The cost of repaying trust: Examining psychological detachment as a mediator in the relationship between feeling trusted and work–family conflict

Abstract

Background: Research on the “dark side” of feeling trusted has mainly focused on the workplace, paying much less attention to the non-work domain. Using social exchange theory as a basis, this research explored the effect of feeling trusted on work–family conflict and its underlying mechanisms. Methods: Data were collected in two waves from 375 full-time employees from companies in different industries in China and path analysis was used to test our hypotheses. Results: The results showed that psychological detachment mediated the relationship between feeling trusted and work–family conflict. This mediating effect was moderated by positive reciprocity beliefs, with the effect being stronger for employees with strong (vs weak) positive reciprocity beliefs. Conclusion: This study advances research on the negative effects of feeling trusted, indicating that while it might be important for employees to repay supervisors’ trust, they also need to clearly delineate the boundary between work and family to reduce work–family conflict.