Table 2.

Types of role conflict and balance and their perceived direction of impact

	Role overload	Role conflict	Role strain	Role facilitation
Definition	Perception that there are too few hours in a day to fulfil all role demands	The requirements of one role are perceived as being at odds with another role	Psychological stress is created by conflicting role demands or trying to balance multiple roles	Positive aspects of one role are perceived as enhancing other roles
A → W	Rarely discussed	Frequently discussed	Frequently discussed	Not discussed
	Arthritis symptoms sometimes resulted in work tasks taking longer; potentially affects productivity	Arthritis created difficulty in multiple ways: symptoms or medication side effects made work tasks difficult (e.g. pain, nausea); unpredictable symptoms made it difficult to plan at work; fatigue and lack of energy affected concentration and productivity; and difficulty accepting the disease and its impact on work sometimes resulted in reduced motivation for working	Examples include: makes one look unprofessional; may prevent career development and undermine promotion opportunities; creates financial and other worries for future if unable to remain employed
W → A	Sometimes discussed	Not discussed	Frequently discussed	Frequently discussed (see Table 3 for details)
	Work demands can interfere with health appointments or can be exhausting and make it difficult to find time to care for arthritis		Examples include: a heavy workload, lack of control over work tasks or problems with managers and co-workers can have a negative impact on physical and psychological health
A → P	Frequently discussed Arthritis noted as having a considerable impact on time spent in activities related to personal life Role loss discussed	Frequently discussed Focus was on fatigue Fatigue can undermine personal life activities; can create interpersonal problems with family and friends	Frequently discussed Examples include: feeling guilty or being moody because of arthritis. This is detrimental to relationships with others	Not discussed
P → A	Sometimes discussed	Not discussed	Frequently discussed	Sometimes discussed (see Table 3 for details)
	Managing personal demands can be exhausting and make it difficult to find time to care for arthritis		Interpersonal stress with family or friends is perceived as negatively affecting arthritis (e.g. contributing to pain) and to general health problems
W → P	Frequently discussed	Not discussed	Not discussed	Not discussed
	The demands of work leave little time for personal life
	Participants felt forced to make ‘trade-offs’ or give up personal life activities to remain working
A + W → P	Frequently discussed Arthritis plus work did not leave enough time for one’s personal life Role loss discussed	Frequently discussed Fatigue undermines personal activities Fatigue can create interpersonal problems with family and friends	Frequently discussed See comments for A → P Work role demands create stress in one’s personal life	Not discussed

A → W: arthritis impacts work; W → A: work impacts arthritis; A → P: arthritis impacts personal life; P → A: personal life impacts arthritis; A + W → P: arthritis plus work impacts personal life. Personal life impacts work (P → W) not discussed by participants; work impacts personal life (W → P) was discussed as the combined impact of arthritis plus work on personal life (i.e. A + W → P).