The impact of sociodemographic factors and work-family conflict on the relationship between organizational support and women’s burnout

Abstract

Women’s burnout affects not only the individuals suffering from this condition but also those around them and the organization they work for. This phenomenon spills over into their personal lives and increases the likelihood of work-family conflicts. Organizational, personal, and family circumstances can affect women’s burnout. This study aims to determine the influence of perceived organizational support on burnout at work while mediating work-family conflict and moderating sociodemographic factors such as age, romantic relationship status, and number of children. The quantitative study involved 404 employed women aged 18 to 64. A structured questionnaire was distributed via social media or e-mail targeting employed women in Lithuania’s public and private sectors. IBM SPSS and a special PROCESS macro were applied to perform a mediation-moderation analysis. The study showed that the direct effect of perceived organizational support is greater than the indirect effect in mediating work-family conflicts. This is true in the case of both general burnout and its separate components. The significant moderating effect of age revealed that younger women aged 18 to 34 experience more burnout than older women. The number of children demonstrated a significant moderating effect between perceived organizational support and burnout and its dimensions for women with two or more kids. No moderating effect of romantic relationship status on the interconnection between perceived organizational support and women’s overall burnout or its individual dimensions was found.

Keywords

• burnout
• disengagement
• exhaustion
• perceived organizational support
• work-family conflict