When Home Helps or Hurts: A Moderated Mediation Analysis of Work Meaning, Intrinsic Motivation, and Life Satisfaction Across Family Flexibility Profiles

TL;DR

This study explores how home influences work and life satisfaction through motivation and work meaning, depending on family flexibility.

Contribution

The study introduces a moderated mediation model showing how family flexibility affects psychological processes linking home-work spillover to life satisfaction.

Findings

Negative home-to-work spillover reduces life satisfaction via reduced work meaning, especially for those with low family flexibility.

Positive home-to-work spillover increases life satisfaction through enhanced work meaning, more so when family flexibility is low.

Intrinsic motivation boosts life satisfaction only when family flexibility is high.

Abstract

The present study investigates the twofold effect of home–work spillover on life satisfaction through intrinsic work motivation and meaning derived from work, with family flexibility as a moderator. Based on Self-Determination Theory and the Work–Home Resources model, we test a moderated parallel mediation model whereby both positive and negative spillover from home affect life satisfaction through motivational and meaning pathways, depending on the level of family flexibility. 735 working adults completed validated measures of work-related flow, work meaning, home–work interaction (negative and positive), family flexibility, and life satisfaction. PROCESS macro (Model 59) via 5000 bootstrapped samples indicated that home negatively influencing work was associated with lower life satisfaction, mainly via reduced work meaning, particularly for individuals with low family flexibility. Conversely, positive work–home interaction was associated with higher work meaning and, indirectly, greater life satisfaction, with this effect being stronger when family flexibility was lower. Intrinsic motivation was associated with life satisfaction through mediation only when family flexibility was higher. These results indicate work meaning and family context compensatory and buffering effects on well-being. The research adds to integrative work–life interface models by delineating conditional psychological processes that enable employee flourishing.

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