Improving lives of teachers: Staying connected to work, work-family boundary control, and strain

Abstract

Using work-family border theory and job demands-resources model, this study examines personal and situational predictors of information and communication technology (ICT) demands, and moderators of the relationship between ICT demands and strain. A sample of 546 elementary school teachers completed a baseline survey assessing predictors, and a weekly diary on ICT demands and strain for five weeks. The multilevel modeling results suggest that weekly ICT demands constitute a source of significant stress, increasing the likelihood that teachers experience strain, including negative rumination, negative affect, and insomnia. Furthermore, teachers who adopted a technological boundary tactic of work-home integration (i.e., getting work email alerts on mobile phone) or had high internal pressure to quickly respond to ICT messages (i.e., telepressure) were more likely to experience ICT demands than those who did not. As hypothesized, students' parents' after-work communication expectations predicted more ICT demands. Teachers' work-home boundary control buffered the stressor-strain relationship between ICT demands and negative rumination. Additionally, students' parents' after-hours communication expectations strengthened the stressor-strain relationship through decreasing boundary control, whereas principals' work-family support weakened this relationship through increasing boundary control. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.