Self-Undermining, Work-Family Conflict and Fatigue: Family Health Climate Towards Physical Activity as Key to Stopping the “Cycle of Losses”

Research about factors affecting workers' physical and mental fatigue has mainly focused on job characteristics. However, as the extended demands-resources model acknowledges, the family, work, and organizational domains are interconnected. In this study, we analyze whether self-undermining behaviors can induce work-family conflict, leading to fatigue. Moreover, we examine the moderating role of a physically active, healthy climate within the family on the above relationships. Two hundred sixteen workers from different industry sectors completed self-reported measures at two-time points. At Time 1 (T1), self-undermining and family health climate regarding physical activity; and at Time 2 (T2), work-family conflict and fatigue were measured. SPSS's PROCESS macro was used to conduct moderated mediation analyses. Albeit self-undermining (T1) did not have a direct effect on fatigue (T2), it had an indirect effect through work-family conflict (T2), moderated by the family climate (T1). Specifically, an increase on physical activity behaviors at the family level buffered the effect of self-undermining on work-family conflict. This study highlights the interconnection between work and family, discovering strategies at the family level to buffer the impact of self-undermining behaviors on work-family conflict, thereby reducing fatigue. As stressors on one domain can hurt another, positive effects may also influence each other.