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The general aim of this study was to examine the contribution of perceived social support from family, the quality of family functioning, attitudes about marital roles, and striving for achievement to the perceived conflict between work and family roles by using a dyadic approach. Namely, the interaction of spouses’ perceptions was taken into account (actor and partner effects) in predicting work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts. This study was conducted on a sample of 176 employed married couples in the territory of central and western Herzegovina and central Dalmatia. Self- assessment questionnaires were used. In women, social support from family was a significant predictor for both examined types of work– family conflicts, and partner effects were greater than actor effects, especially for family-to-work conflict. Both partners’ striving for achievement was a positive predictor of family-to-work conflict in women, while there was only a contribution of the actor striving for achievement to both types of work–family conflict in men. In men, the only partner effect was obtained in the relationship between social support from family and family- to-work conflict. In general, the results indicated that the assessments of male spouses were more related to their wife’s work–family conflict than vice versa, and that these variables were more related to family-to-work conflict than to work-to-family conflict.

Results of previous research suggesting work and family stressors as antecedents of work- family conflict are clear, but there are less clear results and a lack of research on the role of personal traits in the experience of work-family conflict, especially when taking into account the gender of the participants and the characteristics of their spouse. The aim of this study was to examine whether and how certain personal traits, i.e. attitudes about gender roles in marriage and striving for achievement, contribute to the explanation of conflicts between work and family roles, and what is their role within a model of work- family conflict antecedents on a sample of employed spouses in Croatia. In this context, the relationships between the mentioned personal traits, job characteristics (assessments of psychological requirements of the job and the negative effects of work-time) and family characteristics (traditionalism of marital roles and the quality of family functioning), social support at work and in the family from various sources (supervisor, colleagues, spouses, and other family members and close people), and conflict between work and family roles (work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict) especially for men and women and among spouses were examined. This a priori at least encourages the development of a model in which work-family conflict is explained by taking into account the dyadic interaction between spouses. The study was conducted on a total of 358 employed marital partners in Croatia who have at least one child in the household, using the research method of self-assessments. The participants were mostly from the Zadar County. There was a higher level of striving for achievement and traditional attitude about gender roles in marriage in men than in women. In general, the results show a higher workload in men and higher load in the family domain in women, which is in line with the traditional pattern of the division of gender roles. It can be concluded that traditionalism on gender roles in marriage and striving for achievement of spouses are a significant factor in the context of work- family conflict, with greater support for a complete mediation of social support at work and in the family, the psychological demands of work, and the quality of family functioning in the relationship of these individual characteristics and the (dis)agreement of the individual and spouse in these characteristics with perceptions of work-to-family and family- to-work conflict. The results also show that relatively more egalitarian women (such as the women in this sample) are more susceptible to the effects of their partners, especially when it comes to his attitude about gender roles in marriage.

There is a small number of studies that take into account the characteristics of both marital partners (Streich et al., 2007) in examining work-family conflict. If we take into consideration that this conflict depends on the level of perceived support from partners (Adams et al., 1996), it is obvious that an effect of partners exists. Also, the level of support needs may differ by gender (Perewé and Carlson, 2002), and gender ideology (Mickelson, 2006). In most papers dealing with the interaction between spouses, attempts were made to address the problems at the individual level (Fagan and Press, 2008). As a more reasonable approach to the analysis of data on a dyadic level, this paper uses so-called associated regression analyses to test the effects of actors and partners in work-family conflict. The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of interactions between the perception of social support from the supervisor and family, aspects of marriage traditionalism (gender role ideology and striving for achievement), and the quality of family functioning to the perception of work-family conflict. This study employed a sample of 176 employed married couples within areas of central and western Herzegovina and central Dalmatia. The results show that men who evaluate their marriage as traditional experience greater work-to-family conflict, while this conflict is greater in women who estimated their marriage as egalitarian . Along with the obtained actor effects, mainly of perceived social support from supervisor and family, to work-to-family and family-to-work conflict, partner effects were also obtained. It was shown that higher levels of supervisor support for women means a higher level of work-to-family conflict among men. Furthermore, the more traditional partners of the respondents are, the higher is their perceived level of work-to-family conflict. The higher the levels of perceived quality of family functioning in men, the lower the levels of family-to-work conflict. Striving for achievement is a positive predictor of family-to-work conflict. In general, the results show that the perceptions of the male spouses are more related to womens’ work-family conflict than vice versa.

The aim of this study was to examine the perception of conflict between work and family roles and job, family, and life satisfaction among nurses in certain parts of Croatia according to different types of shift organization. The total sample of participants included 174 nurses of hospitals in Zadar, Šibenik, and Split participated in this study. 129 married mothers with various work-time schedules were divided into four different groups according to the way their worktime shifts were organized. The participants completed a survey which included a set of social-demographic type questions, questions about the level and allocation of family responsibilities between spouses, and scales measuring the perceived negative effects of worktime, psychological demands of work, conflict between work and family roles, and semantic differential scales for measuring the affective and cognitive-evaluative component of job, family, and life satisfaction. The results of this study showed that the nurses working in permanent morning shifts experience less conflict due to the disturbing effects of work on the family than the other groups of nurses which were working in three shifts including the night shift. There were negative correlations between work-to-family conflict and all the measured components of satisfaction except for the affective component of family satisfaction. The cognitive-evaluative component of job satisfaction was highest among the nurses with morning shifts and lowest for the nurses who work in 12-hour shifts, while the affective component of life satisfaction was lowest for the nurses working in irregular and backward rotated shifts. These results are an additional indicator of the different and more or less negative effects of shiftwork on work-family interrole conflict. Also, they additionally support the view that the type of shift rotation also matters.

There seems to be a lack of research examining the association of the discrepancy between different types of values and their realization with work-family conflict, work satisfaction, and life satisfaction, which was the aim of this study. The research was conducted on a sample of 176 employed marital partners (age range= 20- 64). 15 different values and their achievement were assessed. The results show that higher work-to-family conflict was experienced when there was a higher discrepancy between the importance of and actually having enough leisure time, which was one of the most valued and least actualized segments. Interestingly, none of the measured discrepancies were significantly correlated with family-to-work conflict in men, while various were significant for women (e.g. a happy family life). Higher life and job satisfaction was associated with a lower discrepancy between the importance and realization of certain work values, while this was not the case for men.

Work family conflict exists when strain and time required from work roles make it difficult to fulfill requirements of family roles. Interference of work with their home life is found to be stonger in shift workers than in workers with standard schedules. Many studies have supported the premise that increased work-family conflict in shift workers can lead to increased health concerns and problems. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of work-family conflict and shift work on the mental health of nurses. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data regarding the perception of 174 nurses. As a result of poorer work-family fit, shift workers reported poorer mental health than workers with standard schedules. Shift work directly influenced work-family conflict, but it had no direct influence on mental health. However, work-family conflict was significantly associated with a worker’s mental health and job satisfaction.