How Workplace Social Stressors Influence Marital Behaviors: A Social Model of Work-Family Spillover

Abstract

Drawing on work-family spillover and self-regulatory depletion theories, this study proposes and tests an interpersonal model of work-family spillover. Our model specifies how social stressors at work (i.e., workplace incivility, abusive supervision, interpersonal conflict) result in experiences of a social-based form of work-family conflict, ultimately influencing marital behaviors at home on a daily basis. The mediating role of depersonalization and the moderating role of dispositional trust were also examined. A two-week experience-sampling study with daily employee surveys at work and at home and with spousal ratings for employees’ marital behaviors in the evening provided general support for the proposed relationships. Within individuals, social stressors at work were associated with depersonalization, which mediated the effect of workplace social stressors on social-based work-family conflict. In line with congruence response models, we observed that those who are trusting (agreeableness facet) were more negatively affected by social stressors at work. On evenings when employees experienced social-based work-family conflict, their spouses reported more withdrawn and angry behaviors and less supportive behaviors shown towards them. Overall, the current research explicates a specific form of work-family conflict, one in which social stressors in one domain result in negative behaviors in the other domain via depersonalization.