DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36158
title: Work, Family, and Health Study (WFHS)
title: Archival Version

description: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) formed the Work, Family and Health Network (WFHN) as a transdisciplinary research effort designed to enhance understanding of the impact of workplace practices and policies on work, family life, and health outcomes. The Work, Family and Health Network also seeks to illuminate the processes through which such practices and policies are adopted by employers and implemented by managers and employees.
The Work, Family, and Health Study (WFHS) was conducted via group-randomized field experiments, one at each of two employers representing different industries. The information technology division of a Fortune 500 company (pseudonym: Tomo) had 26 total sites made up of 56 study groups with 7-60 employees each. Within the extended-care company (pseudonym: Leef), 30 work sites of 30-89 employees each were randomly assigned to intervention or usual practice (UP) conditions. All employee and manager participants were assessed at baseline and at 6-, 12-, and 18-months post baseline.
Opinions were elicited from employees and managers regarding the amount of hours they work, balance between work and family, opportunities to work from home, the ability to take vacation and time off when desired, and decision-making authority at work. Responses were also gathered on issues such as talking with a manager about conflicts outside of work, willingness to help other coworkers when they have been absent, workplace safety, and obligations to come into work when sick. Information was also collected on the likelihood of respondents quitting the company, whether respondents were looking for work elsewhere, job performance ratings of self and others, opinions about supervisors, and a series of questions relating to psychological distress and well-being.
description: The data do not contain any weights.
description: Response Rates: Please refer to the ICPSR User Guide for a table that includes the number of respondents by wave.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Please refer to the Original P.I. Documentation section of the ICPSR codebook for information on the variety of scales used or adapted for use.
description: The data are a cluster-randomized sample of eligible employees and managers at two employers representing different industries. Employees and managers in the information technology division of a Fortune 500 company (pseudonym: Tomo) were eligible to participate if they were employed by the company in the two locations where data collection occurred and were classified as employees, rather than independent contractors, of the company. Employees and managers at the extended care company (pseudonym: Leef) were eligible to participate if they were normally scheduled to work 22.5 or more hours per week in direct patient care or in relevant positions within the nursing department, and they worked on the day or evening shifts.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Tomo Data Set
DS2: Leef Data Set
description: Eligible employees and managers at the recruited sites in each company.
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI)A restricted version of this study is available through the Work, Family, and Health Network website and contains additional data from dried blood spot assays, actigraphy, spouse/partner and child interviews, daily diary interviews, and salivary cortisol sampling.