Abstract

The growing involvement of women in the labour force has greatly changed the family roles especially on the working mothers who have to juggle work and family life. Such a two-fold position subjects a person to work family conflict, which has adverse effects on psychological health and workplace performance. The current paper focuses on interrelationship between self-compassion and work-family conflict among working mothers in Mumbai. The quantitative research design was taken, and a sample of 224 mothers who work was used to collect data by using a structured questionnaire. The methods used to analyze data in the study were statistical methods like regression analysis, ANOVA, as well as Multilevel Modeling, also known as Hierarchical Linear Modeling. The results indicate that the negative effect of self- compassion on work-family conflict is very high meaning that the greater the levels of self-compassion, the less the work-family conflict. The results of ANOVA also reveal that there is a significant age difference between the levels of work family conflict, the younger working mothers having higher levels of conflict. Also, the findings of the multilevel modeling prove that individual-level influences (self-compassion) and organization-level influences (organizational support) affect the work family conflict substantially. The research points to the relevance of psychological resources and favorable working conditions as the means of enabling working mothers to cope with their two tasks successfully. The research findings can assist the current body of work on work-family relationships and could help organizations and policy-makers formulate policies that facilitate work-life balance and enhance the livelihood of working mothers.