The crossover of work-family conflict from one spouse to the other

In a secondary analysis of data from 220 women serving in the U.S. Air Force and their spouses, we examined the effects of job and family stressors on work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC), focusing on the crossover of these experiences from one spouse to the other. We found positive relationships of WFC with both job and family stressors for wives and with job stressors for husbands. We also found that job and family stressors predicted FWC for wives, but not for husbands. Furthermore, spouse's support buffered the relationship between one's job stressors and the experience of WFC for wives but accelerated these relationships for husbands. Our findings support the bidirectional crossover of WFC from one spouse to another.