MODERATION EFFECTS OF MATERNAL GUILT ON WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT AND JOB INVOLVEMENT AMONG WORKING MOTHERS OF TODDLERS

Abstract

Research has shown that work-family conflict and maternal guilt have an impact on the job involvement of a mother. This study examined the relationship between work-family conflict, maternal guilt and job involvement among working mothers of toddlers. Data was obtained from 150 nurses working in five different departments of private hospitals who had 1 to 2 children from which any one was toddler (1= 87, 2= 63) aged 28-35 (M= 30.27, SD= 2.22) using a correlation research design and non-probability purposive sampling technique. Hayes Process Model for Moderation was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed maternal guilt plays a moderating role between family to work conflict and job involvement. The overall model approached significance, F (3,146) =2.32, p=0.78, R2 =0.046, indicating family to work conflict as a significant negative predictor of job involvement (B = –0.96, SE = 0.41, p = .020, 95% CI [–1.77, –0.16]), suggesting that greater interference from family into work is associated with lower levels of job involvement. However, the overall model was not statistically significant, F (3, 146) = 0.832, p = .479, R² = .017, indicating that the predictors (work to family conflict, maternal guilt, and their interaction) together did not explain a significant amount of variance in job involvement. The interaction effect between work to family conflict and maternal guilt was also not significant, B = 0.005, p = .426, 95% CI [–0.007, 0.016], suggesting that maternal guilt did not significantly moderate the relationship between work to family conflict and job involvement. Additionally, the main effects of work to family conflict (B = –0.36, p = .266) and maternal guilt (B = –0.10, p = .465) were also not statistically significant. Future studies are needed to examine the effect of maternal guilt on mothers of toddlers working in different professions.