Childcare Satisfaction And Work-Family Conflict

Childcare satisfaction is one of the main contributors of work-family conflict (WFC) and can be divided down into five factors. Caregiver communication, dependability, attentiveness, cost, and convenience all possess a close relationship with organizational commitment, job satisfaction, inter-role conflict, and maternal separations. Of these, caregiver convenience, or more specifically, the proximity of the childcare facility is one of the areas of most concern since an emergency, special needs, or even just day-to-day visits that arise are dependent upon this. Since work-force conflict essentially is the demands of the family spilling over into the work domain and vice versa, lack of satisfaction for these different aspects of childcare has
This tension can be either psychological or physical and has the capability of interfering with the performance, goals, and expectations of the other roles. This interference or spillover can potentially take the form of affect, values, skills, or behaviors. To combat this strain on individuals in relation to WFC, higher childcare satisfaction would lead to less worrying during the day and ultimately to lower strain-based levels. “The demands of work can leave parents dissatisfied with the amount of childcare they can personally provide; as such, it is important for working parents to find attentive and invested caregivers” (Payne, Cook, & Diaz, 2011, p.230). With a caregiver who is attentive and invested, parents will have less anxiety and stress about their child’s well-being. Along with attentiveness, caregiver communication and cost can be negatively associated with strain-based WFC. Not having clear and continuous contact with their child can have the parents preoccupied on the child’s safety rather than focusing on task at work. Additionally, the financial stress of childcare could impact an employee’s level of concentration (Payne, Cook, & Diaz,