Work-family spillover and health during midlife: Is managing conflict everything?

Purpose. To examine the association between multiple dimensions of work-fam ily spill-over, and physical and mental health among working midlife adults . Design. Cross-sectional analyses of self-reported data. Setting. The National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (M IDUS), 1995. Subjects. Employed adults aged 35-65 years (n = 1547) who participated in t he telephone interview and returned the mail-back questionnaires of the MID US (overall response rate of 60.8%). Measures. Independent variables included negative spillover from work to fa mily, positive spillover from work to family, negative spillover from famil y to work, positive spillover from family to work. Self-rated physical heal th, chronic conditions, obesity, self-rated mental health, negative psychol ogical well-being, and positive psychological well-being were outcomes. Results. Independent of negative spillover between work and family, more po sitive spillover from work to family was associated with better physical he alth (odds ratio [OR] = 1.17 p less than or equal to .05) and mental health (OR = 1.28 p less than or equal to .01). More positive spillover from fami ly to work was associated with less chronic conditions (OR = .85, p less th an or equal to .05), less negative well-being (OR = .67, p less than or equ al to .001), as well as better mental health (OR = 1.45, p less than or equ al to .01) and more positive well-being (OR 1.76 p less than or equal to 00 1). Conclusions. Health promotion or employment programs and policies may need to focus on minimizing negative spillover between work and family and promo ting positive spillover between work and family.