Is cortisol as a biomarker of stress influenced by the interplay of work-family conflict, work-family balance and resilience?

Purpose - The demands of balancing work and family roles are associated with stress experiences. Stress increases if work impinges too far on what is required from one's family while a balance between these demands tends to decreases stress. The purpose of this paper is to investigate resilience for the extent to which it can predict both work-family conflict (WFC) and balance (WFB). Moreover, cortisol levels will be used as a physiological indicator of stress. Design/methodology/approach - Totally, 35 employed parents with children up to the age of six took part in the study. Salivary cortisol was collected three times a day. Findings - Results show that cortisol levels are related to internal as well as external WFCs while WFB is not significantly linked with cortisol. Resilience has a beneficial influence on the mean cortisol level. Moreover, resilience is also advantageous for the work-family interplay, especially WFB. Practical implications - The study concludes with suggestions for further research and advises that organizational and individual health promoting activities should seek to implement WFB as well as resilience strategies. Originality/value - For the first time, the aim is to assess whether work-family interplay and resilience are associated with an objective biomarker of stress, namely cortisol.