Is It Better to Receive Than To Give? Empathy in the Conflict-Distress Relationship Conference Paper

abstract

• The moderating effect of partner empathy on the relationship between both directions of workfamily conflict (work-to-family and family'to-work) and psychological distress of both the job incumbent and partner are examined in this study. Considering empathy as a specific dimension of emotional social support, we hypothesized that receiving empathy would buffer negative spillover to the job incumbent while giving empathy would exacerbate negative crossover to the partner. A study of 270 job incumbents and their partners revealed that receiving partner empathy fully buffered spillover effects due to family-to-work conflict but had no effects with work-to-family conflict. Interestingly we also found that giving partner empathy buffered the crossover effects on family-to-work conflict and had no effects with work-to-family conflict. Implications of these findings and avenues for future research are discussed.

authors

• Whitten, G.

published proceedings

• JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

author list (cited authors)

• Ferguson, M., Carlson, D., Zivnuska, S., & Whitten, D.

citation count

• 20

complete list of authors

• Ferguson, Merideth||Carlson, Dawn||Zivnuska, Suzanne||Whitten, Dwayne

publication date

• July 2010

publisher

• American Psychological Association (APA)  Publisher

published in

• Journal of Occupational Health Psychology  Journal

keywords

• Distress
• Empathy
• Social Support
• Work-family Conflict

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1037/a0019620

start page

• 304

end page

• 315

volume

• 15

issue

• 3