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Home to Work Spillover and Psychological Distress in Middle-Aged Women
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by Christina M. Marini and Katherine L. Fiori - Adelphi University
Our primary aim was to evaluate the interactive nature of positive
and negative spillover from home to work in predicting depressive
symptomatology in a middle-aged sample of employed women (N = 3,511
and mean age = 54). Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
(Hauser & Sewell, 1957-2005), we ran a hierarchical linear regression to
test our hypotheses that positive spillover would be negatively associated
and negative spillover positively associated with depressive symptoms and
that positive and negative spillover would interact in predicting psychological
distress. Our hypotheses were largely supported. Our findings demonstrate
the potential for positive spillover to buffer against the detrimental effects
of negative spillover on mental health in a population of women typically
overlooked in the literature on home-work spillover (i.e., middle-aged
employed women likely caring for adult children and/or aging parents).
Winter 2011 | Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research (Vol. 16, No. 4, p. 180), published by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 2011, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.