It's All in a Day's Work: Work-Family Conflict Among South Asian Workers during COVID-19

Conference Poster (Faculty180)

cited authors

  • Ojha, Mamta; Petra, Megan M; Mahapatra, Neely

description

  • <p>Abstract:<br>Background and Purpose<br>: In 2019 approximately 46 million immigrants lived in the U.S., 28.6 million participating in thelabor force (Batalova, et al. 2021) and 4.5 million being South Asians (SAALT, 2021).<br>The work-life interface differs by cultural context (Ollier-Malaterre & Foucreault 2017). In collectivist societies, the focus is onfamily welfare, with work supporting the family, whereas individualists perceive work and family domains as exertingcompeting demands for limited resources (Ojha, 2019). Cultural context is key to understanding work-family conflict (Powell etal., 2009).<br>South Asian females are traditionally family caretakers, but they have recently increased labor market engagement (Lee & Soo-Young, 2021). Considering both work and family as important domains, couples/parents are no longer confined by traditionalgender roles (Byron, 2005) and thus both may experience work-family conflict (Kulik & Ramon, 2021).<br>Work-family conflict among South Asian immigrant workers has not been widely studied (Perera & Pavithra, 2020). Hence, thepurpose of this research is to examine work-family conflict among South-Asian immigrants in the U.S. via a focus on work (jobdemands) and family factors (children and household responsibilities) to predict time-based, strain-based, and behavior-basedwork-to-family conflict during COVID, when work and family role demands were high.<br>Methods:<br>Cross sectional data was collected online in the U.S. in Spring 2021. Participants were 131 working South Asianimmigrants. The survey asked about time-based, strain-based and behavior-based work-to-family conflict, work demands, andfamily demands pre-COVID and after-COVID, and demographics. Multivariate multiple regressions were run to examine work-to-family conflict; predictors included gender, work demands, childcare responsibilities, and spouse/partner number of hours ofchores.<br>Results:<br>Participants included<br>61 males, 69 females, and one who identified as “other” gender, aged 18-60 years.<br>Only19.85% had worked from home before COVID, but 75.57% did during COVID and 58.02% did during the study<br>, with<br>73.75%reporting regular work hours<br>and 50.90% reporting<br>spouses who were employed full-time. Average family income was over$100,000 (range <$30,000-$100,000 ).<br>Most participants had children<br>(78%) who<br>were ages birth-5 (41.75%), 6-10(33.01%)<br>.<br>Males had lower strain-based work interfering with family,<br>B<br>=-0.41,<br>p<br>=.03. Work demands predicted higher strain-based,<br>B<br>=0.55,<br>p<br><.001, behavior-based,<br>B<br>=0.29,<br>p<br>=.004 and time-based work interfering with family,<br>B<br>=0.61,<br>p<br><.001. Time-based work interfering with family was predicted by spouse hours of chores,<br>B<br>=-0.12,<br>p<br>=.02 and childcare responsibilities,<br>B<br>=0.05,<br>p<br>=.03.<br>Conclusions and Implications:<br>South Asian workers experienced significant work and family demands during COVID.Although participants reported egalitarian gender roles, females did more hours of housework than males; however, both didchildcare and homework help. Work-demand was the best predictor for strain-based, behavior-based, and time-based work-family conflict for all participants, although only females experienced high strain-based conflict. It could be that females still dohousehold chore after work, but higher education, better family income, and egalitarian worldview are protective factors fortime-based and behavior-based work-family conflict. Childcare responsibilities reduced time-based work-family conflict, whichmay be because spouses also stepped up during COVID. Although sample size is a limitation, these results have practice andorganizational policy implications.</p>

authors

publication date

  • 2025

presented at event