The Pressure-Status Nexus and Blurred Work-Family Boundaries

• In Event: 307 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Paper Session. Family, Work, and Gender

Abstract

Job pressure is associated with increased work-family role blurring activities. Does higher status attenuate or exacerbate that association? And are these processes different for women and men? Using data from a national sample of workers, our study discovers that higher status functions as a moderator in what we label the pressure-status nexus. Job pressure is associated more strongly with role blurring among the well-educated, professionals, managers, and high earners. And, job pressure is associated most strongly with role blurring among higher status men. This articulation of the pressure-status nexus extends the stress of higher status perspective, demonstrating that higher statuses compound the ways that pressure increases blurring of the work-family boundary.

Authors

• Scott Schieman, University of Toronto

• Paul Glavin, McMaster University