Beliefs about the relationship between work and personal life: development and validation of three work-life belief scales

Theory suggests work-life outcomes are shaped by three beliefs regarding how work and personal life relate to each other: fixed-expandable-pie beliefs (whether work and life compete with versus enhance one another), segmentation-integration beliefs (whether work and life operate as separate versus related domains), and work-life priority beliefs (whether work versus personal life takes precedence over the other domain). Yet no measure of work-life beliefs exists, which is an impediment to understanding their ability to advance the work-life literature. In 15 studies ( N = 6,568), using samples drawn from different populations (adults and students in the United States, adults with diverse cultural backgrounds in the United Kingdom, adults in Ghana, adults in South Korea), we develop measures of three work-life beliefs and document their utility for understanding the work-life interface. We find that work-life beliefs can be conceptualized as three or six dimensions, and that the measures have a replicable factor structure, are reliable, and have discriminant validity, in that they are distinct from other work-life constructs and beliefs about hard work and leisure. The work-life belief measures also have criterion validity; they contribute to understanding of work-life experiences and behaviors, both indirectly and directly. Our research advances the literature by providing insight into the nature of work-life beliefs and demonstrating their relevance for understanding the work-life interface. By developing measures, we also provide tools that can be used in future work to develop, test, and refine theory regarding the implications of work-life beliefs for understanding any number of additional phenomena.