Partners’ overwork and individuals’ wellbeing and experienced relationship quality

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Community Work Fam
• Personal Author:
  Shafer, Emily Fitzgibbons ; Kelly, Erin L. ; Buxton, Orfeu M. ; Berkman, Lisa F.
• Description:
  The negative impact of long work hours, or overwork, on individuals' physical and psychological wellbeing is well documented. Less is known about the impact of overwork on individuals' families, especially in regard to partners. In this paper, we address this gap in the literature using high quality data from the Work, Family, and Health Network in a sample of IT workers in the US (N=590). Specifically we examine whether partners' long work hours are associated with individuals' perceived stress, time adequacy with partner, and relationship quality, and whether these relationships vary by gender. In addition, following the marital stress model, we investigate whether any negative correlation between partners' long work hours and relationship quality is mediated by time adequacy or perceived stress. We find that women partnered to men who work long hours (50 or more hours per week) have significantly higher perceived stress and significantly lower time adequacy and relationship quality compared to women partnered to men who work a standard full-time work week (35-49 hours). Further, the increased stress associated with being partnered to a man who overworks, not lower time adequacy, mediates the negative relationship between overwork and relationship quality. Conversely, we find that men partnered to women who work long hours report no differences in stress, time adequacy, or relationship quality than men who are partnered to women who work a standard full-time work week. Our results highlight the need for more research that examines the impact of overwork on individuals and their families.
• Subjects:
  Article Dual-Earner Multiple Roles Wellbeing Work Family Balance Work Hours
• Source:
  Community Work Fam. 21(4):410-428
• Pubmed ID:
  36061087
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9436002
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U01 HD051217/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051256/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 OH008788/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U01 AG027669/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HL107240/HL/NHLBI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD059773/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051276/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051218/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  21
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:d05c5d7f4b397144f1a31e8800c36bde763631c794ae82f2b6bde4743cfc3ac7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/121073/cdc_121073_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 386.34 KB ]