Background/Purpose Work-family conflict (WFC) is the simultaneous occurrence of work and family pressures such that participation in one role hinders participation in the other role. Because of long working hours—especially during “family” time—coaches are particularly vulnerable to WFC effects, including lower job, family, and/or life satisfaction, and higher turnover intentions. Two dimensions are discussed within work-family literature, work-interfering-with-family(WIF) and family-interfering-with-work(FIW). WFC effects have been examined in coaches, administrators, and trainers. However, scant work has been done with officials. Practically, an examination of officials could be beneficial as many associations have reported a shortage of officials. Theoretically, because officials have input on their schedule, the problematic issues of working the “family” hours may be buffered because of this autonomy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between WIF, FIW, and turnover intent among officials.
Method Data were collected through a web-based-survey sent to active sports officials(n=1024). Officials who indicated the presence of children at home were retained for analysis(n=397).
Analysis/Results Regression was used to assess the ability of WIF and FIW to predict turnover intent. In the model, demographic controls explained 1.6% of the variance in turnover. With WIF and FIW, the total variance explained was 15.6%, F(5, 391)=14.4,p<.001. However, only FIW was significant, not WIF.
Conclusions Results suggest that the controlled predictability of a referee's schedule may buffer the officiating from interfering with family. However, obligations from family are not as convenient; suggesting that control over hours may be a larger factor in WFC, than type of hours worked.
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