The Association of Job and Family Resources and Demands with Life Satisfaction through Work–Family Balance: A Longitudinal Study among Italian Schoolteachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Successfully balancing between work and family domains represents a major issue to both employees and employers, especially during COVID-19 pandemic times during which employees are often forced to work from a distance and turn to home-schooling. An occupational group particularly affected by work changes due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions is represented by schoolteachers. We aimed at examining the associations between some job-related and family-related antecedents on the one hand and, on the other, life satisfaction as an outcome, including work–family balance as a mediator. A total of 357 Italian teachers completed a questionnaire at two different times: job control, coworkers support, supervisor support, workload, family support, and family workload were assessed at Time 1; and work–family balance and life satisfaction were assessed at Time 2. Both data collections were performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hypothesized direct and indirect relationships were tested by utilizing structural equation modeling. Significant and positive indirect effects of focal predictors towards life satisfaction through work–family balance were found for job control, supervisor support, and family support. The paper contributed to the literature by testing Grzywacz and Carlson’s theoretical conceptualization of work–family balance and by attempting to delineate its repertoire of potential antecedents among schoolteachers. From a practical point of view, the present study emphasizes the crucial role that certain job antecedents and family antecedents play in promoting teachers’ work–family balance and life satisfaction.

The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction in the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Life Satisfaction among Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…García-González et al [ 18 ] found such risk factors for decreased well-being as time pressure, the lack of a schedule, mental overload, and emotional exhaustion. In addition, balancing work and family domains was experienced as very demanding for teachers during the lockdown and significantly impacted their satisfaction with life [ 19 ].…”

Coping with the unexpected: A job demands/resources study exploring Italian teachers’ remote working experience during the COVID‐19 lockdown

“…The challenges posed to the teaching profession in recent years were exacerbated by the pandemic and showed the emergence of previously ignored potential dimensions of stress, such as work-family conflict ( Chakravorty and Singh, 2020 ). Teaching from home caused significant difficulties in keeping the borders between family and work due to the lack of control over working time and family attention ( Palumbo, 2020 ; Tresierra and Pozo, 2020 ), with negative consequences on teachers’ life satisfaction ( Landolfi et al, 2021 ), levels of anxiety ( Li et al, 2020 ), and emotional exhaustion ( Kara et al, 2021 ). Hypothesis 2 was partially confirmed since results did not show a direct effect of job resources (in terms of the principal's supportive and participative leadership) on emotional exhaustion but highlighted an indirect effect mediated by personal resources.…”

Wellbeing during a pandemic: An empirical research examining autonomy, work-family conflict and informational support among SME employees

“…This is of significant importance as individuals, who work in SMEs had to forcefully combine different life domains, leading to points of conflict between work and family. Linked to conservation of resources theory, finite resources used under pressure of work and family can have dire impacts on individuals’ wellbeing, especially in psychological aspects ( Hobfoll et al, 2018 ; Carnevale and Hatak, 2020 ; Cui and Li, 2021 ; Landolfi et al, 2021 ). Obtaining new resources (i.e., informational support) is a crucial matter for individuals as they can then distribute it among conflicting domains.…”