Negative cognitive-affective involvement as a mechanism linking job demands to occupational well-being: The moderating role of maladaptive thinking patterns.

Negative cognitions and emotions about work during off-job time (e.g., worry about work tasks) can hinder the necessary recovery from work and lead to impaired occupational well-being. To better understand when this negative cognitive-affective involvement arises, we considered simultaneous and interactive effects of external and individual factors. Specifically, we investigated whether job demands (i.e., time pressure, cognitive demands, emotional demands) and maladaptive thinking patterns are independently and jointly related to negative cognitive-affective involvement and whether this is in turn associated with impaired occupational well-being (i.e., emotional exhaustion, cynicism). Using a diary study, we collected daily data from 109 employees twice a day over two working weeks (N = 667 day-level observations). Multilevel analyses showed that negative cognitive-affective involvement mediates the relationship between job demands (i.e., cognitive demands, emotional demands) and the two occupational well-being indicators. The relationship between cognitive and emotional demands, respectively, and negative cognitive-affective involvement is moderated by work-related maladaptive thinking patterns, with stronger relationships for employees reporting more frequent maladaptive thinking patterns. Moreover, work-related maladaptive thinking patterns moderate the indirect effects of job demands on occupational well-being via negative cognitive-affective involvement. Overall, we expanded the research on negative cognitive-affective involvement by providing a more comprehensive picture of its antecedents and outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Development and validation of the Work-Home Integration Questionnaire (WHIQ).

The boundaries between work and private life are gradually blurring. More and more employees are involved in work during leisure time through cognitions, emotions or behaviours, in both negative and positive ways. This so-called work-home integration (WHI) can, on the one hand, hampers the necessary recovery from work and result in strain but, on the other hand, also restores resources and result in beneficial outcomes. In order to enhance our understanding of WHI and capture all its different forms, we suggest a new conceptualisation and measure of WHI. We therefore developed and validated the Work-Home Integration Questionnaire (WHIQ) in English, German and Slovene simultaneously using two cross-sectional studies (Study 1: N = 848; Study 2: N = 555) and a two-wave longitudinal study with a time lag of 1 month (Study 3: N = 379). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a three-factor structure with (1) negative cognitive-affective involvement, (2) positive cognitive-affective involvement and (3) behavioural involvement. Moreover, the WHIQ showed measurement invariance across the three languages and the results provide evidence for convergent, discriminant and incremental validity. Overall, the WHIQ is a reliable, valid and short measure to assess the extent to which employees are involved in work during leisure time.