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Knock, knock, anybody home? Psychological availability as link between work and relationship
Author(s) -
DANNERVLAARDINGERBROEK GERDIENTJE,
KLUWER ESTHER S.,
VAN STEENBERGEN ELIANNE F.,
VAN DER LIPPE TANJA
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2012.01396.x
Subject(s) - psychology , rumination , mood , social psychology , spillover effect , work (physics) , developmental psychology , cognition , mechanical engineering , neuroscience , engineering , economics , microeconomics
This research investigated how negative and positive residuals of the workday spill over into the partner relationship. To unravel the mechanism of this spillover, this study introduces the concept of “psychological availability,” which refers to the individual's ability and motivation to direct psychological resources at the partner. A survey was conducted among 313 Dutch dual‐earner couples with children, using dyadic data analysis to analyze both partners simultaneously in 1 model. Psychological availability mediated the link between negative and positive work‐related residuals (i.e., work‐related negative mood, exhaustion, rumination and work‐related positive mood and vigor, respectively) and marital behavior. The findings suggest that partners' workday residuals spill over into the marital relationship through being more or less psychologically available for each other.