Description

The Work-Family Conflict / Family-Work Conflict Scale (WFC-FCW-12) is a psychometric instrument designed to assess the bidirectional interference between professional and family roles.

The scale examines two complementary directions of role conflict: how professional demands interfere with family responsibilities and how family obligations affect professional functioning. It is designed for working individuals with family responsibilities and aims to identify the level and nature of conflict experienced between work and family domains.

Objective

The main objective of the WFC-FCW-12 is to measure the degree to which work and family roles negatively influence each other.

The scale aims to:

evaluate work-related demands that interfere with family life,

assess the impact of family responsibilities on professional activities,

identify psychological and behavioural aspects of role conflict,

examine factors associated with occupational and family well-being.

Structure and Content

The WFC-FCW-12 was developed by Carlson and Frone (2003) and adapted into Greek by Kafetsios, Perissinakis, and Lydaki.

The questionnaire consists of 12 items, organised into four subscales of three items each.

The four dimensions assessed are:

Work-Family External Conflict (WFE): Evaluates external work conditions, such as workload, schedules, and professional demands, that interfere with family responsibilities.

Work-Family Internal Conflict (WFI): Assesses internal psychological pressures originating from work that negatively affect family life, such as stress or emotional strain.

Family-Work External Conflict (FWE): Examines how external family demands interfere with professional responsibilities.

Family-Work Internal Conflict (FWI): Evaluates internal emotional and cognitive difficulties caused by family responsibilities that affect work functioning.

Scoring Method

The WFC-FCW-12 is a self-report questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale.

Responses range from:

1 = Almost Never / Never

to

5 = Almost Always / Always.

Scores can be calculated as:

an overall conflict score,

or separate scores for each of the four subscales, providing information about the direction and intensity of work-family interference.

Data Analysis and Use

Each subscale score is calculated by summing the responses to its three items, resulting in scores ranging from 3 to 15 for each dimension.

Higher scores indicate greater levels of conflict between work and family roles.

The internal and external dimensions help identify whether conflict is mainly related to external circumstances, such as workload and schedules, or to internal psychological processes, such as stress, guilt, and perceived inadequacy in fulfilling role demands.

The scale can be used in occupational psychology, organisational research, and studies examining relationships between work conditions, family functioning, job satisfaction, and psychological distress.

Validity

The validity of the WFC-FCW-12 has been supported through confirmatory factor analysis.

Research by Kafetsios (2007) confirmed a strong and distinct four-factor structure, supporting the ability of the scale to measure the bidirectional conflict between work and family domains.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the WFC-FCW-12 has been evaluated in Greek samples.

In a sample of 365 teachers, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were:

WFE = 0.84

WFI = 0.84

FWE = 0.82

FWI = 0.91.

In a second sample of 93 employed individuals in couple relationships, reliability coefficients were:

WFE = 0.70

WFI = 0.82

FWE = 0.89

FWI = 0.92.

These findings indicate satisfactory to excellent reliability across different occupational populations.

Applications

The WFC-FCW-12 can be applied in:

occupational health psychology,

organisational research,

studies of work-life balance,

employee well-being assessment,

research on job satisfaction and psychological distress.

It is particularly useful for understanding how professional and family demands interact and for designing interventions that promote healthier work-family relationships.

References

Kafetsios, K. (2007). Work-family conflict and its relationship with job satisfaction and psychological distress: The role of affect at work and gender. Hellenic Journal of Psychology, 4, 15–35.

Carlson, D. S., & Frone, M. R. (2003). Relation of behavioral and psychological involvement to a new four-factor conceptualization of work-family interference. Journal of Business and Psychology, 17(4), 515–535.