Bidirectional work-family spillover and work-family balance: How are they related to personal distress and global stress?

Sixty-nine German dual-earner families participated in a study exploring the effects of bidirectional work-family spillover variables and work-family balance to predict personal distress and global stress outcomes. After controlling for the non-interdependence of dyadic data, the following results were obtained: First, the overall predictive power of several hierarchical regression models is considerably higher for global stress than personal distress. Second, the predictability of both outcomes is markedly higher for the female than the male sample. Third, by and large, the different hierarchical regression models produce similar results with respect to both outcome variables. Fourth, structural equation modelling attests to the more complex relationships among the predictors for the young working mothers as compared to their husbands. Finally, the findings and limitations of the study are discussed.