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When work is your passenger: Understanding the relationship between work and commuting safety behaviors
Katrina A Burch1, Janet L Barnes-Farrell1
1Department of Psychological Sciences.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
|December 13, 2019
Summary
Job strain and commuting stress negatively impact commute safety. Work-related rumination mediates how job strain affects driving safety, highlighting the spillover effect from work to commuting.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health Psychology
- Transportation Psychology
- Work-Life Balance Research
Background:
- Commuting requires attention, yet the impact of work on commute safety is understudied.
- Work-related factors can spill over into nonwork domains, affecting daily activities like commuting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between end-of-day job strain, commuting stress, and commute safety.
- To examine the mediating role of work-related rumination in the job strain-commute safety link.
Main Methods:
- Daily diary study over 2 working weeks with 106 full-time employees commuting by private vehicle.
- Intraindividual variability analysis to understand daily dynamics of job strain, rumination, and commute safety.
Main Results:
- Job strain, mediated by work-related affective rumination, negatively impacts commute safety behaviors.
- Commuting stress directly affects safety behaviors during the commute.
Conclusions:
- Work experiences, particularly job strain and rumination, spill over to impair employee safety during their commute.
- Findings underscore the importance of managing work-related stress to enhance off-the-job safety.
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