Work-family conflict and its relations to well-being:: the role of personality as a moderating factor

The aim of the present study was to examine the role of the Big Five personality dimensions as possible moderating factors between two types of work-family conflicts: work interference with family (WIF); and family interference with work (FIW); and their relationship to well-being in the domains of work and family generally as well. The participants were fathers (n = 296) who took part in a national family research project in the Netherlands in 1995. All fathers were employed full-time. The results showed that emotional stability moderated the relationships between WIF and job exhaustion and between WIF and depression. In addition, agreeableness moderated the relationship between FIW and marital satisfaction. Consequently, emotionally stable fathers were protected from negative effects of WIF on well-being at work (job exhaustion) and on general well-being (depression). In the same way, agreeable fathers were protected from negative effects of FIW on marital satisfaction. Besides these moderating effects, both WIF and FIW and emotional stability and agreeableness had main effects on well-being. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.