Abstract
Using the cross-national data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2015, this thesis compared workers in the United States and Japan. This thesis examined the potential factors resulting in unequal distribution of work-to-family conflict based on three research questions. First, I tested whether one experienced different levels of work-to-family conflict depending on the occupational status they had. Second, the thesis investigated whether specific job characteristics predicted the degree to which one was susceptible to work-to-family conflict. In particular, the thesis tested the consequences of the following natures of work conditions: job autonomy, job authority, control over working schedule, personal earnings, boredom at work, job insecurity, working on weekends, and weekly working hours. This thesis, therefore, not only identified the level of occupational status, but also examined the work conditions and characteristics that produced more work-to-family conflict. Finally, this thesis compared the above relationships by gender and between two countries: the United States and Japan. It was argued that the examination of the effect of cultural and social contexts on work-to-family conflict showed that American workers were likely to experience higher levels of work-to-family conflict than Japanese workers. It was also argued that, as peculiar Japanese cultural and social contexts, there were the effects of age and educational attainment on work-to-family conflict. Specifically, older Japanese workers were likely to experience lower levels of work-to-family conflict, and Japanese workers with higher educational attainment were likely to experience higher levels of work-to-family conflict. These findings implied that there were the different cultural and social contexts between the United States and Japan.