Control Over Areas of Work and Family

Abstract

The Control Over Areas of Work and Family scale (COAWF), developed by Thomas and Ganster in 1995, is a 14-item instrument designed to quantify an employee’s perceived control over demands and responsibilities in both their professional and personal lives. This perception of control is critical as it has been empirically linked to the experience of work-family conflict and overall psychological strain. The scale assesses control across various domains, including flexibility in work scheduling, arranging part-time employment, and managing dependent care responsibilities, such as taking time off to attend to a sick parent or child.

Keywords

Work-family conflict, Perceived control, Work scheduling, Dependent care, Job resources, Organizational support, Thomas and Ganster, Work-life balance.

Authors

L. T. Thomas, D. C. Ganster

Purpose

The primary purpose of the COAWF scale is to provide researchers and organizational psychologists with a reliable measure of the extent to which employees feel autonomous regarding the intersection of their professional duties and family obligations. By measuring perceived control, the scale helps identify specific organizational barriers or facilitators that contribute to employee well-being and productivity.

Specifically, the instrument is utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of family-supportive work policies. A higher score on the COAWF indicates greater perceived flexibility and choice, which is theorized to mitigate the negative outcomes associated with high work-family conflict.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of perceived control within the context of the work-family interface. This construct is based on the premise that having agency over when, where, and how one manages competing work and family demands acts as a buffer against stress and strain, which are common precursors to burnout and decreased performance.

The 14 items cover two broad dimensions: control over work aspects (e.g., scheduling, working from home) and control over family care aspects (e.g., choice regarding dependent care quality and timing). The overall score reflects a generalized sense of mastery over these critical life domains that influence the balance between professional and personal life.

Validity

The original validation study demonstrated strong evidence for the construct validity of the COAWF scale. The measure exhibited theoretically consistent relationships with key organizational and psychological outcomes, supporting its utility in work psychology research.

Specifically, greater perceived control over work and family areas correlated positively with desirable outcomes such as increased job satisfaction and higher levels of perceived support from the organization. Conversely, the scale showed significant negative correlations with indicators of strain, including measures of perceived work-family conflict and symptoms of depression, confirming that control acts as a protective factor against psychological distress (Thomas & Ganster, 1995).

Reliability

The internal consistency of the Control Over Areas of Work and Family scale was established using Coefficient alpha in the initial study by Thomas and Ganster (1995). A reliability score of .75 was reported.

This alpha value indicates acceptable internal consistency for an academic scale, suggesting that the 14 items reliably measure a unified underlying construct related to the control experienced across work and family domains. This benchmark supports the use of the scale as a stable research instrument.

Factor Analysis

While the original publication established the scale’s utility through strong reliability and criterion validity, explicit details regarding the formal factor structure (e.g., results of Exploratory or Confirmatory Factor Analysis) were not fully detailed in the summarized source material. However, the nature of the items strongly suggests a potential multi-dimensional structure.

Researchers often interpret the results either as a single, overarching construct of general work-family control, or they may partition the items into subscales corresponding to control over work flexibility versus control over family/dependent care arrangements, reflecting the dual focus of the measure.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological inventory

Format: 14 items utilizing a 5-point Likert-type scale.

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: Working adults/Employees with family responsibilities

Age Group: Adult (typically 25+)

Population Details: Primarily developed and validated on employees in organizational settings who manage competing demands related to work and dependent care (e.g., children or elderly relatives).

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate their level of choice or control for each statement, ranging from 1 (“very little”) to 5 (“very much”).

Keywords

Organizational psychology, Work-life integration, Employee well-being, Flexibility, Depression, Job control, Psychometrics.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in source

Correspondence Address: Not specified in source

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1995

Permissions: The scale items were published in the appendix of the original journal article. The content is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association (APA). Permission for commercial use or large-scale administration should be verified with the APA or the original authors, L. Thomas and D. C. Ganster.

Fee: Typically, academic scales published in journals are available for non-commercial research use without charge, provided proper citation is maintained.

References

• Thomas, L. T., & Ganster, D. C. (1995). Impact of family-supportive work variables on work-family conflict and strain: A control perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(1), 6-15.

Items of the Control Over Areas of Work and Family

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Responses are obtained on a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = very little and 5 = very much.

1. How much choice do you have over the amount and quality of day care available for your child/children?
2. How much choice do you have over the amount and quality of care available for a sick child?
3. How much choice do you have in obtaining adult supervision for your child/children before or after school?
4. How much choice do you have over the amount and quality of day care available for a dependent parent or other relative?
5. How much choice do you have over when you begin and end each workday or each workweek?
6. How much choice do you have in arranging part-time employment?
7. To what extent can you choose to do some of your work at home instead of your usual place of employment?
8. How much choice do you have over amount and timing of work that you must do at home in order to meet your employment demands?
9. How much choice do you have over the amount you pay for dependent care?
10. How much choice do you have over when you can take vacations or days off?
11. How much choice do you have over when you can take a few hours off?
12. To what extent are you expected to limit the number of times you make or receive personal phone calls while you work?
13. How much choice do you have in making unanticipated child care arrangements (e.g., during snow days or unexpected job delays)?
14. In general, how much control do you have over the way you balance working and parenting?