The Nature of Work-Family Conflict among Correctional Staff: An Exploratory Examination

Abstract

Work in corrections is generally seen as a stressful occupation. There has been a fair amount of research to date on the possible causes of stress among correctional staff. Nevertheless, the issue of work-family conflict has not received much attention in the correctional literature. For the present article, a survey of correctional staff at a Midwestern prison was conducted in order to determine the effects of measures for educational level, gender, work position, race, and supervisory status. Four different forms of work-family conflict were extracted (time-based, strain-based, harm caused by, and family-on-work), and time-based and strain-based were found to be significantly related to personal characteristics. Specifically, correctional officers were impacted by work-family conflict more than other staff, as were staff who had less tenure and those without a college degree.