When forgetting what happened at work matters: The role of affective rumination, problem-solving pondering, and self-control in work–family conflict and enrichment.

Abstract

Whether integrating work into home benefits or harms an employee’s family role is a critical issue that has met with mixed findings in the extant literature. Work–home integration can be manifested in different ways. Unfortunately, prior research has tended to use global assessments of integration that may mask relationships between different types of integration and work–family outcomes. In 2 studies, the present research takes a step toward a more fine-grained analysis by focusing on the work–family consequences of affective rumination and problem-solving pondering, both of which represent psychological integration of work into home. In Study 1, using a between-person design with a 6-week time lag (NTime1 = 519, NTime2 = 231), affective rumination was positively related to work–family conflict and negatively to work–family enrichment, whereas problem-solving pondering was unrelated to work–family conflict and positively related to work–family enrichment. In Study 2, a within-person daily diary study over 1 workweek (N = 103), affectively ruminating more than usual was related to more work–family conflict than usual and to less enrichment than usual. Moreover, average affective rumination over 1 workweek was negatively related to average work–family enrichment. Problem-solving pondering was unrelated to work–family conflict and enrichment within persons, but was positively related to work–family enrichment between persons. Neither study supported the hypothesis that trait self-control would buffer the negative consequences of affective rumination. Overall, these results emphasize the importance of investigating the consequences of specific types of integrating work into home rather than overall tendencies of doing so. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)