Investigating the work–family conflict and health link: Repetitive thought as a mechanism

Abstract

Research is needed to investigate mechanisms linking work-family conflict to poor health in working adults. We took a novel approach to build on extant studies by testing a potential mechanism in these associations - repetitive thought. Data came from a sample of 203 partnered working adults. There were significant direct effects of work-family conflict with lower life satisfaction, positive affect, and perceived health as well as greater fatigue. As for total effects, work-family conflict was significantly associated with all health outcomes - life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, fatigue, perceived health, and chronic health conditions - in the expected directions through repetitive thought. This study provides support that repetitive thought is one potential mechanism of how work-family conflict can take a toll on psychological and physical health. Findings are discussed in relation to improving workplace policies to improve the health of working adults managing work-family conflict.

Work‐life conflict and employee health: A review

“…Previous research has also investigated some of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the relationship between WLC and positive/negative affect. For example, repetitive thinking about the conflict (i.e., repetitive thought) mediates the relationship between WFC and positive/negative affect (Davis, Gere, & Sliwinski, ). Furthermore, in the mediation models, Davis et al () found a significant direct effect between WFC and positive affect, but no direct effect for WFC and negative affect, suggesting that for WFC, repetitive thought may be a primary mechanism.…”

“…Generally, higher WLC has been linked to increased physical and physiological symptoms. Some studies have found support for a direct relationship between WLC and physical health (e.g., Lee et al, ), while others found support for an indirect relationship (e.g., Davis et al, ). As discussed earlier, distress can mediate the relationship between WFC and physical health (Grandey & Cropanzano, ).…”

“…However, not all work on WLC and general physical health corroborates. For example, Davis et al () found that WFC did not directly predict chronic physical health conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and only marginally negatively predicted perceived physical health. However, when exploring possible mechanisms, the researchers did uncover that WFC indirectly predicted these variables through repetitive thought, suggesting that individual differences in behavioral responses to WFC such as rumination could be an intermediary variable to downstream health effects.…”

Sleep quality mediates the relationship between work-family conflicts and the self-perceived health status among hospital nurses

“…However, recent studies indicated that nurses’ exposure to high‐stress environments can lead to physical and psychological problems, such as work–family conflicts (WFCs) (Chu, ; Ghislieri, Gatti, Molino, & Cortese, ), impaired sleep (Hasson & Gustavsson, ; Lin et al, ; Lin, Liao, Chen, & Fan, ) and poor health (Jordan et al, ). WFCs and poor sleep were reported to impair the health of working women (Buxton et al, ; Davis, Gere, & Sliwinski, ). WFCs are also known to affect sleep quality (Aazami, Mozafari, Shamsuddin, & Akmal, ).…”

An examination of accuracy and bias in perceptions of a partner's motives for health behaviour regulation

“…We assessed physical health with self-reports of health conditions, self-rated general health, and severity of physical health symptoms. Participants first reported whether they had 25 different health conditions (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure; adapted from Davis, Gere, & Sliwinski, 2017), which were summed to create a score for a number of health conditions (M = 2.18, SD = 2.49, range: 0-22). 1 Next, participants rated their general health using one item ('For your age, would you rate your physical health as excellent, good, fair, or poor'; 1 = poor; 4 = excellent), a robust predictor of actual physical health (DeSalvo, Bloser, Reynolds, He, & Muntner, 2006; M = 2.63, SD = 0.73, range: 1-4).…”