How negative social interactions at work seep into the home: A prosocial and an antisocial pathway

Abstract

Summary We combined Bakker and Demerouti's spillover–crossover model with Taylor's biobehavioral perspective, tested the comprehensive model, and pursued a set of gender‐related research questions. Negative work interactions were expected to entail two strain responses, high‐ and low‐arousal negative affect. Both should be related to cortisol secretion but transmitted via different social pathways, a positive and a negative one. During a 7‐day ambulatory assessment with 56 couples, we assessed daily variations in the severity of negative social interactions at work and at home along with participants' affect and cortisol levels. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found evidence for the three hypothesized processes: strain at work as a consequence of social stress, spillover of strain into the home, and crossover to the partner. On socially more stressful days, participants showed increased high‐ and low‐arousal negative affect at work. Low‐arousal negative affect spilled over into the home. Only for men, high‐arousal negative affect spilled over, and only women showed a tendency for slowed decline of cortisol levels on more socially stressful days (i.e., slower recovery). Surprisingly, high‐arousal negative affect at work tended to be negatively related to partners' high‐arousal negative affect. Commonalities predominated differences between men and women. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Mediating Role of Family and Food-Related Life Satisfaction in the Relationships between Family Support, Parent Work-Life Balance and Adolescent Life Satisfaction in Dual-Earner Families

“…In fact, the level of balance between work and family impacts other life domains and is likely to affect not only the individual parent but also those closest to them [ 33 , 37 ], such as the couple and their children [ 35 ]. However, while the impact of the family-work relationship has been extensively studied in couples for example [ 31 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ], there remain few studies that have assessed the influence of the parental balance between work and family on their children’s well-being [ 5 , 33 , 41 , 42 ]. Strazdins et al [ 43 ] found that unconventional work schedules contributed to depressive symptoms in parents, which negatively affected the well-being of their children.…”

Daily Work Stress and Relationship Satisfaction: Detachment Affects Romantic Couples’ Interactions Quality

“…Fifty-six couples agreed to participated and provided complete data. The data of three couples could not be analyzed because there was no situation where both partners were together at home after work (for more details, see Klumb et al, 2016). and more than half (58.7%) held a leadership position (leadership span between 1 and 50 collaborators).…”

Narratives of Working Mothers Experiencing Workplace Bullying: Trauma Transferred to Young Children

“…The spillover–crossover theory “depicts how job stressors and strains are transmitted from work to the private domain (i.e., spillover) and subsequently to family members via family interactions (i.e., crossover)” (Klumb, Voelkle, & Siegler, , p. 629). Thus, the theory suggests that the family realm is affected by one's work experiences (Bakker, Demerouti, & Dollard, ; Westman, ).…”

“…Emotional contagion therefore occurs to the extent that working mothers' psychological strain affects their family members' level of stress. However, existing research is inconclusive regarding the transmission of job strain from work to home (Klumb et al, ).…”