Perceived Family and Partner Support and the Work-Family Interface: A Meta-analytic Review

This study employed meta-analytic techniques to elucidate the role of perceived partner and family support in four measures of the work-family interface. We extracted 183 effect sizes from 82 samples and a total of N = 36,226 individuals. We found perceived familial (partner and family) support was negatively associated with work-to-family conflict (r = -.099) and family-to-work conflict (r = -.178). It was positively associated with work-to-family enrichment (r = .173) and family-to-work enrichment (r = .378). Various sample-level moderators were investigated through meta regression and subgroup analyses, including whether the support measure was family or partner focused. Perceived family support showed larger magnitude associations with the two conflict outcome variables than partner support, while there were no significant differences between family and partner support and the two enrichment outcomes. The results suggest that familial support is an essential component of successfully minimizing work-family conflict and maximizing work-family enrichment, and that whether the measure of support is partner or family specific may impact the magnitude of results.