Gary A. Adams

Relationships of Job and Family Involvement, Family Social Support, and Work-Family Conflict With Job and Life Satisfaction

A model of the relationship between work and family that incorporates variables from both the work-family conflict and social support literatures was developed and empirically tested. This model related bidirectional work-family conflict, family instrumental and emotional social support, and job and family involvement to job and life satisfaction. Data came from 163 workers who were living with at least 1 family member. Results suggested that relationships between work and family can have an important effect on job and life satisfaction and that the level of involvement the worker assigns to work and family roles is associated with this relationship. The results also suggested that the relationship between work and family can be simultaneously characterized by conflict and support. Higher levels of work interfering with family predicted lower levels of family emotional and instrumental support. Higher levels of family emotional and instrumental support were associated with lower levels of family interfering with work. The growing body of occupational stress research regarding the relationship between work and family has suggested that there are interconnecting and possibly reciprocal influences between these two domains (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1987; Kanter, 1977; Rice,

Resilience-recovery factors in post-traumatic stress disorder among female and male Vietnam veterans: hardiness, postwar social support, and additional stressful life events.

Structural equation modeling procedures were used to examine relationships among several war zone stressor dimensions, resilience-recovery factors, and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in a national sample of 1,632 Vietnam veterans (26% women and 74% men). A 9-factor measurement model was specified on a mixed-gender subsample of the data and then replicated on separate subsamples of female and male veterans. For both genders, the structural models supported strong mediation effects for the intrapersonal resource characteristic of hardiness, postwar structural and functional social support, and additional negative life events in the postwar period. Support for moderator effects or buffering in terms of interactions between war zone stressor level and resilience-recovery factors was minimal.

The Impact of Military Lifestyle Demands on Well-Being, Army, and Family Outcomes

Adopting M. Segal’s framework, we focused on examining four military lifestyle demands—(1) risk of service member injury or death, (2) frequent relocations, (3) periodic separations, and (4) foreign residence—and their relationships to psychological and physical well-being, satisfaction with the Army, and marital satisfaction. Questionnaire results from 346 spouses living overseas indicated that the impact of separations was negatively related to all four outcomes, while foreign residence was negatively related to physical and psychological well-being, fear for soldier safety was negatively related to physical well-being, and the impact of moving was negatively related to satisfaction with the Army. The results further indicated that perceptions of moving and separations were more important in determining outcomes than were the actual number of moves or separations.

Relationships Between Time Management, Control, Work-Family Conflict, and Strain

This article incorporates recent research regarding time management into a model of work-family conflict. The authors hypothesized that 3 types of time management behavior would have both direct and indirect (through perceived control of time) relationships, with work interfering with family and family interfering with work. It was also hypothesized that both of these types of work-family conflict would be related to the strain outcomes of job dissatisfaction and health complaints. This model was tested with a sample of 522 workers. In general, the hypothesized relationships were supported.

Reasons for working and their relationship to retirement attitudes, job satisfaction and occupational self-efficacy of bridge employees.

Although the Baby Boomers are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and they are quickly approaching retirement age, research has widely neglected to look at the reasons as to why many of them intend on opting for bridge employment as opposed to completely retiring. This study examined the relationships among four reasons for working (social, personal, financial, and generative) and three attitudinal responses to bridge employment (job satisfaction, retirement attitudes, and occupational self-efficacy). In a sample of 108 recent retirees holding bridge employment positions, it was found that generativity served as a reliable predictor of job satisfaction and attitudes toward retirement, whereas the social reason for work was only a reliable predictor of attitudes toward retirement.

Applying work-role attachment theory to retirement decision-making.

This study examined the relationships between work-role attachment variables (job involvement, affective organizational commitment, and career identification) and intention to retire. Results indicated that organizational commitment was negatively related to retirement intent. Contrary to expectations, job involvement displayed a positive relationship and career identification had no relationship to retirement intent.

Development and Validation of Scores on a Two-Dimensional Workplace Friendship Scale

Two studies were conducted to develop and provide evidence supporting the construct validity of scores on a scale to measure two aspects of workplace friendship: friendship prevalence and friendship opportunities. In the first study, data collected from 200 part-time graduate students supported the internal consistency and proposed dimensionality of scale scores. In the second study, data were collected from a total sample of 116, which consisted of part-time graduate students and employees of three organizations. Support was provided for convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of scale scores.

Putting off tomorrow to do what you want today: planning for retirement.

In this article we note that in the coming years, a larger number of people will be experiencing retirement for a longer period of time than ever before and that despite this fact, many will find themselves unprepared for this stage of their lives. We review the literature on retirement preparation, structuring our review around the key questions that need to be addressed when planning for retirement: (a) What will I do? (b) How will I afford it? (c) Where will I live? and (d) Who will I share it with? We make a number of suggestions for research and practice. We conclude that although psychology has begun to play a role in understanding and addressing retirement preparation, there are considerable opportunities for psychologists to engage with this issue in their research and applied work.

The impact of situational constraints, role stressors, and commitment on employee altruism.

This study investigated relations between 3 work-related stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, and organizational constraints) and altruistic behavior in the workplace. It was predicted that each stressor would be negatively related to altruism and that these relations would be moderated by affective commitment (AC). Data from 144 incumbent-supervisor dyads revealed that all 3 stressors were weakly and negatively related to altruism. Two of these relationships were moderated by AC, although not as predicted. Organizational constraints were positively related to altruism among those reporting high levels of AC but negatively related among those reporting low levels of AC. The pattern was exactly opposite for role conflict. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Social Stressors and Strain Among Police Officers: It’s Not Just the Bad Guys

This study examined the relationships of social stressors arising from interactions with civilians and suspects (outsiders) and coworkers and supervisors (insiders) with turnover intention, psychological distress, and emotional exhaustion. It also examined surface acting—a way of faking appropriate emotions—as a mediator of these relationships. Using online survey data collected from 196 police officers, the authors found that social stressors from both sources were related to all three outcomes and that surface acting mediated these relationships. These results extend the literature on emotional labor by demonstrating that models of emotional labor apply to police officers, whose customers differ from those traditionally found in the literature. This study also extends the occupational stress literature by showing that a similar emotional regulation process linking social stressors from customers to strains also holds for social stressors arising from organizational insiders.