Who's Remembering to Buy the Eggs? The Meaning, Measurement, and Implications of Invisible Family Load.

Although much is known of the observable physical tasks associated with household management and child rearing, there is scant understanding of the less visible tasks that are just as critical. Grounding our research in the extant literature, the broader lay discussion, as well as our own qualitative research, we define, conceptualize, and operationalize this construct, which we label as "invisible family load." Using a mixed method, five-study approach, we offer a comprehensive, multidimensional definition and provide a nine-item, empirically validated scale to measure its component parts-managerial, cognitive, and emotional family load. In addition, we investigate gender differences and find, as expected, that women report higher levels of each dimension. We also examine the implications of invisible family load for employee health, well-being, and job attitudes, as well as family-to-work spillover. Although we substantiated some significant negative consequences, contrary to the popular view that consequences of invisible family load are uniformly negative, our results show some potential benefits. Even after accounting for conscientiousness and neuroticism, managerial family load related to greater family-work enrichment, and cognitive family load related to greater family satisfaction and job performance. Yet, emotional family load had uniformly negative potential consequences including greater family-to-work conflict, sleep problems, family and job exhaustion, and lower life and family satisfaction. Our research sets the stage for scholars to forge a path forward to enhance understanding of this phenomenon and its implications for individuals, their families, and the organizations for which they work. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10869-023-09887-7.

The temporal dynamics between work stressors and health behaviors.

Applying dynamic equilibrium theory (DET), we examined the temporal dynamics between role overload and three health behaviors (sleep, diet, physical activity). Participants (N = 781) completed five surveys, with 1-month lag between assessments, and the data were analyzed using general cross-lagged panel modeling (GCLM). Results indicated that people had stable health behavior patterns (i.e., there were strong unit effects) that were related to stable role overload patterns (i.e., the chronic role overload and health behavior factors were significantly related). Furthermore, while monthly increases (impulses) in role overload had a negative effect on health behaviors concurrently, health behaviors quickly adapted or regressed back toward previous levels (i.e., there were weak autoregressive and cross-lagged effects after accounting for chronic factors). Impulse response functions were created to show the specific proportion of the initial impulse effect that persisted on each health behavior over time. The results of these response functions indicated that diet and physical activity regressed back to previous levels within 1 month, whereas sleep regressed back to previous levels within 2 months. Collectively, our results suggest that people engage in fairly stable patterns of health behaviors and that these patterns are partly determined by chronic role overload. Our results also suggest that people are generally resilient to temporary changes in role overload, such that the resulting immediate changes in behavior do not persist or become habitual. These results underscore the strength of habits and the resistance to health behavior change, as well as provide support for the use of GCLM for studying DET. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Resign or carry-on? District and principal leadership as drivers of change in teacher turnover intentions during the COVID-19 crisis: A latent growth model examination.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers in the United States, an already at-risk occupation group, experienced new work-related stressors, safety concerns, and work-life challenges, magnifying on-going retention concerns. Integrating the crisis management literature with the unfolding model of turnover, we theorize that leader actions trigger initial employee responses but also set the stage for on-going crisis response that influence changes in teachers' turnover intentions. We apply latent growth curve modelling to test our hypotheses based on a sample of 617 K-12 teachers using nine waves of data, including a baseline survey at the start of the 2020-2021 school year and eight follow-up surveys (2-week lags) through the Fall 2020 semester. In terms of overall adaptation, teachers on average, experienced an increase in work-life balance and a decrease in turnover intentions over the course of the semester. Results also suggest that district and school leadership provide unique and complementary resources, but leader behaviours that shape initial crisis responses do not similarly affect employee responses during crisis, contrary to theory. Instead, teachers' adaptive crisis response trajectories were triggered by continued resource provision over the semester; increasing provision of valued resources (i.e., continued refinement of safety practices) and improvements in work-life balance prevented turnover intentions from spiralling throughout the crisis. Crisis management theory and research should continue to incorporate temporal dynamics and identify factors that contribute to crisis response trajectories, using designs and analyses that allow for examination as crises unfold in real time.

Can incivility be informative? Client incivility as a signal for provider creativity.

Workplace incivility is generally viewed as a deleterious interpersonal stressor. Yet, alternative theories suggest that incivility may have instrumental implications for some targets. Applying signaling theory, we study client-provider relationships in a health care context to unpack linkages between incivility enacted by organizational outsiders and work creativity responses by employee targets. We argue that providers leverage information from client incivility to provide more creative care over time. In Study 1 (N = 186), results suggest that clients may use incivility to signal perceptions of poor treatment quality to providers. In Study 2 (N = 416), results from topic modeling of qualitative data show that providers observe client incivility and believe it can contain valuable information about client satisfaction. In Study 3 (N = 503), providers reported their experiences of client incivility and creativity (incremental and radical) in client care over five waves of data to capture the incubation time that providers may need to reflect on instances of incivility. Employing trait-state-occasion modeling, our findings show that episodic (i.e., higher than normal) client incivility had positive lagged relationships with incremental and radical provider creativity, suggesting that time is needed for providers to process the information contained in the client incivility signal and creatively modify treatment plans. Theoretical and practical implications for workplace incivility and creativity are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Balancing work and family: A theoretical explanation and longitudinal examination of its relation to spillover and role functioning.

We take a temporally dynamic perspective to present a model that explains the relations among work-family spillover (conflict and enrichment), work-family balance, and role satisfaction and performance over time. We posit that these relationships differ for two primary conceptualizations, balance satisfaction and effectiveness. We collect data using two samples, each with three time points. In Study 1 (N = 681), we test our hypotheses for balance satisfaction. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that bidirectional enrichment predicted subsequent job and family satisfaction, and in turn, balance satisfaction. Thus, enrichment appears to primarily initiate the balance satisfaction process as it unfolds over time. Contrary to common theoretical and practical assumptions, role satisfaction seems to drive balance satisfaction rather than the other way around. In Study 2 (N = 493), we test our hypotheses for balance satisfaction and balance effectiveness. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that conflict primarily initiated the balance effectiveness process where role performance and balance effectiveness operated in feedback cycles of mutual influence over time. Posthoc model tests are consistent with Study 1 in that work-to-family enrichment predicted job satisfaction and in turn, balance satisfaction. Collectively, these studies suggest that the processes involving balance satisfaction versus balance effectiveness have different primary originating factors (enrichment or conflict, respectfully) and different temporal sequencing with role satisfaction and performance (unidirectional vs. reciprocal, respectively), warranting distinct theoretical explanations. This program of research represents a comprehensive, theoretical explanation and temporal examination of work-family balance, setting the stage for a new phase of research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining supervisor undermining through the job-demands resources framework.

INTRODUCTION: Supervisor undermining has recently gained increasing attention due to its negative effects on employee health and well-being. In the healthcare context, negative supervisor behaviors have been linked to unfavorable individual and organizational outcomes as well as medical errors and patient mortality. Our study, therefore, examines the influence that supervisor undermining behavior has on employee engagement and performance within a standard job stress framework. METHODS: Our sample consisted of occupational therapists, a health professions group who is growing in demand and importance in the U.S. and has unique job demands. Using an observational, cross-sectional study design, a convenience sample of 521 occupational therapists completed an online survey. A series of independent t-test and multiple-groups path analytic modeling was used. RESULTS: Participants who had a supervisor perceived as engaging in undermining behaviors reported lower levels of resources, higher levels of demands, less motivation, and more overload than those who did not perceive supervisor undermining. These participants were also less engaged and reported lower levels of performance. CONCLUSION: Our results shed further light on the importance of supervisory behaviors specifically in a healthcare setting and the need for organizations to create an environment that promotes positive and productive workplace behaviors.

Changes to the work-family interface during the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining predictors and implications using latent transition analysis.

Employees around the world have experienced sudden, significant changes in their work and family roles due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, applied psychologists have limited understanding of how employee experiences of work-family conflict and enrichment have been affected by this event and what organizations can do to ensure better employee functioning during such societal crises. Adopting a person-centered approach, we examine transitions in employees' work-family interfaces from before COVID-19 to after its onset. First, in Study 1, using latent profile analysis (N = 379; nonpandemic data), we identify profiles of bidirectional conflict and enrichment, including beneficial (low conflict and high enrichment), active (medium conflict and enrichment), and passive (low conflict and enrichment). In Study 2, with data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we replicate Study 1 profiles and explore whether employees transition between work-family profiles during the pandemic. Results suggest that although many remain in prepandemic profiles, positive (from active/passive to beneficial) and negative (from beneficial to active/passive) transitions occurred for a meaningful proportion of respondents. People were more likely to go through negative transitions if they had high segmentation preferences, engaged in emotion-focused coping, experienced higher technostress, and had less compassionate supervisors. In turn, negative transitions were associated with negative employee consequences during the pandemic (e.g., lower job satisfaction and job performance, and higher turnover intent). We discuss implications for future research and for managing during societal crises, both present and future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Disrespect at Work, Distress at Home: A Longitudinal Investigation of Incivility Spillover and Crossover Among Older Workers.

The prevalence of workplace mistreatment toward older adults is well-documented, yet its effects are understudied. We applied the strength and vulnerability integration model (SAVI) to hypothesize that, despite its low intensity, workplace incivility has numerous deleterious outcomes for older employees over time. Specifically, we investigated whether and how incivility relates to well-being outside of work, among both targeted employees and their partners. We drew on affective events theory to examine how incivility "spills over" to older targets' personal lives. We also tested whether incivility is potent enough to "crossover" to the well-being of older targets' partners at home. Based on longitudinal data from a national study of older workers (N = 598; 299 couples), results demonstrate that workplace incivility related to decrements in targets' affective well-being, which in turn, was associated with life dissatisfaction, interference with work, and lower overall health. Workplace incivility also predicted declines in partner well-being, although these crossover effects varied by gender: Men's postincivility affective well-being predicted their female partners' life satisfaction but not vice versa. However, women's uncivil experiences directly related to the affective well-being of their male partners. These results suggest that for both older workers and their partners, the harms of incivility eventually extend beyond the organizations where they originate.

Testing a resource-based spillover-crossover-spillover model: Transmission of social support in dual-earner couples.

We propose and test a Resource-Based Spillover-Crossover-Spillover Model (RB-SCSM) of how an employer's provision of family support resources to an employee ultimately relates to his or her partner's improved experiences at his or her work as part of a mesosystem-to-mesosystem resource transmission process. Based on a dyadic examination of 262 full-time dual-earner couples, consistent with prior research, we found that when employees perceive their organization is family supportive, they experience less work-to-family conflict, and in turn, less burnout. Building on these individual-level effects in novel ways, we demonstrate that when an employee reports less burnout, their partner perceives the employee as less burned out. Moreover, when partners perceive less employee burnout, they perceive the employee provides more emotional support for the partner's work, directly and indirectly through the family overload that the partner experiences. Finally, when the partner receives more family support for his or her work, this spills over to and is related to the partner's greater investment in his or her relationships at work. Thus, our findings empirically demonstrate a resource-based transmission from one organization to another through dynamics occurring in the family. Suggestions for practical implementation are provided, as are suggestions for future theoretically grounded research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The relationship between physical work hazards and employee withdrawal: The moderating role of safety compliance.

We examined the relationship between physical work hazards and employee withdrawal among a sample of health care employees wherein safety compliance was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between physical work hazards and withdrawal. Health care workers (N = 162) completed an online questionnaire assessing physical work hazards, withdrawal, and indicators of workplace safety. Safety compliance moderated the relationship between patient aggression and withdrawal. Interaction plots revealed that for all significant moderations, the relationship between physical work hazards and withdrawal was weaker for those who reported high levels of compliance. Results shed initial light on the benefits of fostering safety compliance in health care contexts, which can contain exposure to physical work hazards.

Applying adaptation theory to understand experienced incivility processes: Testing the repeated exposure hypothesis.

Experienced workplace incivility has consistently been linked to a host of negative outcomes, but as a low-intensity behavior, most working adults should be able to adapt and move on from these experiences of incivility over time. On the basis of repeated measures data from a heterogeneous sample of 625 respondents across three waves, with a 1-month lag between assessments, and framed within adaptation theory, we propose and find strong empirical evidence that although incivility is concurrently related to 5 indices related to both positive and negative employee well-being (i.e., role overload, affective commitment, subjective well-being, burnout, and turnover intentions), working adults adapt to these experiences over time. However, in considering the unfolding of incivility over time, we also make a meaningful contribution and extension to adaptation theory, a theory wherein little consideration has been given to stressors that may be recurring over time. We propose and test the repeated exposure hypothesis as a framework for conceptualizing how past (distal) experiences of a stressor can indirectly influence strain outcomes via more proximal experiences of the stressor. We also provide preliminary evidence that indices of well-being have systematic lagged effects on incivility, supporting the argument for reverse causation over time between the constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Willingness to Seek Treatment Among Black Students With Anxiety or Depression: The Synergistic Effect of Sociocultural Factors With Symptom Severity and Intolerance of Uncertainty.

Anxiety and depressive disorders are among the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders, yet they remain largely undertreated in the U.S. and Black adults are especially unlikely to seek or receive mental health services. Symptom severity has been found to impact treatment-seeking behaviors as have sociocultural factors. Yet no known research has tested whether these factors work synergistically to effect willingness to seek treatment. Further, emerging data point to the importance of transdiagnostic risk factors such as intolerance of uncertainty (IU). IU may be negatively related to seeking treatment given that Black adults may be uncertain whether treatment might benefit them. Thus, the current study examined the relations between symptom severity/IU and willingness to seek treatment for anxiety/depression problems and the impact of key sociocultural variables (i.e., cultural mistrust-interpersonal relations [CMI-IR], perceived discrimination [PED]) on these relations among 161 (85% female) Black undergraduates. Consistent with prediction, symptom severity was positively related to willingness, but unexpectedly, IU was positively related. There was a significant Symptom Severity × CMI-IR interaction such that severity was positively related to willingness among students with lower cultural mistrust, but not higher mistrust. There were also significant IU × PED interaction such that IU was positively related to willingness among students with lower PED, but not higher PED. Results highlight the importance of considering the interplay between symptom severity, transdiagnostic vulnerability factors, and sociocultural variables when striving to identify factors related to treatment seeking behaviors among anxious and/or depressed Black students.

Identifying job characteristics related to employed women's breastfeeding behaviors.

For employed mothers of infants, reconciliation of work demands and breastfeeding constitutes a significant challenge. The discontinuation of breastfeeding has the potential to result in negative outcomes for the mother (e.g., higher likelihood of obesity), her employer (e.g., increased absenteeism), and her infant (e.g., increased risk of infection). Given previous research findings identifying return to work as a major risk factor for breastfeeding cessation, we investigate what types of job characteristics relate to women's intentions to breastfeed shortly after giving birth and women's actual breastfeeding initiation and duration. Using job titles and job descriptors contained in a large Australian longitudinal cohort data set (N = 809), we coded job titles using the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)'s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database and extracted job characteristics. Hazardous working conditions and job autonomy were identified as significant determinants of women's breastfeeding intentions, their initiation of breastfeeding, and ultimately their breastfeeding continuation. Hence, we recommend that human resource professionals, managers, and public health initiatives provide breastfeeding-supportive resources to women who, based on their job characteristics, are at high risk to prematurely discontinue breastfeeding to ensure these mothers have equal opportunity to reap the benefits of breastfeeding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Reactions to psychological contract breaches and organizational citizenship behaviours: An experimental manipulation of severity.

Grounded in affective events theory, we investigated the effects of experimentally manipulated psychological contract breaches on participants' feelings of violation, subsequent perceptions of psychological contract strength, and organizational citizenship behaviours in a sample of working adults. Results support previous findings that pre-existing relational psychological contract strength interacts with severity of unmet promises or expectations. Specifically, individuals with high relational contracts who experience low severity of unmet promises/expectations have the lowest breach perceptions, whereas individuals with high relational contracts who experience more severe levels unmet promises/expectations experience the highest level of breach perceptions. Results also support the concept of a breach spiral in that prior perceptions of breach led to an increased likelihood of subsequent perceptions of breach following the experimental manipulation. Furthermore, consistent with affective events theory, results support the argument that a psychological contract breach's effect on specific organizational citizenship behaviours is mediated by feelings of violation and the reassessment of relational contracts. These effects were present even after controlling for the direct effects of the manipulated severity of unmet promises/expectations.

Understanding role stressors and job satisfaction over time using adaptation theory.

In this study, we seek to highlight a potentially fundamental shift in how dynamic stressor-strain relationships should be conceptualized over time. Specifically, we provide an integrated empirical test of adaptation and role theory within a longitudinal framework. Data were collected at 3 time points, with a 6-week lag between time points, from 534 respondents. Using latent change modeling, results supported within-person adaptation to changes in job satisfaction and role conflict. Specifically, over the 12-week course of the study, changes in role clarity tended to be maintained, whereas changes in job satisfaction and role conflict tended to be fleeting and reverse themselves. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Emergence of Family-specific Support Constructs: Cross-level Effects of Family-supportive Supervision and Family-Supportive Organization Perceptions on Individual Outcomes.

Implicit to the definitions of both family-supportive supervision (FSS) and family-supportive organization perceptions (FSOP) is the argument that these constructs may manifest at a higher (e.g. group or organizational) level. In line with these conceptualizations, grounded in tenants of conservation of resources theory, we argue that FSS and FSOP, as universal resources, are emergent constructs at the organizational level, which have cross-level effects on work-family conflict and turnover intentions. To test our theoretically derived hypotheses, a multilevel model was examined in which FSS and FSOP at the unit level predict individual work-to-family conflict, which in turn predicts turnover intentions. Our hypothesized model was generally supported. Collectively, our results point to FSOP serving as an explanatory mechanism of the effects that mutual perceptions of FSS have on individual experiences of work-to-family conflict and turnover intentions. Lagged (i.e. overtime) cross-level effects of the model were also confirmed in supplementary analyses. Our results extend our theoretical understanding of FSS and FSOP by demonstrating the utility of conceptualizing them as universal resources, opening up a variety of avenues for future research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

LMX, Breach Perceptions, Work-Family Conflict, and Well-Being: A Mediational Model.

Despite research advances, work-family scholars still lack an understanding of how leadership constructs relate to an employee's ability to effectively manage the work-family interface. In addition, there remains a need to examine the process through which leadership and work-family conflict influence well-being outcomes. Using a sample of 312 workers, a mediated process model grounded in social exchange theory is tested wherein the authors seek to explain how leaders shape employee perceptions, which, in turn, impact organizational fulfillment of expectations (i.e., psychological contract breach), work-family conflict, and well-being. A fully latent structural equation model was used to test study hypotheses, all of which were supported. Building on existing theory, findings suggest that the supervisor plays a critical role as a frontline representative for the organization and that work-family conflict is reduced and well-being enhanced through a process of social exchange between the supervisor and worker.

Developing and investigating the use of single-item measures in organizational research.

The validity of organizational research relies on strong research methods, which include effective measurement of psychological constructs. The general consensus is that multiple item measures have better psychometric properties than single-item measures. However, due to practical constraints (e.g., survey length, respondent burden) there are situations in which certain single items may be useful for capturing information about constructs that might otherwise go unmeasured. We evaluated 37 items, including 18 newly developed items as well as 19 single items selected from existing multiple-item scales based on psychometric characteristics, to assess 18 constructs frequently measured in organizational and occupational health psychology research. We examined evidence of reliability; convergent, discriminant, and content validity assessments; and test-retest reliabilities at 1- and 3-month time lags for single-item measures using a multistage and multisource validation strategy across 3 studies, including data from N = 17 occupational health subject matter experts and N = 1,634 survey respondents across 2 samples. Items selected from existing scales generally demonstrated better internal consistency reliability and convergent validity, whereas these particular new items generally had higher levels of content validity. We offer recommendations regarding when use of single items may be more or less appropriate, as well as 11 items that seem acceptable, 14 items with mixed results that might be used with caution due to mixed results, and 12 items we do not recommend using as single-item measures. Although multiple-item measures are preferable from a psychometric standpoint, in some circumstances single-item measures can provide useful information.

A concise, content valid, gender invariant measure of workplace incivility.

The authors present a short, valid, gender invariant measure of workplace incivility that should have a high degree of utility in a variety of research designs, especially those concerned with reducing participant burden such as experience sampling and multiwave longitudinal designs. Given ongoing concerns about the psychometric properties of workplace mistreatment constructs, they validated a 4-item measure of experienced incivility based on series of 3 independent field studies (N = 2,636). In addition to retaining items on the basis of employee rated conceptual alignment (i.e., judgmental criteria) with a standard incivility definition (i.e., ambiguous intent to harm), items were also chosen based on external criteria in terms of their ability to explain incremental variance in outcomes of interest (e.g., role overload, interpersonal deviance). Items with large systematic relationships with other mistreatment constructs (i.e., abusive supervision, supervisor undermining) were excluded. In turn, the authors demonstrated that the 4-item measure is gender invariant, a critical issue that has received limited attention in the literature to date. They also experimentally investigated the effect of recall window (2 weeks, 1 month, 1 year) and found a differential pattern of effect sizes for various outcomes of interest. A fourth independent field study was conducted as a practical application of the measure within a longitudinal framework. An autoregressive model examining experienced incivility and counterproductive work behaviors was tested. Data was collected from a sample of 278 respondents at 3 time points with 1 month between assessments. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Lagged effects of family-supportive organization perceptions and supervision in relation to generalized work-related resources.

In the present study, grounded in organizational support and social exchange theory, the dynamic lagged interplay between family supportive supervision (FSS), family supportive organization perceptions (FSOP), perceived organizational support (POS), and leader-member exchange (LMX) was examined. Data were collected from 435 respondents over 3 time points with 6-week lags between assessments. Consistent with theory, FSS had a significant lagged effect on FSOP, whereas the reverse relationship was not supported. Interestingly, contrary to conservation of resources theory, we did not find significant lagged effects between POS and FSOP. Results further indicated that LMX and FSS were reciprocally related over time, suggesting the potential for a dynamic, mutually beneficial exchange relationship between subordinates and supervisors. Theoretical implications and considerations for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record