Making policies more effective: The differentiated impact of work-family conflict on environmental public participation

With the accelerated pace of society, work pressures and life matters deplete the public's time, energy, and emotional resources, consequently impacting their engagement in environmental public activities. This study utilizes the data from the China Social Survey 2019 and the Chinese General Social Survey 2021 to explore the effect of work-family conflict on two types of environmental public participation (daily participation and resistance participation). The findings include: (1) Work-family conflict negatively affects daily participation and positively affects resistance participation. (2) Environmental concern strengthens the negative effect of work-family conflict on daily participation. (3) Government environmental work satisfaction strengthens the positive effect of work-family conflict on resistance participation. The current study provides clarity on the relationship between work-family conflict and environmental public participation. The authors also propose targeted policy recommendations to mitigate work-family conflict in the public sphere and promote effective environmental public participation.