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Physical activity buffers the effects of work-family conflict on work engagement through mastery recovery experience

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Abstract

Based on the Effort-Recovery model and the Job Demands-Resources model, this study investigated the moderated mediational process in which physical activity after work interacted with one type of work-family conflict, work-to-family conflict (work interference with family), to predict mastery recovery experience, which in turn explained work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption). Participants were 373 employees in South Korea who responded to an online survey twice with a two-day interval. Work-to-family conflict was measured on Tuesday, physical activity and mastery experience during Wednesday after work were retrospectively measured on Thursday, and three subtypes of work engagement were measured on Thursday. Our results indicated that physical activity after work moderated the relationship between work-to-family conflict and mastery experience such that the negative effect of work-to-family conflict on mastery experience was reduced in longer hours of physical activity. Furthermore, work-to-family conflict had conditional indirect effects on three subtypes of work engagement through mastery experience depending on the hours of physical activity, and the conditional indirect effect was strongest for vigor. These findings suggest that physical activity can promote recovery experience even in harsh conditions including the experience of work-family conflict, ultimately improving work engagement.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the supplementary information file.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Humanities and Social Sciences Campus, 25-2 Sungkyunkwan-Ro, Jongno-Gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Hyung In Park & Ji Sun Nam

  2. Institute of Liberal Education, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea

    Jiwon Jang

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  1. Hyung In Park
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Correspondence to Hyung In Park.

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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of one university in Korea.

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Signature on the informed consent was exempted due to the nature of anonymous online surveys. If the participants chose against participation after they were informed of the study, the survey was automatically terminated.

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Park, H.I., Jang, J. & Nam, J.S. Physical activity buffers the effects of work-family conflict on work engagement through mastery recovery experience. Curr Psychol 42, 348–358 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01463-7

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