<p>The Spillover Effects of Supportive Neighboring Behavior on Mental Health and Career Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Research on Chinese Low-Income Employees</p>

Abstract

Background: We examined the effects of supportive neighboring behavior on mental health and career satisfaction among Chinese low-income employees. We further examined the mediating roles of work interference with family (WIF) and of family interference with work (FIW) in this relationship. Methods: A total of 220 Chinese low-income employees were selected via two-wave longitudinal survey in China; the time distance was five weeks. They completed questionnaires on their self-reported supportive neighboring behavior, work-family conflict, general mental health and career satisfaction. Afterwards, we adopted a structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine our hypotheses by R (Version 3.5.3) and Lavaan Package (Version 0.6-3). Results: Supportive neighboring behavior (Time 1) improved good mental health (Time 2) and career satisfaction (Time 2). Work interference with family (Time 1) mediated the effect of neighboring behavior on mental health while family interference with work (Time 1) mediated the effect of neighboring behavior on mental health and career satisfaction. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that supportive neighboring behavior is vital in mitigating mental health problems and enhancing career satisfaction by decreasing work interference with family and family interference with work. Our research expands the scope of current literature on community support by incorporating bi-directional supportive neighboring behavior. By adopting family interference with work and work interference with family as mediators, our research examines the spillover mechanisms through which career satisfaction and mental health are influenced by supportive neighboring behavior.

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

“…Also, such community resources can be delivered into the work domain. Receiving neighboring behavior nurtures residents' well-being, which can spill over into their work role and enhance their positive emotions, thereby broadening their behavioral and cognitive repertories available for fulfilling their work roles (6).…”

“…Neighboring behavior aims to resolve and prevent both current and potential related problems, such as coping with emergencies and seeking advice to resolve personal problems. Compared with the physical community environment, Zhang et al (4,5) and Zu et al (6) highlighted the benefits of informal mutual assistance and information sharing among neighbors in maintaining and enhancing residents' mental health.…”

“…Organizational psychology scholars have attempted to develop strategies for resolving this dilemma via enhancing family-supportive supervision, nurturing leader compassion, and decreasing technology overload and invasion (10)(11)(12). Only a few studies have focused on the influences of neighboring behavior on resolving work-family interference and maintaining mental health (4,6).…”