Date of Award

1-1-2019

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Content Description

1 online resource (vii, 135 pages) : illustrations

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Kevin J Williams

Committee Members

Lisa E Baranik, Jason G Randall

Keywords

emotions, interrole transitioning, occupational stress and health, sandwiched workers, work-family conflict, work-family enrichment, Sandwich generation, Intergenerational relations, Work-life balance, Work and family

Subject Categories

Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Psychology | Social Psychology

Abstract

This study focuses on how full-time, sandwiched workers (i.e., those who are dual-caregivers, providing care to both their children and elders) experience interrole transitioning from both the work and family roles, and tests whether affective reactions to transitioning relate to work and family outcomes. This study has three specific objectives: 1) assess the extent to which bi-directional interrole transitioning (i.e., the switching between two different roles while located in one role) predicts bi-directional work-family conflict; 2) examine if interrole transitioning relates to bi-directional work-family enrichment in this population, and 3) test whether or not employees’ affective reactions to interrole transitioning moderate the effects of transitioning on conflict and enrichment perceptions. A sample of 349 sandwiched workers from various occupations were recruited via Qualtrics, an online survey platform. A temporal separation of five days in measurement of variables was included in the survey design to reduce common method bias and inflated validity. Path analysis via the SPSS PROCESS macro was used to test a theoretical model where negative affective reactions towards bi-directional interrole transitioning moderates the relationship between bi-directional interrole transitioning and bi-directional conflict, which then predicts common outcomes seen in the literature from the work and family roles, as well as health/stress and attitudinal outcomes. A second model was also tested where positive affective reactions towards bi-directional interrole transitioning moderates the relationship between bi-directional interrole transitioning and bi-directional enrichment which then predicts the same outcomes. The results partially supported the proposed theoretical models. Transitioning was a strong predictor of bi-directional conflict, replicating effects seen in prior studies. Negative affective reactions towards family-to-work transitioning significantly moderated the relationship between family-to-work transitioning and work-to-family conflict, where the effect on conflict decreased as levels of negative reactions decreased. The effect at low levels was higher than when these negative reactions were not considered. No effects were found for transitioning correlating with or predicting enrichment, nor for positive affective reactions towards interrole transitioning moderating the transitioning to enrichment relationships. Practical and theoretical implications, as well as limitations and future research directions are discussed.

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