Work–family conflict and posttraumatic stress symptoms among college teachers during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the indirect factors underlying the association between work–family conflict and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in college teachers during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Three potential indirect factors were examined: perceived stress, basic psychological needs, and rumination. A total of 274 college teachers were recruited. All participants completed an electronic questionnaire that assessed their exposure to the pandemic, work–family conflict, perceived stress, basic psychological needs, rumination, and PTSS. The results showed that after controlling for pandemic exposure, gender, and age, work–family conflict was associated with PTSS via perceived stress alone, rumination alone, a path from perceived stress to basic psychological needs, and a path from perceived stress to rumination. These results indicate that work–family conflict is positively associated with PTSS indirectly via perceived stress, rumination, and basic psychological needs during the COVID‐19 pandemic. These three mediators may completely explain the relation of work–family conflict to PTSS.

Associations of Work-Family Conflict with Family-Specific, Work-Specific, and Well-Being-Related Variables in a Sample of Polish and Ukrainian Adults during the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The association between WFC/FWC and mental health was also investigated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of this study is fully consistent with previous studies [ 20 , 22 , 27 , 28 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 58 , 59 , 60 ]. Both WFC and FWC were significantly and positively associated with anxiety and depression, while negatively correlated with life satisfaction among Argentinian teleworkers during the lockdown [ 31 ].…”

“…Psychological distress was positively associated with WFC and FWC among Israeli workers [ 22 ]. The associations between WFC, perceived stress, and posttraumatic stress symptoms were found in Chinese college teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 58 ]. WFC was correlated positively with anxiety, while FWC to stress and anxiety among Malaysian university students during the pandemic [ 60 ].…”

Work-family conflict and depressive symptoms among working couples: a spillover-crossover process

“…The current study has provided several contributions to the literature. First, to date, the spillovercrossover studies have been investigated across countries, for instance, in Germany [2], [11], Austria [12], Japan [13], China [14], and Chile [15]. Nevertheless, these studies have used individual-level data to investigate the "spillover effects" of work-family conflict [11]- [15].…”