The reciprocal within‐person relationship between job insecurity and life satisfaction: Testing loss and gain spirals with two large‐scale longitudinal studies

Abstract Deriving from the loss and gain spirals of conservation of resources (COR) theory, this research attempts to understand the within‐person, reciprocal relationship between job insecurity and life satisfaction. Using three independent samples from seven‐wave, five‐wave, and 21‐wave annually collected data from New Zealand and Australia, and random intercept cross‐lagged panel models, we find that (1) job insecurity has a negative concurrent relationship with life satisfaction at the between‐person level; (2) job insecurity at an earlier time point has a negative relationship with life satisfaction and a positive relationship with job insecurity at a later time point, indicating that individuals facing an initial threat of resource losses are more prone to further resource depletion, supporting “loss spirals” in COR theory; and (3) life satisfaction at an earlier time point has a positive relationship with life satisfaction at a later time point, supporting “gain spiral” in COR theory. However, life satisfaction is not longitudinally related to job insecurity at a later time point, failing to support the reverse causality. By rigorously investigating the reciprocal within‐person relationship between job insecurity and life satisfaction with two large‐scale panel data sets, these findings strongly support the loss and gain spirals from COR theory.