Previous research in work-family conflict focused on current conflict and yielded contradictory findings. The present study is among the first to examine the relationships among sex, measures of sex role and of anticipated work-family conflict. Anticipated conflict was measured using a modified version of the Interrole Conflict Scale. In a sample of 256 university students, men more than women anticipated greater career conflict. Pieck's 1977 hypothesis of “asymmetrical permeability” was posited as a potential explanation for this finding. The expected relationship between sex-role orientation as measured on the Bern Sex-role Inventory and work-family conflict was not obtained.
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