The theoretical and empirical utility of dimension-based work-family conflict: A meta-analysis.

Most work-family conflict (WFC) research does not theorize, hypothesize, or empirically test phenomena at the dimension level. Instead, researchers have predominantly used composite-level approaches based on the directions of WFC (work-to-family and family-to-work conflict). However, conceptualizing and operationalizing WFC at the composite level instead of at the dimension level has not been confirmed as a well-founded strategy. The goal of the current research is to explore whether there is theoretical and empirical evidence in the WFC literature to support the importance of dimension-level theorizing and operationalization when compared to composite-level approaches. To advance theory related to the dimensions of WFC, we begin by reviewing WFC theories and then demonstrate the relevance of resource allocation theory to the time-based dimension, spillover theory to the strain-based dimension, and boundary theory to the behavior-based dimension. From this theorizing, we highlight and meta-analytically test the relative importance of specific variables from the WFC nomological network that are theoretically connected to each dimension: time and family demands for the time-based dimension, work role ambiguity for the strain-based dimension, and family-supportive supervisor behaviors and nonwork support for the behavior-based dimension. Reviewing and drawing from bandwidth-fidelity theory, we also question whether composite-based WFC approaches are more appropriate for broad constructs (i.e., job satisfaction and life satisfaction). The results of our meta-analytic relative importance analyses generally support a dimension-based approach and overall follow the pattern of results expected from our dimension-level theorizing, even when broad constructs are considered. Theoretical, future research, and practical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Hidden costs of anticipated workload for individuals and partners: Exploring the role of daily fluctuations in workaholism.

The present study advances a within-person approach to the study of workaholism in line with whole trait theory, arguing that individuals have general workaholic tendencies as well as daily fluctuations in workaholism. We tested this model using an experience sampling study of 121 U.S. employees and their spouses who completed self-report surveys for 10 working days. Multilevel analyses supported the idea that workaholism varies at the daily level, and trait workaholism was significantly related to higher daily fluctuations in workaholism averaged across the 10 days. Consistent with whole trait theory (Fleeson, 2007), we found anticipated workload each morning positively related to daily fluctuations in workaholism. Moreover, individuals reported feeling more fatigued on days they report higher daily workaholism, and daily fluctuations in workaholism were related to stress crossover and spouse's relationship tension. Overall, results support a within-person conceptualization of workaholism, linking anticipated workload to daily fluctuations in workaholism, which in turn demonstrates negative spillover and crossover outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Health behavior among working adults: Workload and exhaustion are associated with nutrition and physical activity behaviors that lead to weight gain.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between workload, exhaustion, and key health behaviors for weight loss-nutrition and physical activity. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the path coefficients in a sample of 953 employed adults. The results show that workload and exhaustion were positively related to emotional eating, uncontrolled eating, and percent of calories from fat. In addition, exhaustion was negatively related to physical activity levels. Workload and exhaustion are associated with nutrition and physical activity behaviors that promote weight gain and should be considered in weight management interventions for working adults.

The flux, pulse, and spin of aggression-related affect.

Aggression is an affect-laden behavior. The within-person variability of affective states that immediately precede, accompany, and follow aggression-and their links to between-person variability in aggressive behavior and traits-remain incompletely understood. To address this gap in our understanding, we examined 8 studies in which 2,173 participants reported the negative and positive affect they experienced before, during, and after a laboratory or online aggression task. We quantified the within-person variability within (flux) and across (pulse) negative and positive affect intensity, as well as the variability in oscillations between negative and positive affect (spin). Internal meta-analyses revealed an association between aggressive behavior and traits and flux in positive affect (against our preregistered predictions). Probing this effect with piecewise growth models showed that less aggressive individuals exhibited a pronounced decrease in positive affect during aggression, as compared to before and after the act. This downward fluctuation in positive affect was attenuated among aggressive individuals, who exhibited relatively stable levels of positive aggression-related affect. Thus, stable positive affect surrounding an aggressive act and higher positive affect during the act may buttress and promote aggressive tendencies. These findings support a reinforcement model of aggressive behavior, contrast with the aggression literature's conventional focus on negative affect and the instability thereof, and point to the utility of dynamic measures of moment-to-moment affect in understanding human social behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Work-family strategies during COVID-19: Examining gender dynamics among dual-earner couples with young children.

There are several existing typologies of dual-earner couples focused on how they dually manage work and family; however, these all assume that couples can outsource childcare during normal work hours and that work is largely conducted outside of the home. Early attempts to control COVID-19 altered these assumptions with daycares/schools closing and the heavy shift to remote work. This calls into question whether couples tended to fall back on familiar gendered patterns to manage work and family, or if they adopted new strategies for the unique pandemic situation. We addressed this question using a sample of 274 dual-earner couples with young children. We content coded couples' qualitative responses about their plans for managing childcare and work commitments and used these codes in a latent class analysis to identify subgroups. Seven classes were identified, with 36.6% of the sample using strategies where women did most or all childcare, 18.9% of the sample using strategies that were not clearly gendered or egalitarian, and 44.5% of the sample using unique egalitarian strategies. We also obtained data from 133 of these couples approximately 7 weeks later regarding their well-being and job performance. Results suggested that women in the Remote Wife Does It All class had the lowest well-being and performance. There were nuanced differences between the egalitarian strategies in their relationships with outcomes, with the Alternating Days egalitarian category emerging as the overall strategy that best preserved wives' and husbands' well-being while allowing both to maintain adequate job performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Workload, Workaholism, and Job Performance: Uncovering Their Complex Relationship.

The current study aimed to test how workload, via workaholism, impacts job performance along with the complex interplay of perfectionistic concerns and work engagement in this mediated relationship. A two-wave, first and second stage dual-moderated mediation model was tested in an SEM framework. Results based on a sample of 208 workers revealed a complex and nuanced relationship among the studied constructs, such that the simple mediation model was not significant, but the indirect effect was negative, nonsignificant, or positive conditional on both moderators. The results offer interesting theoretical and practical implications for future studies to be conducted in this area of research. In particular, lower levels of perfectionistic concerns were associated with a positive relationship between workload and workaholism, and lower levels of work engagement were related to a negative link between workaholism and job performance. Findings suggest work engagement should be monitored and promoted by managers, especially when workload, and consequently, the possible risk of workaholism, cannot be avoided.

The Multidimensional Workaholism Scale: Linking the conceptualization and measurement of workaholism.

Scholarly interest in workaholism has increased dramatically in recent years. This research has underscored the detrimental effects of workaholism for employees, their families, and the organizations that employ them. Despite drastic improvements in the quality of studies examining workaholism over the past several decades, researchers continue to almost exclusively rely on older measures of workaholism or new measures derived from these original measures. In the present study, we outline why a new measure is needed and propose a multidimensional conceptualization of workaholism that encompasses motivational, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions. We then develop and validate a new multidimensional measure of workaholism: the Multidimensional Workaholism Scale (MWS). Evidence from 5 samples representing individuals working in a wide variety of occupations and industries throughout the United States (total N = 1,252) provides support that (a) our proposed 4-factor structure replicates and fits better than alternative models; (b) the measure demonstrates high reliability and content validity; (c) the measure demonstrates evidence for convergent and discriminant validity with constructs in workaholism's nomological network; (d) the measure demonstrates incremental validity in the prediction of important outcomes over and above prior measures of workaholism; and (e) the different dimensions demonstrate incremental validity in the prediction of specific outcomes over and above other dimensions of the MWS. Overall, results from the present study suggest that the MWS is a reliable and valid measure that can advance a more nuanced approach to research and practice relating to workaholism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Development of a taxonomy of practice-related stressors experienced by veterinarians in the United States.

OBJECTIVE To develop a comprehensive taxonomy of practice-related stressors experienced by US veterinarians. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SAMPLE A subset of 1,422 US veterinarians who provided written (vs selected) responses to a question in a previous survey regarding practice-related stressors. PROCEDURES Using grounded theory analysis, 3 researchers inductively analyzed written survey responses concerning respondents' main practice-related stressors. In 5 iterations, responses were individually coded and categorized, and a final list of practice-related stressor categories and subcategories was iteratively and collaboratively developed until theoretical and analytic saturation of the data was achieved. RESULTS A taxonomy of 15 categories of broad practice-related stressors and 40 subcategories of more specific practice-related stressors was developed. The most common practice-related stressor categories included financial insecurity (n = 289 [20.3%]), client issues (254 [17.9%]), coworker or interpersonal issues (181 [12.7%]), and work-life balance (166 [11.7%]). The most common subcategories were clients unwilling to pay (118 [8.3%]), low income (98 [6.9%]), cost of maintaining practice (56 [3.9%]), and government or state board policies (48 [3.4%]). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE This study provided a comprehensive list of the types of practice-related stressors experienced by US veterinarians, building a foundation for future research into relationships between job stress and mental health in this population. Frequency data on the various stressors provided an initial understanding of factors that might be contributing to high stress rates among US veterinarians.

Resilient family processes, personal reintegration, and subjective well-being outcomes for military personnel and their family members.

Deployment affects not just the service members, but also their family members back home. Accordingly, this study examined how resilient family processes during a deployment (i.e., frequency of communication and household management) were related to the personal reintegration of each family member (i.e., how well each family member begins to "feel like oneself again" after a deployment), as well as several indicators of subjective well-being. Drawing from the family attachment network model (Riggs & Riggs, 2011), the present study collected survey data from 273 service members, their partners, and their adolescent children. Resilient family processes during the deployment itself (i.e., frequency of communication, household management), postdeployment positive and negative personal reintegration, and several indicators of well-being were assessed. Frequency of communication was related to personal reintegration for service members, while household management was related to personal reintegration for nondeployed partners; both factors were related to personal reintegration for adolescents. Negative and positive personal reintegration related to a variety of subjective well-being outcomes for each individual family member. Interindividual (i.e., crossover) effects were also found, particularly between adolescents and nondeployed partners. (PsycINFO Database Record

Workload and Marital Satisfaction over Time: Testing Lagged Spillover and Crossover Effects during the Newlywed Years.

Although many studies have found that higher workloads covary with lower levels of marital satisfaction, the question of whether workloads may also predict changes in marital satisfaction over time has been overlooked. To address this question, we investigated the lagged association between own and partner workload and marital satisfaction using eight waves of data collected every 6 months over the first four years of marriage from 172 heterosexual couples. Significant crossover, but not spillover, effects were found, indicating that partners of individuals with higher workloads at one time point experience greater declines in marital satisfaction by the following time point compared to the partners of individuals with lower workloads. These effects were not moderated by gender or parental status. These findings suggest that higher partner workloads can prove deleterious for relationship functioning over time and call for increased attention to the long-term effects of spillover and crossover from work to marital functioning.

Gender Bias in the Measurement of Workaholism.

Past research suggests gender differences in workaholism might be due to differences in how men and women respond to the item content in workaholism measures. Using item response theory differential item functioning, we show women are less likely to report some workaholism items, leading to contamination. Specifically, women are less likely to report spending more time at work than other activities, and staying at work longer than others. We speculate that societal norms and practical restrictions on women's time results in lower endorsement rates for these items compared to men, and thus underestimates their workaholism. Results contradict past findings that men and women are similar in regard to workaholism and suggest women are in fact higher in workaholism than men. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Differential Reactivity and the Within-person Job Stressor-Satisfaction Relationship.

An experience sampling methodology was used to study the direct and conditional within-person relationship between job stressors and job satisfaction. One hundred and one full-time administrative staff completed momentary measures of job stressors and job satisfaction three times a day on six different workdays over a 3-week period (N = 1818 observations). Multilevel random coefficients models were specified, and the results suggest that within-person stressors are negatively related to within-person job satisfaction. These results stand when controlling for the effects of time, demographics, work characteristics, baseline levels of job stressors and satisfaction, and between-person effects of job stressors. Furthermore, consistent with the differential reactivity model, the results suggest that the observed within-person stressors-satisfaction relationship is conditional upon locus of control and positive affect. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Workaholism, work engagement and work-home outcomes: exploring the mediating role of positive and negative emotions.

This study examines the mechanisms through which workaholism and work engagement impact work-home conflict and enrichment, respectively. Specifically, we examine the mediating role of positive and negative emotions (e.g. joviality and guilt) in the relationship between workaholism, work engagement and work-home outcomes. Results, based on a sample of 340 working adults participating in a two-wave study, indicate that negative emotions-particularly anxiety, anger and disappointment-mediate the relationship between workaholism and work-home conflict and positive emotions-particularly joviality and self-assurance-mediate the relationship between work engagement and work-home enrichment. These results provide further evidence that workaholism and work engagement are related to distinct sets of emotional variables and disparate work and home outcomes.

Investigating the relative importance of individual differences on the work-family interface and the moderating role of boundary preference for segmentation.

This study examines the relative importance of individual differences in relation to perceptions of work-family conflict and facilitation, as well as the moderating role of boundary preference for segmentation on these relationships. Relative importance analyses, based on a diverse sample of 380 employees from the USA, revealed that individual differences were consistently predictive of self-reported work-family conflict and facilitation. Conscientiousness, neuroticism, negative affect and core self-evaluations were consistently related to both directions of work-family conflict, whereas agreeableness predicted significant variance in family-to-work conflict only. Positive affect and core self-evaluations were consistently related to both directions of work-family facilitation, whereas agreeableness and neuroticism predicted significant variance in family-to-work facilitation only. Collectively, individual differences explained 25-28% of the variance in work-family conflict (primarily predicted by neuroticism and negative affect) and 11-18% of the variance in work-family facilitation (primarily predicted by positive affect and core self-evaluations). Moderated regression analyses showed that boundary preference for segmentation strengthened many of the relationships between individual differences and work-family conflict and facilitation. Implications for addressing the nature of work and family are discussed.

Racial/ethnic differences in the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests: a qualitative and quantitative review.

The correlation between cognitive ability test scores and performance was separately meta-analyzed for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White racial/ethnic subgroups. Compared to the average White observed correlation ( = .33, N = 903,779), average correlations were lower for Black samples ( = .24, N = 112,194) and Hispanic samples ( = .30, N = 51,205) and approximately equal for Asian samples ( = .33, N = 80,705). Despite some moderating effects (e.g., type of performance criterion, decade of data collection, job complexity), validity favored White over Black and Hispanic test takers in almost all conditions that included a sizable number of studies. Black-White validity comparisons were possible both across and within the 3 broad domains that use cognitive ability tests for high-stakes selection and placement: civilian employment, educational admissions, and the military. The trend of lower Black validity was repeated in each domain; however, average Black-White validity differences were largest in military studies and smallest in educational and employment studies. Further investigation of the reasons for these validity differences is warranted.