Work-Team Contexts of Work-Family Conflict, Stress, and Psychological Distress: A Multilevel Analysis

Phyllis Moen, University of Minnesota
Anne Kaduk, University of Minnesota
Ellen Kossek, Michigan State University
Leslie Hammer, Portland State University
Erin Kelly, University of Minnesota
Orfeu Buxton, Harvard Medical School
Emily O'Donnell, Harvard School of Public Health
David Almeida, Pennsylvania State University
Kimberly Fox, University of Minnesota
Eric Tranby, University of Delaware
J. Michael Oakes, University of Minnesota

Most research on the demographic characteristics, work conditions, and family responsibilities associated with work-family conflict and other measures of mental health uses the individual employee as the unit of analysis. We argue that work conditions are both individual psychosocial assessments and objective characteristics of the proximal work environment, necessitating multilevel analyses of both individual- and team-level work conditions on mental health. Drawing on baseline data on from the Work, Family, and Health Network research project, we examined information technology (IT) workers in a large U.S. firm (N=515 employees in 84 work teams) to investigate the distribution and “groupness” of key work conditions. Results show that contextual (aggregated) team-level work conditions are associated with both team-level and employee-level measures of work-to-family conflict, but that fewer team work conditions are linked to employees’ family-to-work conflict, perceived stress, and psychological distress. We found some heterogeneous effects by gender and family stage.