Mismatch between actual and preferred number of days working from home: parental status, work-family conflict, and stress

The aim of the study is to examine the impact of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic on general health, stress, work-family, and family-work conflict over-time and identify differences by gender and parental status. Trajectory analyses described outcomes over time. Multinomial logistic regression relates the effects of gender, children, and the interaction between them, on group membership based on the latent class growth analyses. Not all trajectories followed the expected cubic pattern. Females had less family-work conflict (high/low: OR = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.17-0.66; moderate/low OR = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.20-0.67). Children increased the odds of family-work conflict (high/low: OR = 8.48, 95% CI: 3.38-21.25; moderate/low OR = 2.98, 95% CI: 1.63-5.43). Work-family conflict was worse for those with children (high-to-moderate decline/low-stable: OR = 2.59, 95% CI 1.25-5.41). Work from home has implications for health and well-being of employees with differences based on gender and parental status for stress, work-family, and family-work conflict.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of general and occupational stress in the relationship between workaholism (recognized in two ways: as addiction and as behavioral tendency) and the intensity of work-family and family-work conflict. The study included 178 working people. The survey was conducted at three stages - half a year before a holiday, right after the holiday and half a year after the holiday. The Excessive Work Involvement Scale (SZAP) by Golińska for the measurement of workaholism recognized as addiction; The Scale of Workaholism as Behavioral Tendencies (SWBT) by Mudrack and Naughton as adapted by Dudek et al for the measurement of workaholism as behavioral tendency; the Perceived Stress Scale by Cohen et al., as adapted by Juczyński for the measurement of general stress; the Scale of Occupational Stress by Stanton in the adaptation of Dudek and Hauk for measurement of occupational stress; the Scale of Work-Family Conflict WFC/FWC by Netemeyer et al. with the Polish adaptation of A.M. Zalewska. Workaholism was measured once - before a holiday, the explained and intervening variables (the level of conflicts and stress, respectively) were measured at three stages. To test the mediating role of general and occupational stress, hierarchical regression analysis as well as the method of bootstrapping were applied. Our results indicate that general stress is an important mediator of the relationship between workaholism recognized as an addiction and work-family conflicts. Occupational stress turned out to be the only mediator in the relationship between workaholism (recognized as an addiction) and the work-family conflict, noted exclusively in the first stage of the study. Both general and occupational stress were not significant mediators in the relationship between workaholism recognized as a behavioral tendency and the conflicts described.

Work factors and work-family interference play an important role in physicians leaving clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to examine residents' work-family conflict and family-work conflict in association with parental status, perceived support, and short-term contracts. Data acquisition was carried out within the multi-centric and prospective "KarMed" study in Germany at the end of the postgraduate training in 2016 (N=433). The Work-Family Conflict and Family-Work Conflict scales were used. Further independent variables were gender, parental status, short-term contracts, and perceived support from partner. Results Female physicians with children interrupted postgraduate training five times more often then female physicians without children and 18 times more often than male physicians with children. Female as well as male physicians with children showed greater family-work conflicts, and female physicians without children scored higher on work-family conflict. Male physicians did not show significant results on work-family conflict. Neither short-term contracts nor perceived support from the partner had a significant influence on work-family or family work conflict. There is a need to reduce work-family conflicts and their associated factors in female resident physicians.

Reply: Readers are invited to submit letters for publication in this department. Submit letters online at http://joem.edmgr.com. Choose “Submit New Manuscript.” A signed copyright assignment and financial disclosure form must be submitted with the letter. Form available at www.joem.org under Author and Reviewer information. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a great acceleration of teleworking (ie, homebased working) around the world.1–3 Teleworking was imposed in organizations and jobs where it was initially considered impossible, and it is expected that also after the pandemic people will continue working from home more often. Beyond the fact that teleworking leads to physical distancing protecting workers against the virus, scholars and policy makers have also identified other advantages of teleworking for the organization (eg, less accommodation costs), for the employee (eg, less travel costs, more flexibility, and better work-home balance), and for society (eg, less traffic congestions and less pollution).3–5 However, research findings on the benefits of teleworking for employees dating from before the COVID-19 crisis are inconsistent, showing that the successfulness of teleworking in terms of productivity and well-being is far from straightforward.4,6 Scholars have therefore suggested to focus on characteristics of teleworking and the conditions under which it is implemented rather than on working from home or not. In reply, we investigated the relationship between extent of teleworking (operationalized as the number of days working from home a week) and employee well-being (ie, burnout, work engagement, and cognitive stress complaints) among 878 employees from an international telecommunication company with a long history of teleworking.7 Additionally, we took into account various work characteristics (ie, social support from colleagues, participation in decision-making, task autonomy, and work-family conflict). This approach corresponds with the reflections in Kawada's Letter to the Editor8 stressing the importance of job characteristics and other circumstances in which teleworking is implemented (eg, country, nature of the job, organizational measures to facilitate telework, the corona crisis). We found that the job characteristics social support, participation in decision-making, task autonomy, and work-family conflict, but not extent of teleworking, were directly associated with work-related well-being.7 Extent of teleworking related to work-related well-being, but only indirectly through social support from colleagues: employees teleworking more days a week reported less social support from their colleagues, which in turn was associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and cognitive stress complaints and lower levels of work engagement. We concluded7: “Our results seem to suggest that not the extent of telecommuting, but rather the way in which the job—including telecommuting—is characterized (e.g., level of autonomy, contact with colleagues) is predictive of employee well-being” (p. e185). We did not want to claim that good work environments were important regardless of telecommuting, as described by Kawada,8 but rather that as in traditional offices, psychosocial work circumstances should be taking into account for teleworking. Policy makers should invest in creating good work conditions among both teleworkers and non-teleworkers, at traditional workplaces and home offices. In this COVID-19 pandemic, many workers have been forced to extensively work from home, with important implications for their psychosocial working conditions. For instance, social support by colleagues and the supervisor might have been reduced, as face-to-face contacts were replaced by virtual interactions (see also our previous findings).7 Next, although teleworking is expected to increase workers’ flexibility, working from home was often not a voluntary choice of employees during the COVID-19 crisis. This could have been at the expense of workers’ possibility to match their workplace with their specific job activities, home demands, and personal preferences. We believe that work stress theories (eg, Job Demands-Resources Theory)9 may be meaningfully applied to the home-based work situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that traditional job resources (eg, social support) and demands (eg, work-home conflict) may still be predictive for teleworkers’ well-being, although these factors might get a more specific interpretation. Belzunegui-Eraso and Erro-Garcés,3 for instance, presented several facilitating factors to implement effective teleworking, although they did not focus on implications for work-related/mental well-being. An important path for future research is therefore to further identify all specific work conditions concerning teleworking in this COVID-19 crisis to generate good (tele)work practices and protect workers’ mental well-being in times of a lock down.

BackgroundWork-family conflict among physicians has many adverse consequences, like reduced work engagement and impaired well-being. However, relatively little research has been conducted on the impact of work-family conflict on specific pathways of physician well-being. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between work-family conflict and employee well-being among physicians and to explore the mediating role of job satisfaction and work engagement in this relationship.MethodsUsing data from a cross-sectional survey of 2,480 physicians in Jilin Province, China, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied in this study to examine the direct and indirect effects of work-family conflict on employee well-being and to assess the mediating roles of job satisfaction and work engagement therein.ResultsThe employee well-being score of physicians in Jilin Province was 5.16 ± 1.20. The univariate analysis results indicated significant disparities in employee well-being scores across different age groups, marital statuses, and professional titles. Work-family conflict was significantly negatively associated with employee well-being, while job satisfaction and work engagement were significantly positively associated with employee well-being. In addition, job satisfaction and work engagement were found to mediate the association between work-family conflict and employee well-being, and work engagement was considered to mediate the association between job satisfaction and employee well-being.ConclusionsOur study confirms that work-family conflict negatively affects physicians’ employee well-being. Moreover, our investigation revealed that the association between work-family conflict and employee well-being is influenced by both job satisfaction and work engagement and that work engagement plays a mediating role in the link between job satisfaction and employee well-being. Therefore, we propose that hospital administrators should rationally allocate organizational resources and develop manageable schedules to enhance physicians’ employee well-being.

BackgroundThe Covid-19 pandemic precipitated a shift in the working practices of millions of people. Nearly half the British workforce (47%) reported to be working at home under lockdown in April 2020. This study investigated the impact of enforced home-working under lockdown on employee wellbeing via markers of stress, burnout, depressive symptoms, and sleep. Moderating effects of factors including age, gender, number of dependants, mental health status and work status were examined alongside work-related factors including work-life conflict and leadership quality.MethodCross-sectional data were collected over a 12-week period from May to August 2020 using an online survey. Job-related and wellbeing factors were measured using items from the COPSOQIII. Stress, burnout, somatic stress, cognitive stress, and sleep trouble were tested together using MANOVA and MANCOVA to identify mediating effects. T-tests and one-way ANOVA identified differences in overall stress. Regression trees identified groups with highest and lowest levels of stress and depressive symptoms.Results81% of respondents were working at home either full or part-time (n = 623, 62% female). Detrimental health impacts of home-working during lockdown were most acutely experienced by those with existing mental health conditions regardless of age, gender, or work status, and were exacerbated by working regular overtime. In those without mental health conditions, predictors of stress and depressive symptoms were being female, under 45 years, home-working part-time and two dependants, though men reported greater levels of work-life conflict. Place and pattern of work had a greater impact on women. Lower leadership quality was a significant predictor of stress and burnout for both men and women, and, for employees aged > 45 years, had significant impact on level of depressive symptoms experienced.ConclusionsExperience of home-working under lockdown varies amongst groups. Knowledge of these differences provide employers with tools to better manage employee wellbeing during periods of crisis. While personal factors are not controllable, the quality of leadership provided to employees, and the ‘place and pattern’ of work, can be actively managed to positive effect. Innovative flexible working practices will help to build greater workforce resilience.

Loss of productivity is a result of absence from work (absenteeism) or of working with limitations due to illness (presenteeism). Recently, occupational mental health interventions have increasingly been delivered in digital format, as this is thought to be more convenient, flexible, easily accessible, and anonymous. However, the effectiveness of electronic mental health (e-mental health) interventions in the workplace to improve presenteeism and absenteeism remains unknown, and could be potentially mediated by psychological variables such as stress levels. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an e-mental health intervention to reduce absenteeism and presenteeism in employees, as well as to investigate the mediating role of stress in this effect. Employees of six companies in two countries participated in a randomized controlled trial (n=210 in the intervention group and n=322 in the waitlist control group). Participants in the intervention group could use the Kelaa Mental Resilience app for 4 weeks. All participants were asked to complete assessments at baseline, during the intervention, postintervention, and at a 2-week follow-up. Absenteeism and presenteeism were assessed by means of the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire: General Health, while general and cognitive stress were assessed through the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire-Revised Version. Regression and mediation analyses were performed to evaluate the effect of the Kelaa Mental Resilience app on presenteeism and absenteeism. The intervention did not have a direct effect on presenteeism or absenteeism, neither at postintervention nor at follow-up. Nevertheless, general stress significantly mediated the intervention effect on presenteeism (P=.005) but not on absenteeism (P=.92), and cognitive stress mediated the effect of the intervention on both presenteeism (P<.001) and absenteeism (P=.02) right after the intervention. At the 2-week follow-up, the mediating effect of cognitive stress on presenteeism was significant (P=.04), although this was not the case for its mediating effect on absenteeism (P=.36). Additionally, at the 2-week follow-up, general stress did not mediate the intervention effect on presenteeism (P=.25) or on absenteeism (P=.72). While no direct effect of the e-mental health intervention on productivity was found in this study, our findings suggest that stress reduction could mediate the effect of the intervention on presenteeism and absenteeism. As such, e-mental health interventions that address stress in employees might also indirectly reduce presenteeism and absenteeism in these employees. However, due to study limitations such as an overrepresentation of female participants in the sample and a high proportion of attrition, these results should be interpreted with caution. Future research is needed to better understand the mechanisms of interventions on productivity in the workplace. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05924542; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05924542.

Work-family conflict affects employee performance and well-being. However, despite the underlying focus of work-family research on family health and well-being, we have limited knowledge about the impact of role-based stressors, such as work-family conflict, on child health. In this study, we propose and test the stressor-self-regulatory resources-crossover framework. In the spirit of extension of existing work-family research to other cultural settings, we report on two multisource studies conducted in Nigeria to explain whether, how, why, and when parental work-family conflict relates to child health. In Study 1, we collected multisource data from parent-child pairs in low-income families to test whether parental self-regulatory resources explain why work- family conflict relates to child health, resulting in findings that support the stressor-self-regulatory resources-crossover framework. In order to identify possible targets for future organizational-based interventions, we collected Study 2 data from parents and their children (who were enrolled at private schools) to test whether job autonomy and job demands altered the relationship between parental self-regulatory resources and child health. Moderator analyses of the multisource data reveal that self-regulatory resources matter for child health only when job demands are high or when job autonomy is low, pointing to potential intervention and policy levers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

PurposeThis study examines how employee well-being, in combination with spiritual leadership, helps mitigate the negative effects of work–family conflict.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed an explanatory research design to explain the relationship between spiritual leadership and work–family conflict. The approach was based on a cross-sectional survey of 278 workers from diverse industries and functional roles in South Korea's manufacturing and service sectors. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test hypothesized relationships.FindingsResults confirmed that spiritual leadership and employee well-being inversely influenced work–family conflict, in terms of work-to-family and family-to-work role interference. Furthermore, employee well-being fully mediated both of these relationships.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that organizational competitiveness can be enhanced through a dual approach of organizational strategies and human resource training that cultivate employee well-being and a family-friendly environment. Notably, this study clarifies the value of leadership practices to both trigger and enhance employee well-being through a sense of meaningfulness in and at work.Originality/valueThis study expands the scope of our current understanding of how employee well-being is an effective mechanism in helping employees cope with work–family role conflict. Moreover, the study demonstrates the role that leadership practices, beyond the narrow interpretation of perceived supervisor support, play in helping employees cope with role conflict. Finally, this study enhances the field of workplace spirituality by examining the influence of spiritual leadership on employees' spiritual well-being and work–family conflict, which has not been currently addressed in the workplace spirituality field.

Caregiver stress, parenting, and child outcomes among grandfamilies

The study of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) within the banking sector holds significant importance due to the fierce competition faced by banks, which necessitates employees to perform according to predetermined targets. Consequently, the potential contribution of OCB becomes advantageous for future endeavors. Typically, OCB encompasses behaviors that lie outside the formal scope of an employee's duties or actions that are not formally acknowledged. Numerous underlying factors contribute to the decline of OCB, including work-family conflict, work-related stress, and employee well-being. This research aims to investigate the impact of work-family conflict, work-related stress, and employee well-being on OCB, with organizational commitment serving as a mediating factor. The study focuses on non-leadership employees of PT Bank Sumut, with a sample size of 160 individuals. Data analysis employs the outer and inner models through the utilization of SmartPLS software. The results indicate that work-family conflict and work-related stress exert a negative and significant influence on organizational commitment. Conversely, employee well-being positively and significantly impacts organizational commitment. Furthermore, work-family conflict and work-related stress negatively and significantly influence OCB, whereas employee well-being demonstrates a positive and significant impact on OCB. However, when considering the mediation of organizational commitment, work-family conflict exhibits a negative yet non-significant effect on OCB, while work-related stress negatively and significantly affects OCB. On the other hand, employee well-being positively and significantly influences OCB when mediated by organizational commitment. Keywords: Work Family Conflict, Work Stress, Well-being, Organizational Commitment, Organizational Citizenship Behavior.

The self-perceived and independently observed cognitive and social competence of young adolescents as a function of parental conflict and recent divorce was investigated. Subjects were 40 young adolescents between the ages of 11 years 1 month and 15 years 1 month. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used, with the independent variables being parental marital status (married vs. recently divorced) and parental conflict (high vs. low). Dependent variables included the following measures of adolescent competence: adolescent-completed measures of self-perceived competence, teacher-completed measures, behavioral observations, and school grades. The results indicated that the level of parental conflict, rather than parental marital status, appears to be the critical variable associated with adolescents' independently observed levels of cognitive and social competence. In regard to adolescents' self-perceived levels of cognitive and social competence, parental marital status was found to be the critical variable. The implications of these findings are discussed.

We examined the association between parental marital status, marital conflict, and culture (individualism-collectivism, divorce rate), and the subjective well-being of young adults. Study I assessed 2,625 men and 4,118 women from 39 countries on 6 continents. Subjective well-being was negatively associated with marital conflict among offspring of never-divorced and remarried parents. The association of marital status and the subjective well-being of offspring differed across individualism-collectivism and divorce rate. Collectivism lessens the impact of divorce after a high-conflict marriage and the impact of marital conflict when a parent remarries. Study 2 examined the association of parental marital status and conflict among 76 adopted and 87 nonadopted young adults. The negative association of divorce and of marital conflict with the life satisfaction of the offspring did not differ by adoption. The selection hypothesis was not supported. Key Words: collectivism, culture, marital conflict, marital status, selection, subjective well-being. Many investigators conclude that the young adult offspring of divorced parents experience lower general psychological well-being than individuals whose parents remain married (Glenn & Kramer, 1985; Kulka & Weingarten, 1979; for a metaanalysis, see Amato & Keith, 1991a ). This recurrent conclusion often is qualified in the following ways. Differences in well-being between adult offspring of divorced and nondivorced parents are often small (Amato & Booth, 1991; Amato & Keith, 1991a; Chase-Lansdale, Cherlin, & Kiernan, 1995), suggesting that some offspring are not adversely effected by or may even benefit from divorce. Effect sizes are weaker in studies that control for family characteristics such as parental education and occupation, indicating that some factors can ameliorate the effect of divorce. Effect sizes are weaker in more recent studies than in earlier ones (Amato & Keith, 1991a; Kulka & Weingarten, 1979), possibly because when divorce became more frequent and more acceptable, it had fewer negative effects. In addition, effect sizes are weaker for Blacks than for Whites (Amato & Keith, 1991a), suggesting that cultural or situational factors may lessen the adverse effects of divorce. Finally, effect sizes are smaller in community samples than in clinical samples, indicating that the link between divorce and adult offspring is weak in the general population. Indeed, among the 23-year-old offspring of parental divorce in a large, longitudinal study, the majority (82% of the women and 94% of the men) fell below the clinical cutoff on a measure screening for a wide range of mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, phobias, obsessions; ChaseLansdale et al., 1995). Individuals whose parents experienced a low-stress divorce were not appreciably less well off than those from original families (Amato & Booth, 1991), suggesting that low marital conflict and continued parental support diminish the impact of divorce. In sum, the negative effect of divorce on the well-being of adult offspring is found consistently, but it varies in magnitude, depending on moderating variables. We examine several variables that might moderate the adverse effect of divorce: marital conflict, individualism-collectivism, the national divorce rate, and gender. We first examine whether previous findings are replicated in a large, international sample. We examine variables associated with marital conflict both among the offspring of neverdivorced parents and among offspring raised by a parent who divorced and remarried. We also compare the differences in psychological well-being of offspring raised by two parents who are frequently in conflict with offspring raised by a single, divorced parent. Most importantly, by employing a large, international sample in one study, we are able to examine two cultural variables that might lessen the impact of divorce or marital conflict or both: individualism-collectivism and the national divorce rate. …

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing employee well-being among employees. Specifically, the study is conducted to examine the relationships between workplace spirituality, work-family conflict, perceived organizational support, and employee well-being among hotel’s employees in Perak, Malaysia. A total of 140 questionnaires were used for data analysis. Pearson correlation analysis shows that workplace spirituality and perceived organizational support have positive relationships to employee well-being, and work-family conflict has a negative relationship to employee well-being. Based on multiple regression analysis, the study found that two independent variables, which are workplace spirituality and work-family conflict, have significant relationships with employee well-being among hotel’s employees. Meanwhile, perceived organizational support have no significant relationship with employee well-being. The implications and limitations of the study are also presented.

Psychosocial health and well-being among obstetricians and midwives involved in traumatic childbirth