Negative and positive spillover between work and home: Relationship to perceived stress and job satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to test a model of the relations between positive and negative work‐to‐home interference home‐to‐work interference on perceived stress, and job satisfaction.

The mediating role of negative and positive work‐to‐home interference (WHI) and home‐to‐work interference (HWI) was examined. Perceived stress as a mediator was also tested. Data were obtained from a sample of 283 French employees.

The results of structural equation modeling indicated that perceived stress partially mediated the relationship between negative or positive work‐home/home‐work interference and job satisfaction. The implications and methodological limitations are discussed.

The study suggests the importance of studying relationships between work life and home life in organizational policies. Current research suggests that employee commitment is particularly high in organizations that have work‐life balance policies.

How home and work are related to perceived stress and job satisfaction is thus a crucial issue. In addition to the results reported here, the study conveys the complexity of the positive and negative relationships between the work domain and the home domain in a sample of French employees.