Capstone: The Long Arm of the Job: Research on the Work-Family Intersection

Occupational health psychology is a rapidly growing area of research in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Among many topics, issues of work-family interface has received much research attention due to the increasing number of dual-career couples and blurred boundaries between work-family. In this talk, I will provide an overview of my research program on work-family issues, with several examples of empirical studies that I have conducted. The first study investigated the relationship between work interference with family and three qualitatively different parenting behaviors, demonstrating the potential detrimental effect of work interference with family on parenting. Also, the impact of work interference with family on parenting behaviors appeared to be moderated by a personality factor, trait guilt. The second study is a daily diary study that investigated how working wives' recovery from work affected her and her husband’s wellbeing. Results suggest that subjective/psychological aspects of activities individuals engage in during off-job hours have important implications for the wellbeing of employee as well as their families. The third study is a field experiment that examined the effectiveness of a micro-intervention that promotes positive reflection about work during off-job time. Collectively, my research provides evidence for "the long arm of the job”; the work does not stop affecting us when we leave our office, but continues influencing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the nonwork domain, thus exerting a broader impact on the health and wellbeing of employees and their families.