PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This study investigates the complex interplay between couples’ work and private life spheres and disentangles how demands and resources affect partners’ satisfaction with their work-life balance. Next to the individual process of spillover of workplace demands and resources to the private life sphere we investigate processes of crossover of one spouse’s demands and resources to the other. We particularly argue that within partnerships an accumulation of individual demands and resources from both partners takes place leading to specifically disadvantaged situations, when it comes to demands, and specifically advantaged situations, when it comes to resources. Furthermore we investigate gender differences in the relevance of spillover, crossover and accumulation for a satisfying work-life balance. We make use of a German Linked Employer-Employee Panel Survey (LEEP-B3), which includes information on 100 work organizations, 6,454 employees, and their partners (2,185). Our results mainly support the spillover of demands and resources from work to private life meaning that workplace demands make integrating work and private life more difficult whereas workplace resources can help reaching a satisfying work-life balance more easily. The results also partly support the hypothesized crossover of demands and resources from one partner to the other. However, there is no such clear-cut picture for the accumulation of demands and resources within partnerships.