health programs are discussed.
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Profound changes in the world of work in recent decades, such as rising numbers of women in career trajectories, have stimulated much research on work-family conflict (WFC) (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000). WFC is a form of interrole conflict comprising incompatible pressures from work and family roles (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Results of this research have repeatedly demonstrated the negative effects of WFC on employees' behavior, emotions, and health (see Frone, 2003) and have underscored the importance of reducing the conflict.
Most research on WFC antecedents and outcomes use generic models to study managerial and demanding occupations (Cinamon & Rich, 2005). These models usually focus on the association between WFC and certain work stressors, assuming that such general stressors affect a wide variety of occupations similarly. However, these models often disregard distinctive aspects of particular occupations that may also affect WFC. Moreover, recent evidence demonstrates that certain occupations have unique role stressors that contribute to employees' stress (Bacharach & Bamberger, 1992; Narayanan, Menon, & Spector, 1999; Pousette & Hanse, 2002; Van Der Doef & Maes, 2002). Assessment of effects of unique stressors on WFC in specific occupations, in addition to effects of general occupational stressors, should provide a richer and more comprehensive picture of WFC antecedents. This approach may also enable developers of occupational health programs to focus on those elements proven effective in combating specific stressors in particular occupations.
Extending WFC research to specific occupations, this study investigated WFC among teachers, a profession largely overlooked by WFC researchers To illustrate the benefits of occupation-specific WFC research, we examined variables unique to teaching in addition to generic, universal variables often examined in WFC research. Although we were primarily interested in general and occupation-specific stressors' effects on WFC, the lack of research on teachers' work-family relations also stimulated analysis of two important outcomes of teachers' WFC: burnout and vigor.
Antecedents of WFC
Much research has explored antecedents of two types of WFC: when work is perceived as interfering with family (W [right arrow] F) and when family is perceived as interfering with work (F [right arrow] W). Most results indicate that stressors from work more heavily influence W [right arrow] F conflict, whereas family stressors more heavily influence F [right arrow] W conflict. Many researchers have investigated role characteristics that presumably produce role-related stress that diminishes one's capacity to meet demands of other roles (see Frone, 2003). Several studies found that W [right arrow] F conflict relates positively to number of hours employees devote to work (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000) and negatively to flexible schedules and managerial support (Bernas & Major, 2000).
Some stressors contributing to WFC may be common to most occupations, but the effects of stressors within different occupations will probably vary as a function of job and setting characteristics (Naraynan et al., 1999; Spark & Cooper, 1999). Researchers have also raised this claim for other work stress concepts, such as burnout (e.g., Byrne, 1999; Maslach, 1999). Accordingly, it is likely that commonly investigated generic variables, such as flexibility and number of work hours, will render varying effects on WFC in different occupations because of their unique characteristics. Examination of WFC in specific occupations may reveal that employees in different occupations establish distinct patterns of relationships between work and family roles. For example, flexibility of work hours may play a major role in moderating WFC in occupations that demand relatively fixed work schedules (e.g., factory workers), but its influence on WFC among employees who have more latitude to arrange their workday (e.g., artists) may be quite small. Likewise, number of work hours as a role stressor may have dissimilar effects on WFC for jobs that require individuals to spend their entire workday at the workplace, as opposed to occupations in which employees frequently apply ideas that were cultivated in their "free time" away from the work site. The latter typifies designers, teachers, and scientists, among others, who produce valuable work ideas away from the formal workplace.
Recent research has also established that unique stressors characterize particular occupations. For example, Simmons (2000) revealed that a patient's death was especially stressful for hospital nurses. Lloyd, King, and Chenoweth (2002) found that tension between social workers' professional philosophy and their work environment contributed to stress and burnout. Engineers reported that waste of time and interpersonal conflicts were especially stressful to them (Keenan & Newton, 1985). Van Der Doef and Maes (2002) showed that student aggression and professional education explained significant amounts of variance in teacher burnout. These studies support the value of conducting occupation-specific investigations to understand how specific work factors influence WFC in particular occupations instead of relying exclusively on generic models.
Another reason for advocating occupation-specific investigations is that global measures of stress that are removed from real work experiences provide inaccurate information that is relevant to only limited aspects of employee roles (Shirom, 1988). In contrast, occupation-specific stress measures that are sensitive to particular...
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