Blended Health Coaching for Work-linked Couples: Coaches’ Intervention Fidelity and Empathy Matter!

Abstract

Small business owners often work together with their spouses in their business. They blur work-life boundaries and find it difficult to psychologically detach from work, which both jeopardize a satisfying work-life balance (WLB). This paper aims to investigate the mechanisms and outcomes of a coaching intervention for couples to foster their detachment and WLB. We study the role of coaches’ intervention fidelity and empathy. A blended coaching format was chosen, i.e., we combined face-to-face with tele-sessions and online courses, thereby using digitalization to keep the coaching flexible to the couples’ life situations and for digital support between sessions.Coaches’ behavior in regard to intervention fidelity was observed. Based on these ratings, the clients’ sample (N = 42) was partitioned into two intervention groups (“high intervention fidelity” vs. “low intervention fidelity”) using the adapted study design approach. We also observed coaches’ empathy and assessed clients’ self-reports at different times up to 4 months after the coaching intervention ended regarding the hypothesized mechanisms of change of the coaching concept and coaching outcomes. We also assessed clients’ affinity for technology (ATI) because of the blended format of the coaching.Two-factor ANOVAs with repeated measures showed large effects (d = 1) for detachment (p = .002) and middle effects (d = 0.7) for WLB (p = .042) up to 4 months after the intervention ended without any interaction effect. Only in the “high intervention fidelity” group did the mechanisms of change and ATI (p = .000 to p = .036) predict general coaching outcomes 4 months after the coaching ceased. Coaches’ empathy predicted goal attainment (p = .004) in the “high intervention fidelity” group.The couple coaching was highly effective in boosting clients’ detachment and WLB independent of coaches’ intervention fidelity. The assumed change mechanisms of the coaching concept and the ATI were only effective when there was a high degree of intervention fidelity. Coaches should be aware of the conceptual foundations and the core components of their coaching approach.