Jong versus oud: werk-privé balans, werkwaarden en stress

Abstract

Stress is a cause of sickness absence that becomes more and more important. Mostly young employees suffer from stress-related symptoms. Combining work and home roles and the degree to which employees value a healthy work-life balance may be important causes for this tendency. Therefore, the relationships between the work-life balance of employees, their work values and the degree to which they experience stress-related symptoms are investigated by using the scarcity-approach and a theory about work values. Moreover, differences between younger and older employees are examined. An online survey (N = 189) was used to collect data and regression analyses and MANOVA were used to analyze the data. The results show that there is a positive relationship between work-home interference and home-work interference on the one hand and stress on the other hand. Additionally, younger employees experience more stress-related symptoms than older employees. Results regarding the work value ‘work-life balance’ are less clear. The work value ‘work-life balance’ did not moderate the relations between work-home interference and home-work interference on the one hand and stress on the other hand. Also, younger and older employees did not differ in the degree to which they value the work-life balance. It is important that organizations emphasize a healthy work-life balance to reduce or prevent stress-related symptoms.