Work-related contact, work–family conflict, psychological distress and sleep problems experienced by construction professionals: an integrated explanatory model

Abstract

Contemporary communication technology blurs the boundaries between work–life and family–life environments, through after-hours, work-related contact. We examined the relationship between work contact, work–family conflict and consequent outcomes of psychological distress and sleep problems experienced by South African construction professionals. An integrated model of these factors was proposed and tested using path analysis and responses from 630 survey respondents. Work experience, gender, domestic situation and employment status explain the relationship between job autonomy and control, job pressures, and work contact, which were hypothesized to multivariately explain their negative effects. The final integrated model was a good fit to the data. The results indicate that the antecedents of work–family conflict are job autonomy and control, job pressure and work contact. Psychological distress is determined by work–family conflict, work experience, and job pressure. Sleep problems are influenced by work–family conflict, work contact and psychological distress. An important insight gained is the pivotal role played by job pressure, directly and indirectly, in work stress outcomes. Interventions aimed at reducing psychological distress and sleep problems among construction professionals should target the boundary permeability of work contact and work–family conflict, particularly for less experienced, female and junior professionals with low job control but high job pressure.

Keywords:

• Work contact
• work–family conflict
• workplace stress
• psychological distress
• sleep problems

Acknowledgements

The Grant holder acknowledges that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in any publication generated by the NRF supported research are those of the authors, and that the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.