Daily positive and negative work-family spillover and crossover between mothers and children
Open Access
- Author:
- Davis, Kelly D.
- Graduate Program:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 26, 2008
- Committee Members:
- Ann Caverly Crouter, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Ann Caverly Crouter, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Susan Marie Mc Hale, Committee Member
David Manuel Almeida, Committee Member
Kathryn Bancroft Hynes, Committee Member
D Wayne Osgood, Committee Member - Keywords:
- work-family spillover
crossover - Abstract:
- The present study examined positive and negative work-family spillover and crossover among 47 female hourly hotel workers and their children aged 10 to 18 who participated in a series of eight daily diary interviews. The study examined both negative and positive spillover (the transfer of moods and behaviors from one context to another) and in both directions – from work to family and vice versa – by linking mothers’ daily stressors and positive events at work to their children’s daily reports of their mothers’ mood after work and parenting. The present study also examined crossover by testing the associations between mothers’ daily work experiences and children’s positive and negative affect, as well as the associations between children’s daily experiences and mothers’ affect. Youth age and gender were treated as moderators. Multilevel models revealed both between- and within-family differences in these processes. Evidence of negative work-to-family spillover included the finding that mothers with high interpersonal stressors at the hotel were described by their children as more stressed when they came home from work than mothers with no interpersonal stressors. Further, adolescents (aged 13-18) but not children (aged 10-12) rated their mothers with high interpersonal stressors as more tired after work, on average. On days mothers had work overloads, they were more tired after work. Contrary to expectations, mothers’ daily positive work experiences were associated with negative outcomes, such as the finding that on days when mothers experienced positive events at work with coworkers, children (not adolescents) reported that mothers were more stressed after work. There was no evidence of family-to-work spillover, nor was there evidence of positive spillover or crossover. There was some evidence of negative crossover. On days when mothers had interpersonal stressors, boys (not girls) reported having lower positive affect. Children’s daily experiences were also linked to maternal affect: On days when youth had arguments with others, not their parents, mothers reported lower positive affect the same day. Findings are discussed in terms of the communication of daily experiences and emotions in families and how this can vary by youth age and gender.