Role Stressors, Mood Spillover, and Perceptions of Work-Family Conflict in Employed Parents

Abstract
Several unsettled issues related to the day-to-day experience of work and family roles were investigated through the daily reports of 41 employed parents. Multiple role juggling, task demands, personal control, and goal progress affected mood in work and family roles. Unpleasant moods spilled over from work to family and vice versa, but pleasant moods had little spillover. Mood states, role juggling, and daily levels of role involvement predicted end-of-day ratings of work-family conflict. In particular, daily involvement in family roles, distress experienced during family activities, and family intrusions into work were positively related to perceptions that family interfered with work.