Development and Validation of a Measure: Preventive Coping with Work-Family Conflict

Much research has focused on the concept of work-family conflict. Recent research has called for more studies concerning how individuals cope with work-family conflict (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005). This research aids in the measurement of coping with work-family conflict by creating a measure of preventive coping with work-family conflict. Items for the new measure are based on results from focus-groups with working adults. The study assessed the dimensionality and validity of the proposed scale. Results indicate that preventive coping with work-family conflict is comprised of five subscales: accumulating resources, strategic planning, cognitive structuring, withdrawal from work, and withdrawal from family. The measure of preventive coping was incrementally predictive above and beyond general coping and work-family specific reactive coping in the prediction of work interference with family, but not family interference with work. Results indicate that cognitive structuring is beneficial for reducing work interference with family while strategic planning is beneficial for reducing family interference with work. Withdrawal from family appears to be detrimental as a coping mechanism for work interference with family while withdrawal from work may be detrimental for coping with family interference with work. Research implications, limitations and future directions are discussed.