THE EFFECTS OF WORK- FAMILY CONFLICT ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN; USING SMART KIDS SCHOOL AS A CASE.

ABSTRACT People cannot fully enjoy their personal lives whiles achieving all their job related goals. In many situations, people are forced to make compromises; conflict between their work and family are no exception. Work-family conflict is a determinant in maximizing productivity in every industry and in fulfilling the duties in respective homes. Parents are saddled with a lot of work and they are again demanded to care for their children. The inter-role conflict that occurs when engaging in one role makes it more difficult to engage in the other role; this brings about an imbalance that has rippling effects on the performance of their children. This research seeks to determine the effects of work-family conflict on the performance of children who attend Smart Kids School. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were conducted to achieve the objectives of this research. Samples of 250 respondents were systematically selected for the quantitative study from the parents whose children attend Smart Kids School. 12 respondents participated in the qualitative study, who were selected from pupils in primary 5 and 6 in Smart Kids School. Data from the quantitative studies were entered into a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software while the qualitative data was transcribed and analysed thematically. Analyzed data were presented in tables. Findings from the study showed (82%) of the respondents believed they had a good Work- family balance (WFB), (18%) admitted they had Work- family conflict (WFC). Further statistical analysis showed that, work family conflict significantly impacts on their children, with an R² value of .402. pupils who were interviewed verified that their academic performance had decreased due to the WFC of their parents.