Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Work-family conflict and crossover in volunteer emergency service workers
AU - Cowlishaw, Sean
AU - Evans, Lynette
AU - McLennan, Jim
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - A growing literature indicates that organizational and work demands place pressure on the partners and families of volunteer workers as it does on paid workers. This study evaluated a conceptual model integrating work-family conflict and stress crossover theoretical frameworks, to investigate the mechanisms by which emergency service volunteer work, specifically, predicts outcomes for the partners of volunteers. Matched data from 102 couples in which one partner was an Australian emergency services volunteer - firefighter, ambulance officer or emergency rescue volunteer - were analysed using structural equation modelling analyses. Findings suggested that one mechanism by which inter-role conflict related to partner adjustment was through elevated withdrawn marital behaviour and decreased intimacy reported by the couple, which indirectly affected partners' distress. This finding regarding withdrawn behaviour appears to be novel and may also be applicable to paid workers. Alternative mechanisms involving role overload and angry marital behaviour were not supported. These findings extend limited research which has adapted organizational theory to understand processes affecting volunteer workers, and advance conceptual accounts of the mechanisms through which the partners and families of workers are impacted by inter-role conflict.
AB - A growing literature indicates that organizational and work demands place pressure on the partners and families of volunteer workers as it does on paid workers. This study evaluated a conceptual model integrating work-family conflict and stress crossover theoretical frameworks, to investigate the mechanisms by which emergency service volunteer work, specifically, predicts outcomes for the partners of volunteers. Matched data from 102 couples in which one partner was an Australian emergency services volunteer - firefighter, ambulance officer or emergency rescue volunteer - were analysed using structural equation modelling analyses. Findings suggested that one mechanism by which inter-role conflict related to partner adjustment was through elevated withdrawn marital behaviour and decreased intimacy reported by the couple, which indirectly affected partners' distress. This finding regarding withdrawn behaviour appears to be novel and may also be applicable to paid workers. Alternative mechanisms involving role overload and angry marital behaviour were not supported. These findings extend limited research which has adapted organizational theory to understand processes affecting volunteer workers, and advance conceptual accounts of the mechanisms through which the partners and families of workers are impacted by inter-role conflict.
KW - emergency service workers
KW - PERSPECTIVES
KW - UNEMPLOYED PERSONS
KW - BEHAVIOR
KW - MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD
KW - work-family conflict
KW - MISSING DATA
KW - INTIMACY
KW - HOME
KW - MODEL
KW - crossover
KW - COUPLES
KW - volunteer work
KW - SATISFACTION
U2 - 10.1080/02678373.2010.532947
DO - 10.1080/02678373.2010.532947
M3 - Journal article
VL - 24
SP - 342
EP - 358
JO - Work and Stress
JF - Work and Stress
SN - 0267-8373
IS - 4
ER -