Self-Employment, Work-Family Conflict and Work-Family Synergy: Antecedents and Consequences

This paper examines self-employment in relation to work-family conflict, work-family synergy, autonomy, work pressure, mental health, physical health, and satisfaction indices. The analysis uses data from a national probability sample (n = 708 self-employed), the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce. Significant relationships were found for all of the major variables while controlling for gender, age, and marital status. Mental health symptoms were the strongest predictor of work-family conflict overall while work pressure was the strongest predictor of work-interfering with family (WIF) conflict. Work-family conflict was negatively and significantly related to satisfaction outcomes (i.e., job, family, and life) controlling for age, gender, and marital status, while work-family synergy was positively related to these satisfaction outcomes. A post hoc analysis comparing self-employed participants to wage and salary participants indicated better overall adjustment for the self-employe Implications and directions for future research are discussed.