Testing a Resource-Based Spillover-Crossover-Spillover Model: Transmission of Social Support in Dual-Earner Couples

We propose and test a Resource-Based Spillover-Crossover-Spillover Model (RB-SCSM) of how an employer's provision of family support resources to an employee ultimately relates to his or her partner's improved experiences at his or her work as part of a mesosystem-to-mesosystem resource transmission process. Based on a dyadic examination of 262 full-time dual-earner couples, consistent with prior research, we found that when employees perceive their organization is family supportive, they experience less work-to-family conflict, and in turn, less burnout. Building on these individual-level effects in novel ways, we demonstrate that when an employee reports less burnout, their partner perceives the employee as less burned out. Moreover, when partners perceive less employee burnout, they perceive the employee provides more emotional support for the partner's work, directly and indirectly through the family overload that the partner experiences. Finally, when the partner receives more family support for his or her work, this spills over to and is related to the partner's greater investment in his or her relationships at work. Thus, our findings empirically demonstrate a resource-based transmission from one organization to another through dynamics occurring in the family. Suggestions for practical implementation are provided, as are suggestions for future theoretically grounded research.