Psychological detachment as a moderator in work-family conflict relationships

An abstract of the thesis of Lauren Ann Murphy for the Master of Science in Psychology presented December 12, 2008. Title: Psychological Detachment as a Moderator in Work-family Conflict Relationships. Psychological detachment from work during off-job time has great significance in the field of Occupational Health Psychology because it affects the process of work recovery. Recovery from work helps people to achieve a work-life balance that leads to psychological health and general well-being. Applying Hobfoll's (1989, 2001) conservation ofresources (COR) theory and Meijman and Mulder's (1998) effort-recovery model, this study proposed that psychological detachment from work during off-job time is a moderator of the relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion. It was also proposed that work-family conflict is a predictor of work engagement, a construct gaining in popularity because of increased interest in positive psychology, as moderated by psychological detachment from work. Two-hundred ninety-five Chinese salespeople working around 40 hours per week were recruited as participants. The sample consisted of more male participants (52%) with an average age of 33 years. The average participant had 7.44 years of experience in his/her job and worked 43 hours per week. Sixty-nine percent of participants were married or living as married, with 53% having at least one child and 44% providing care for at least one elderly parent. 2 Two-step hierarchal multiple regression analyses were used to determin~ the significance of each proposed relationship. Age, gender, marital status, parental status, elder care status, job tenure, and hours worked per week were all entered in the first step. Each predictor variable was then entered in Step 2. Work-family conflict did not predict increased emotional exhaustion or decreased work engagement as hypothesized. Additionally, the proposed moderations were not significant and it is not known from this study if psychological detachment from work has an effect on workfamily conflict. Explanations for the results of this study are discussed and future research is recommended in order to further explore the potential impact of psychological detachment on stressors such as work-family conflict. PSYCHOLOGICAL DETACHMENT AS A MOD ERA TOR IN WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT RELATIONSHIPS by LAUREN ANN MURPHY A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE m PSYCHOLOGY Portland State University 2009 i TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES . iii LIST OF FIGURES . v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 Present Study . 4 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND . 7 Conservation of Resources Theory . 7 Effort-Recovery Model. 8 CHAPTER 3: BACKGROUND LITERATURE AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT . 10 Work-family Conflict . 10 Emotional Exhaustion as a Component of Burnout. 13 Work-family Conflict and Emotional Exhaustion . 19 Work Engagement. 23 Work-family Conflict and Work Engagement. 26 Psychological Detachment from Work . 33 Psychological Detachment from Work as a Moderator between Work-family Conflict and Emotional Exhaustion . 39 Psychological Detachment from Work as a Moderator between Work-family Conflict and Work Engagement. 43 CHAPTER 4: METHOD . 46 Procedure . 46