Work–family conflict and job burnout among police officers in China

Police officers perform an important service, but certain aspects of the job can result in officers suffering from work-family conflict (WFC). The current study examined how time-, behavior-, strain-, and family-based WFC were related to the three burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of accomplishment at work among 589 police officers in China. Behavior-, strain-, and family-based WFC were associated with greater emotional exhaustion. Behavior- and family-based WFC were associated with greater depersonalization, but time-based WFC was associated with lower depersonalization. Time-based WFC also had a significant negative association with a reduced sense of accomplishment at work, while behavior-based conflict had a significant positive association. The results indicate that WFC contributes to job burnout for officers in China, as it does for officers in other nations, and that WFC differs in its relationships with the three burnout dimensions.