RESEARCH PAPER
Longitudinal investigation on personality traits and mental health relationships: the mediating role of work-family interference and enhancement
| 1 | Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey |
| 2 | University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia |
Submission date: 2019-03-15
Final revision date: 2019-09-24
Acceptance date: 2019-09-29
Online publication date: 2019-10-21
Publication date: 2019-11-04
Current Issues in Personality Psychology 2019;7(3):173–188
KEYWORDS
personalityMental HealthWork to Family Interference and Enhancementmental healthwork-to-family interference and enhancement
TOPICS
the role of personality in interpersonal relations and social behaviorsindividual differencesquality of life and well being
ABSTRACT
Background:
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the Big Five personality traits on work-family interference/enhancement and mental health using a three-wave longitudinal design.
Participants and procedure:
The paper draws on a sample (N = 886) from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia survey. Structural equa-tion modeling was used to examine the measures of the variables and assess their associations across three time periods.
Results:
The results indicate that conscientiousness and emotional stability are the personality traits that are associated with work-to-family enhancement over time. In addition, work-to-family enhancement is a mediator between emotional stability and mental health. Overall, there exists a positive reciprocal relationship between work-to-family enhancement and mental health throughout the three waves.
Conclusions:
This study showed that there is a bidirectional positive link between work-to-family enhancement and mental health. The find-ings suggest that organizations will benefit not only from developing interventions to enrich employees’ work skills, behav-iors/attitudes but also from promoting their mental health and emotional stability. This study is the first to confirm the partial mediation role of work-to-family enhancement between emotional stability and mental health, and bidirectional relations of work-to-family enhancement and mental health. Moreover, the longitudinal design of this study overcomes the limitations of prior cross-sectional studies in evaluating the relationships of constructs.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the Big Five personality traits on work-family interference/enhancement and mental health using a three-wave longitudinal design.
Participants and procedure:
The paper draws on a sample (N = 886) from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia survey. Structural equa-tion modeling was used to examine the measures of the variables and assess their associations across three time periods.
Results:
The results indicate that conscientiousness and emotional stability are the personality traits that are associated with work-to-family enhancement over time. In addition, work-to-family enhancement is a mediator between emotional stability and mental health. Overall, there exists a positive reciprocal relationship between work-to-family enhancement and mental health throughout the three waves.
Conclusions:
This study showed that there is a bidirectional positive link between work-to-family enhancement and mental health. The find-ings suggest that organizations will benefit not only from developing interventions to enrich employees’ work skills, behav-iors/attitudes but also from promoting their mental health and emotional stability. This study is the first to confirm the partial mediation role of work-to-family enhancement between emotional stability and mental health, and bidirectional relations of work-to-family enhancement and mental health. Moreover, the longitudinal design of this study overcomes the limitations of prior cross-sectional studies in evaluating the relationships of constructs.
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