Well-Being of Canadian Armed Forces Members: The Roles of Work-Family Conflict and Organizational Su

Primary Population: Regular Force members
Life Phase of Service: In-service
Area of Health: Mental health and well-being

Key Words: Canadian Armed Forces, military, well-being, work-family conflict, psychological distress, job engagement, burnout


[ABSTRACT] (Maximum 400 words)

Background: The military and the family are often described as “greedy” institutions, in that they have competing demands and may cause a work-family conflict among military members. Work-family conflict has been found to be an important contributor not only for organizational outcomes, including job engagement and burnout, but also for military members’ psychological health. Although organizational support has been linked to better organizational outcomes, there has been limited research examining the role of organizational support to members and families in well-being of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine the role of work-family conflict and the unique and protective roles of organizational support to members and families in the job engagement, burnout, and well-being of CAF members.

Methods: Your Say Matters: Defence Team Well-Being Survey was administered to a random sample of Regular Force CAF members (N = 3,852). Three hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the roles of work-family conflict (interference of work demands with family life), family-work conflict (interference of family demands with work), and work-life balance as well as organizational support to members and their family in predicting job engagement, burnout, and psychological distress of military members.

Results: It was found that work-family and family-work conflicts, as well as satisfaction with the work-life balance were predictive of the organizational outcomes and well-being of CAF members. Organizational member support was consistently predictive of all the outcomes, and family support was predictive of job engagement and psychological distress. Finally, family support moderated the path between work-family conflict and burnout and the path between family-work and job engagement, whereas organizational member support moderated the path between life-work conflict and psychological distress.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the importance of maintaining balance between work and family domains. Organizational support provided to the member and the family was found to be directly related to better organizational and members’ well-being outcomes, and also to buffer the negative impact of the conflict between work and family. Providing support to military members and their families plays an important protective role by mitigating some of the negative impacts of work and family conflicts on organizational outcomes and members’ well-being. It is, therefore, recommended that leaders not only reinforce the importance of work-life balance, but also focus their efforts on providing organizational support to members and families in order to improve the organizational outcomes and well-being among military members.