Who's Remembering to Buy the Eggs? The Meaning, Measurement, and Implications of Invisible Family Load.

Although much is known of the observable physical tasks associated with household management and child rearing, there is scant understanding of the less visible tasks that are just as critical. Grounding our research in the extant literature, the broader lay discussion, as well as our own qualitative research, we define, conceptualize, and operationalize this construct, which we label as "invisible family load." Using a mixed method, five-study approach, we offer a comprehensive, multidimensional definition and provide a nine-item, empirically validated scale to measure its component parts-managerial, cognitive, and emotional family load. In addition, we investigate gender differences and find, as expected, that women report higher levels of each dimension. We also examine the implications of invisible family load for employee health, well-being, and job attitudes, as well as family-to-work spillover. Although we substantiated some significant negative consequences, contrary to the popular view that consequences of invisible family load are uniformly negative, our results show some potential benefits. Even after accounting for conscientiousness and neuroticism, managerial family load related to greater family-work enrichment, and cognitive family load related to greater family satisfaction and job performance. Yet, emotional family load had uniformly negative potential consequences including greater family-to-work conflict, sleep problems, family and job exhaustion, and lower life and family satisfaction. Our research sets the stage for scholars to forge a path forward to enhance understanding of this phenomenon and its implications for individuals, their families, and the organizations for which they work. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10869-023-09887-7.

Balancing work and family: A theoretical explanation and longitudinal examination of its relation to spillover and role functioning.

We take a temporally dynamic perspective to present a model that explains the relations among work-family spillover (conflict and enrichment), work-family balance, and role satisfaction and performance over time. We posit that these relationships differ for two primary conceptualizations, balance satisfaction and effectiveness. We collect data using two samples, each with three time points. In Study 1 (N = 681), we test our hypotheses for balance satisfaction. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that bidirectional enrichment predicted subsequent job and family satisfaction, and in turn, balance satisfaction. Thus, enrichment appears to primarily initiate the balance satisfaction process as it unfolds over time. Contrary to common theoretical and practical assumptions, role satisfaction seems to drive balance satisfaction rather than the other way around. In Study 2 (N = 493), we test our hypotheses for balance satisfaction and balance effectiveness. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that conflict primarily initiated the balance effectiveness process where role performance and balance effectiveness operated in feedback cycles of mutual influence over time. Posthoc model tests are consistent with Study 1 in that work-to-family enrichment predicted job satisfaction and in turn, balance satisfaction. Collectively, these studies suggest that the processes involving balance satisfaction versus balance effectiveness have different primary originating factors (enrichment or conflict, respectfully) and different temporal sequencing with role satisfaction and performance (unidirectional vs. reciprocal, respectively), warranting distinct theoretical explanations. This program of research represents a comprehensive, theoretical explanation and temporal examination of work-family balance, setting the stage for a new phase of research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Changes to the work-family interface during the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining predictors and implications using latent transition analysis.

Employees around the world have experienced sudden, significant changes in their work and family roles due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, applied psychologists have limited understanding of how employee experiences of work-family conflict and enrichment have been affected by this event and what organizations can do to ensure better employee functioning during such societal crises. Adopting a person-centered approach, we examine transitions in employees' work-family interfaces from before COVID-19 to after its onset. First, in Study 1, using latent profile analysis (N = 379; nonpandemic data), we identify profiles of bidirectional conflict and enrichment, including beneficial (low conflict and high enrichment), active (medium conflict and enrichment), and passive (low conflict and enrichment). In Study 2, with data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we replicate Study 1 profiles and explore whether employees transition between work-family profiles during the pandemic. Results suggest that although many remain in prepandemic profiles, positive (from active/passive to beneficial) and negative (from beneficial to active/passive) transitions occurred for a meaningful proportion of respondents. People were more likely to go through negative transitions if they had high segmentation preferences, engaged in emotion-focused coping, experienced higher technostress, and had less compassionate supervisors. In turn, negative transitions were associated with negative employee consequences during the pandemic (e.g., lower job satisfaction and job performance, and higher turnover intent). We discuss implications for future research and for managing during societal crises, both present and future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Testing a resource-based spillover-crossover-spillover model: Transmission of social support in dual-earner couples.

We propose and test a Resource-Based Spillover-Crossover-Spillover Model (RB-SCSM) of how an employer's provision of family support resources to an employee ultimately relates to his or her partner's improved experiences at his or her work as part of a mesosystem-to-mesosystem resource transmission process. Based on a dyadic examination of 262 full-time dual-earner couples, consistent with prior research, we found that when employees perceive their organization is family supportive, they experience less work-to-family conflict, and in turn, less burnout. Building on these individual-level effects in novel ways, we demonstrate that when an employee reports less burnout, their partner perceives the employee as less burned out. Moreover, when partners perceive less employee burnout, they perceive the employee provides more emotional support for the partner's work, directly and indirectly through the family overload that the partner experiences. Finally, when the partner receives more family support for his or her work, this spills over to and is related to the partner's greater investment in his or her relationships at work. Thus, our findings empirically demonstrate a resource-based transmission from one organization to another through dynamics occurring in the family. Suggestions for practical implementation are provided, as are suggestions for future theoretically grounded research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The jingle-jangle of work-nonwork balance: A comprehensive and meta-analytic review of its meaning and measurement.

We review research on work-nonwork balance to examine the presence of the jingle fallacy-attributing different meanings to a single construct label-and the jangle fallacy-using different labels for a single construct. In 290 papers, we found 233 conceptual definitions that clustered into 5 distinct, interpretable types, suggesting evidence of the jingle fallacy. We calculated Euclidean distances to quantify the extent of the jingle fallacy and found high divergence in definitions across time and publication outlet. One exception was more agreement recently in better journals to conceptualize balance as unidimensional, psychological, and distinct from conflict and enrichment. Yet, over time many authors have committed the jangle fallacy by labeling measures of conflict and/or enrichment as balance, and disagreement persists even in better journals about the meanings attributed to balance (e.g., effectiveness, satisfaction). To examine the empirical implications of the jingle and jangle fallacies, we conducted meta-analyses of distinct operational definitions of balance with job, life, and family satisfaction. Effect sizes for conflict and enrichment measures were typically smaller than effects for balance measures, providing evidence of a unique balance construct that is not interchangeable with conflict and enrichment. To begin to remedy concerns raised by our review, we propose a definition of work-nonwork balance drawing from theory, empirical evidence from our review, and normative information about how balance should be defined. We conclude with a theory-based agenda for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

A work-family conflict/subjective well-being process model: a test of competing theories of longitudinal effects.

In the present study, we examine competing predictions of stress reaction models and adaptation theories regarding the longitudinal relationship between work-family conflict and subjective well-being. Based on data from 432 participants over 3 time points with 2 lags of varying lengths (i.e., 1 month, 6 months), our findings suggest that in the short term, consistent with prior theory and research, work-family conflict is associated with poorer subjective well-being. Counter to traditional work-family predictions but consistent with adaptation theories, after accounting for concurrent levels of work-family conflict as well as past levels of subjective well-being, past exposure to work-family conflict was associated with higher levels of subjective well-being over time. Moreover, evidence was found for reverse causation in that greater subjective well-being at 1 point in time was associated with reduced work-family conflict at a subsequent point in time. Finally, the pattern of results did not vary as a function of using different temporal lags. We discuss the theoretical, research, and practical implications of our findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Family-supportive organization perceptions and organizational commitment: the mediating role of work-family conflict and enrichment and partner attitudes.

The present study aims to explain the processes through which family-supportive organizational perceptions (FSOP) relate to employee affective commitment. We suggest multiple mechanisms through which this relationship transpires-(a) the focal employee's experience of work-to-family conflict and enrichment and (b) the attitudes of the employee's spouse/partner. Hypotheses are tested with data from 408 couples. Results suggest that employee FSOP is positively associated with employee commitment through both employee work-to-family experiences and partner attitudes. FSOP was positively related to employee work-to-family enrichment, which was positively associated with employee affective commitment. FSOP was negatively associated with employee work-to-family conflict, which related to a partner's more positive attitude toward the employee's work schedule and higher commitment to the employee's firm. Partner commitment was positively and reciprocally related to employee affective commitment. These relationships partially mediated the FSOP-employee affective commitment relationship and varied as a function of parental status and single- versus dual-earner couple status but not as a function of employee gender. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.