2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

suggesting a single dimension of immediate supervisor support (alpha = .93; M = 5.40, SD =
1.47).
Data Analysis
MANOVAs and hierarchical regressions were used to examine how practitioners‘ worklife
conflict coping preferences were associated with conflict stressors, personal attributes, job
characteristics, and organizational support, as well as the combined effects of these factors.
Results
Respondent Characteristics
Of the 565 active practitioners completing the work-life conflict coping components of
the survey, 21% were male and 79% were female. The majority (89%) were white, with 6% of
Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin, 4% African American, and 2% Asian, Pacific Islander, or
Asian American. The mean age of the respondents was 42. The highest education received by
most of the respondents was some college or a bachelor‘s degree (51%), while 32% had a
master‘s degree and about 2% had a doctorate degree in philosophy, law or medicine. About 26%
of respondents were accredited in public relations (APRs).
A plurality of respondents reported working for a corporation (28%), while 22% worked
for a nonprofit or association, 17% worked in a public relations consultancy or agency, and 13%
were government or military workers. The distribution of respondents in public relations
specializations was internal/employee (37%), community relations (21%), media relations (14%),
financial/investor relations (12%), government/public affairs (8%), reputation management (6%)
and crisis management (2%).
In terms of work environment, the median of the number of practitioners working in the
public relations function in respondents‘ organizations was three people. The average years of
public relations experience of those respondents was 15. The majority (89%) of the respondents
reported having an immediate supervisor to whom they report at work, and 46% of those
immediate supervisors were reported as being in public relations.
In terms of the respondents‘ marital status, the majority (74%) reported having a live-in
partner or being married, 18% were single, 8% were divorced or separated, and 1% was
widowed. An average of 11 work hours in a typical workday was reported. More than half (59%)
of the respondents reporting bearing primary responsibility for children, with 12% of
respondents bearing primary responsibility for an older adult.
Work-Life Conflict Coping Strategies
RQ1 asked what types of coping strategies practitioners use in dealing with work-life
conflicts. Results of Principal Components Analysis with Varimax Rotation suggested six
different types of work-life conflict coping strategies used by respondents: emotional coping
(including both emotional support and emotional venting), rational action (including both
rational thinking and action), positive thinking, denial, instrumental support, and avoidances.
Among the six types of work-life coping strategies, rational action (M = 5.68, SD = .84),
positive thinking (M = 5.39, SD = 1.18), and emotional expression (M=4.68, SD = 1.39) were
used more often than were others. Further, in a work-life conflict situations, among the three
more widely used coping strategies, rational action and positive thinking were utilized
significantly more than emotional expression (t = 15.81, df = 553, p < .001; t = 9.92, df = 554,
p < .001, respectively), while rational action was utilized significantly more than positive
thinking (t = 6.96, df = 550, p < .001). Therefore, rational action, as a combination of proactive
cognitive and conative coping, was reported as being the most-used coping strategy when
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