Working from Home in Urban China during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assemblages of Work-Family Interference.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers globally have been forced to work from home. Empirical data from Chinese cities in the Hubei province reveal work productivity decreased among many respondents working from home in 2020, primarily due to family interference with work. Such interference stems not only from the domain of daily life but also from other family members' e-working and e-learning. Conversely, respondents' work interferes with family; thus, interference operates bi-directionally. This article proposes an analytical framework of work-family interference along three dimensions: work-daily life, work-work, work-study, and each dimension can be understood through four distinct aspects: temporality, physicality, vocality, digitality. Remote workers encounter 'assemblages of work-family interference', consisting of a heterogeneous mixture of these dimensions and aspects. Furthermore, some factors (e.g., living patterns, work culture, digital infrastructure) constrain effective work-family boundary management among urban households.

Effects of work-family conflict and anxiety in the relationship between work-related stress and job burnout in Chinese female nurses: A chained mediation modeling analysis.

BACKGROUND: Job burnout among nurses has been a challenging problem in recent years globally and in China. Work-related stress, work-life interference and mental health have been shown to be associated with nurse job burnout. However, the underlying mechanisms remain not fully understood. This study aims to examine the complex relationships linking work-related stress to nurse burnout among Chinese nurses. METHODS: Study data were collected from female nurses (n = 2172) in cities of Wuhan, Shiyan and Jingzhou, Hubei Province of China. Job burnout was used as outcome variable, work-related stress was the predictor, work-life interference and anxiety symptoms were mediators. Mediation and chained mediation modeling analysis were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The association between work-related stress and job burnout was significantly mediated by work-family conflict (indirect effect[95%CI] = 0.05[0.05,0.06]) and anxiety symptoms (indirect effect = 0.42[0.36,0.49]), respectively. Further, a chained mediation mechanism was observed with work-family conflict and anxiety symptoms consecutively mediated the relationship between work-related stress and job burnout (indirect effect = 0.02[0.01,0.02]). LIMITATIONS: The data were collected in one province in central China, so it needs caution when generalizing the study findings to other regions within or outside of China. CONCLUSION: Work-related stress exerts effects on job burnout through work-family conflict and anxiety symptoms among female nurses in China. Work-related stress-based burnout prevention must consider both work-family conflict and mental health problems.

Does Giving and Receiving Helping Behavior Fit Matter? The Role of Neighboring Behavior Fit in Working Residents' Mental Health.

Ecological systems theory suggests that for individuals, the three domains of community, family, and work are connected and transfer resources among each other. In the community, residents receive and give helping behavior from and to their neighbors. Neighboring behavior underlies interactions among residents in the community, thereby influencing the work and family domains. Building on ecological systems theory, the authors propose that the compatibility of receiving and giving helping behavior among working residents is related to their mental health. Additionally, the authors propose that this congruence effect functions through work-family interference and meaning in life. Using a two-stage field questionnaire survey, this study collected data from 220 full-time Chinese working residents. Using polynomial regression and response surface analysis, receiving-giving neighboring behavior fit was found to be positively associated with mental health. Furthermore, receiving-giving neighboring behavior fit enhances mental health by decreasing work-family interference and promoting meaning in life. When giving and receiving neighboring behavior are imbalanced, working residents have higher levels of mental health when they received more neighboring behavior than they gave, in comparison to the condition when they gave more neighboring behavior than they received. Work-family interference represents inter-role conflict in which pressures from the family and work domains are mutually incompatible. Including both work to family interference and family to work interference, work-family interferences reflect the stress that working residents experience in their family and work domains. By exploring the mediating role of work-family interference, this study shows how the spillover of the benefits of neighboring behavior into the family and work domains enhances working residents' mental health. This study highlights the importance of balancing receiving and giving neighboring behavior for maintaining mental health, thus contributing both theoretically and practically to ecological systems theory.

A 2-Year Longitudinal Relationship Between Work-Family Conflict and Health Among Older Workers: Can Gardening Help?

With the graying workforce worldwide, identifying factors that facilitate older workers' health is critically important. We examined whether gardening mitigates the relationship of work-family conflict with disability, chronic conditions, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health among older workers. We drew a subsample of older workers aged 55 years and above from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 1,598). Our results indicate that the relationships of work-to-family conflict at baseline with disability and with poorer self-rated health at a 2-year follow-up were stronger for those who gardened less than those who gardened more. No significant interaction was found between family-to-work conflict and gardening in predicting the health outcomes. This study is the first to show that gardening may have a protective effect against the adverse impact of work-to-family conflict on older workers' health.

The Association Between Coworker Support and Work-Family Interference: A Test of Work Environment and Burnout as Mediators.

Coworker support has been hypothesized to enhance work-life outcomes. However, the mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Two studies examined how coworker support predicted work-life outcomes through positive work environment and burnout. It was hypothesized that coworker support enhances work environment, and that better work environment is associated with less burnout; in turn, reduced burnout is associated with less negative work-life interference. In two large studies of working adults (total N = 5,666), we found support for our model - coworker support predicted work-family outcomes and this association was mediated by more positive work environments and reduced burnout. Study 2 was a short-term lagged confirmation of the model. Results are discussed in the context of efforts to improve workplace climate, reduce turnover, and improve workers' job satisfaction.

The Indirect Effect of Holistic Career Values on Work Engagement: A Longitudinal Study Spanning Two Decades.

BACKGROUND: In contrast to earlier assumptions that the "ideal worker" should embrace traditional notions of career success, there is growing recognition that possessing holistic career values may be beneficial in the work domain as well. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this argument. We hypothesised that individuals who at the time of their university graduation possessed holistic career values would display stronger personal life satisfaction 20 years later, which in turn would enhance their work engagement (i.e. an individual's perceptions of the extent to which the work environment possesses engaging characteristics). METHODS: Data from a longitudinal study of 158 university students who completed two questionnaires, one in 1992 and the other 20 years later, supported our hypotheses. RESULTS: We found that individuals who possessed holistic career values displayed stronger personal life satisfaction 20 years later, which in turn enhanced their work engagement. We further found that this indirect effect of holistic career values on work engagement (through personal life satisfaction) is conditionally moderated by work-family interference. CONCLUSIONS: Cultivating a holistic career perspective among employees is beneficial for both employee well-being (i.e. personal life satisfaction) and the flourishing of their organisations (i.e. work engagement).

Work-family interference and work-family facilitation: a study of measurement invariance between genders / Interferência trabalho-família e facilitação trabalho-família: estudo da invariância da medida entre sexos / Interferencias trabajo-familia y la facilitación del trabajo y la familia: estudio de la invariancia de la medida entre los sexos

Work-family relationship is a subject of great interest for research, and studies have shown differences between genders. The aim of this study was to analyze measurement invariance between men and women, with reference to Work-Family interference among teachers. The W-F Scale (Carvalho & Andrade, 2012) was applied to a sample of 610 Portuguese higher education teachers. Dimensionality was tested by means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The structure of the proposed theoretical model was well adjusted to the multi-group sample. Chi-square test was used to perform measurement invariance testing. Impact factors of the W-F Tension on Work and of W-F Tension on Family were invariant among teachers, indicating independence with regard to gender. Measurements for the remaining factors (Work Interference with Family, Family Interference with Work, Work as Family Life Facilitator, and Family as Work Facilitator) varied between men and women.

A relação trabalho-família é uma temática com grande interesse para a investigação, cujos estudos têm revelado diferenças entre sexos. Pretendeu-se analisar a invariância da medida entre os sexos masculino e feminino relativamente à interferência Trabalho-Família em docentes. A Escala T-F (Carvalho & Andrade, 2012) foi aplicada a 610 docentes do ensino superior português. Estudou-se a sua dimensionalidade por meio de análises fatoriais exploratória e confirmatória. A estrutura do modelo teórico proposto mostrou-se bem ajustada na amostra de multigrupos. A invariância da medida foi testada com o teste de Qui-quadrado. Os fatores Impacto da Tensão T-F no Trabalho e Impacto da Tensão T-F na Família foram invariantes entre docentes, indicando uma independência face ao sexo. As medidas para os restantes fatores (interferência do trabalho com a família, interferência da família com o trabalho, trabalho como facilitador da família e família como facilitadora do trabalho) variaram entre os sexos.

La relación trabajo-familia es una temática de interés para la investigación, y estudios han evidenciado diferencias entre sexos. Se analizó la invarianza de la medida entre hombres y mujeres relativamente a la interferencia Trabajo-Familia en docentes. La escala T-F (Carvalho & Andrade, 2012) fue aplicada a 610 docentes portugueses de educación superior. Se estudió la dimensionalidad mediante análisis factoriales exploratorio y confirmatorio. La estructura del modelo teórico propuesto se ajusta a la muestra de multigrupos. La invarianza de la medida fue testeada con la prueba Chi-cuadrado. Los factores Impacto de la Tensión T-F en el Trabajo e Impacto de la Tensión T-F en la familia fueron invariantes entre los docentes con respecto al sexo. Las medidas para los restantes factores (Interferencia del trabajo en la Familia, Interferencia de la Familia en el Trabajo, el Trabajo como Facilitador de la Familia, y la Familia como Facilitadora del Trabajo) varían entre sexos.

Gendered depression: Vulnerability or exposure to work and family stressors?

OBJECTIVE: Research has shown that employed women are more prone to depression than men, but the pathways linking gender to depression remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to examine how work and family conditions operated as potentially gendered antecedents of depression. It evaluated more specifically how differences in depressive symptoms in women and men could be explained by their differential vulnerability and exposure to work and family conditions, as well as by the mediating role of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC). METHODS: Data were collected in 2009-2012 from a sample of 1935 employees (48.9% women) nested in 63 workplaces in the province of Quebec (Canada). Data were analyzed with multilevel path analysis models to test for the differential exposure hypothesis, and stratified by gender to test for the differential vulnerability hypothesis. RESULTS: Results supported both hypothesizes, but only WFC played a mediating role between work-family stressors and depression. Regarding the vulnerability hypothesis, WFC was more strongly associated with women depressive symptoms, and the magnitude of the association between family income and WFC was stronger for women. Overall, the differential exposure hypothesis seemed to reach a greater empirical support. After accounting for work and family stressors as well as WFC, differences in depressive symptoms in women and men were no longer significantly, as WFC, working hours, irregular work schedule and skill utilization acted as mediators. WFC associated with higher depressive symptoms and skill utilization with lower depressive symptoms. WFC related to higher working hours and irregular work schedule. Compared to men, women reported higher WFC, but lower working hours, less irregular work schedule and lower skill utilization at work. CONCLUSION: Women's higher rate of depression is intrinsically linked to their different social experiences as shaped by a gendered social structure and gendered organizations.

The Work-Family Interface as a Mediator between Job Demands and Employee Behaviour.

In this investigation, we draw from the job demands-resource model and conservation of resources theory to examine the relationship between job demands, the work-family interface and worker behaviours. Data collected from an online survey of workers revealed that hindrance demands indirectly increase interpersonal and organizational deviance through work interference with family and family interference with work. Challenge demands indirectly predict interpersonal and organizational deviance through work interference with family. Finally, hindrance demands indirectly decreased individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviours through work-to-family enrichment. Taken together, these results stress the relevance of job demand management and resource drain/acquisition to counterproductive and extra-role behaviours.

Need for recovery among male technical distal on-call workers.

The objectives of this study were to (1) examine whether need for recovery differs between workers (i) not on-call, (ii) on-call but not called and (iii) on-call and called, and (2) investigate the associations between age, health, work and social characteristics with need for recovery for the three scenarios (i-iii). Cross-sectional data of N = 169 Dutch distal on-call workers were analysed with multivariate logistic regression. Need for recovery differed significantly between the three scenarios (i-iii), with lowest need for recovery for scenario (i) 'not on-call' and highest need for recovery for scenario (iii) 'on-call and called'. Poor mental health and high work-family interference were associated with higher need for recovery in all three scenarios (i-iii), whereas high work demands was only associated with being on-call (ii and iii). The results suggest that the mere possibility of being called affects the need for recovery, especially in workers reporting poor mental health, high-work demands and work-family interference. Practitioner summary: On-call work is a scarcely studied but demanding working time arrangement. We examined need for recovery and its associations with age, health, work and social characteristics among distal on-call workers. The results suggest that the mere possibility of being called can affect worker well-being and need for recovery.

Functional Pathways of Social Support for Mental Health in Work and Family Domains Among Chinese Scientific and Technological Professionals.

This study investigated the role of social support in the complex pattern of associations among stressors, work-family interferences and depression in the domains of work and family. A questionnaire was administered to a nationwide sample of 11,419 Chinese science and technology professionals. Several structural equation models were specified to determine whether social support functioned as a predictor or a mediator. Using Mplus 5.0, we compared the moderation model, the independence model, the antecedent model and the mediation model. The results revealed that the relationship between work-family interference and social support was domain specific. The independence model fit the data best in the work domain. Both the moderation model and the antecedent model fit the family domain data equally well. The current study was conducted to answer the need for comprehensive investigations of cultural uniqueness in the antecedents of work-family interference. The domain specificity, i.e. the multiple channels of the functions of support in the family domain and not in the work domain, ensures that this study is unique and culturally specific.