Work plays a central role in people's lives, and professional psychologists have a stake in understanding how different work statuses affect people's well-being. Involuntary part-time work, in particular, represents a potentially harmful work status that professional psychologists can address with the appropriate evidence. Therefore, using latent deprivation theory as a guide, this study examined financial and experiential deprivation as moderators of the relation between involuntary part-time work and life satisfaction in a large sample of U.S. college graduates (N ϭ 61,251). We also examined mean differences in financial deprivation, experiential deprivation, and life satisfaction between employment status groups and examined group differences in the rates of involuntary part-time work. We found that involuntary part-time workers had greater financial and experiential deprivation and lower life satisfaction than other employment groups, except for people who were unemployed. We also found that financial and experiential deprivation moderated the relation between involuntary part-time work and life satisfaction. Specifically, people with lower financial and experiential deprivation were protected from the negative relation between involuntary part-time work and life satisfaction. Finally, we found that the rates of involuntary part-time work were higher for marginalized groups, such as women, people of color, and people with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender identity. This study highlights the relation between involuntary part-time work and life satisfaction, the roles of financial and experiential deprivation, the importance of qualifying employment statuses on a continuum, and potential targets of intervention for professional psychologists. Public Significance StatementThis study found that involuntary part-time workers reported less life satisfaction than other employment groups, but those who had fewer financial concerns and more daily activity were protected from involuntary part-time work's negative relation with life satisfaction. This study suggests that professional psychologists should address issues of involuntary part-time work when conducting psychotherapy, consulting with organizations, and addressing systemic issues.
The strengths-based inclusive theory of work and psychology of working theory propose that fulfilling work is a key outcome of the vocational intervention. Scholars have further argued that fulfilling work is the holistic experience of well-being in the workplace and can be assessed with meaningful work, work engagement, workplace positive emotions, and job satisfaction. This theoretical perspective suggests a bifactor model would best explain the relations among these variables, but this claim remains untested. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether a bifactor model best explained the relations among the four components of fulfilling work, in comparison to other plausible models. We also examined the concurrent and convergent validity of the fulfilling work construct, using other well-being variables, symptoms of distress, and contextual factor variables drawn from vocational theories. Supporting hypotheses, we found that a bifactor model best fit the data. We also found that fulfilling work positively related to eudaimonic work well-being, hedonic work well-being, and life satisfaction and negatively related to symptoms of distress. Finally, fulfilling work positively related to income and subjective social class. These findings offer conceptual and statistical implications of fulfilling work for research, counseling, organizations, and social advocacy. Public Significance StatementThis study found that different aspects of well-being at work, such as meaningfulness and job satisfaction, reflect the same underlying experience. This finding has implications for future research and interventions focused on improving people's well-being at work.
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