| There is a rising preference among working women in China to "return home". The present study explored how the four aspects of Work-Family Interface including Work Enhancement to Family, Family Enhancement to Work, Work Interference to Family and Family Interference to Work affected the work withdrawal intention of young parents who were employees and who had at least one child under 6 years old. At the same time, we explored the antecedences to all facets of Work-Family Interface, which included work/family load, work/family support, work/family involvement, gender concepts as well as personality traits. Furthermore, we examined whether there were gender differences in work withdrawal intention, as well as in its pattern of relationship with the Work-Family Interface. Around 420 couples with diverse professional background from two cities of China, Shanghai and Jinan, completed the questionnaire. We also conducted in-depth interviews with five men and eight women from those two cities to understand the dynamics of these considerations. Results showed that women had a higher work withdrawal intention than men. Moreover women might have a stronger work withdrawal intention when they experienced more Family Interference to Work. Men, on the other hand, might have a higher intention to "return home" only when they confronted more Work Interference to Family. Additionally, we found that women scoring high on family load or traditional gender concepts reported higher Family Interference to Work, while men scoring high on work load or low on the personality scale of Family Orientation reported higher Work Interference to Family. Noting the limitations of the present study, we suggest further research on the relationship between work withdrawal intention and work withdrawal behavior for men and women across different age groups and across different cultures.;Keywords. Work-Family interface, Work interference to Family, Family interference to Work, Work withdrawal intention. |
