Balancing resources and negative spillover and the effect on mental health and burnout

The Conservation of Resources theory was used to examine the balance between personal (e.g. optimism) and workplace resources (e.g. affective commitment) and the demands of spillover between work and family roles and the effects on mental health problems, emotional exhaustion and work satisfaction amongst a community sample of Australian employees. The absence of coping self-efficacy and optimism and greater negative spillover were predictors of depression and stress, indicating that mental health problems arose where the individual felt unable to manage the work and family problems they encountered. However, workplace resources were important to both emotional exhaustion and work satisfaction. Emotional exhaustion was decreased by affective commitment and managerial support for work-life issues, in addition to less negative spillover, whereas affective commitment and skill discretion increased but negative work-to-family spillover decreased work satisfaction. Negative spillover has a pervasive effect on the individual and was more likely where the individual felt they lacked control of their time and had more traditional gender role attitudes, where job social support generally and for the family was limited, and with fewer, younger children. Promoting personal and workplace resources, whilst reducing negative spillover, provide possible targets for prevention for mental health problems and burnout