The Relationship between Work and Family Interference and Service Quality among Chinese Social Workers: The Roles of Emotional Exhaustion and Work Support.

This article examines how interference between work and family roles—specifically work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW)—affects the service quality of Chinese social workers, using conservation of resources (COR) theory as a framework. Analyzing data from 1,417 social workers in the 2019 China Social Work Longitudinal Study, the study finds that FIW directly reduces service quality, while WIF affects service quality indirectly through emotional exhaustion. Additionally, work support moderates these effects by buffering the impact of work–family interference on emotional exhaustion and, consequently, service quality. The findings suggest that social work organizations should implement interventions addressing work–family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and enhance workplace support to improve service quality.