Publications by Author: Liu, Sze Yan

We investigated associations of work–family conflict and work and family conditions with objectively measured cardiometabolic risk and sleep. Multilevel analyses assessed cross-sectional associations between employee and job characteristics and health in analyses of 1,524 employees in 30 extended-care facilities in a single company. We examined work and family conditions in relation to: (a) validated, cardiometabolic risk score based on measured blood pressure, cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin, body mass index, and self-reported tobacco consumption and (b) wrist actigraphy–based sleep duration. In fully adjusted multilevel models, work-to-family conflict but not family-to-work conflict was positively associated with cardiometabolic risk. Having a lower level occupation (nursing assistant vs. nurse) was associated with increased cardiometabolic risk, whereas being married and having younger children at home was protective. A significant Age × Work-to-Family Conflict interaction revealed that higher work-to-family conflict was more strongly associated with increased cardiometabolic risk in younger employees. High family-to-work conflict was significantly associated with shorter sleep duration. Working long hours and having children at home were both independently associated with shorter sleep duration. High work-to-family conflict was associated with longer sleep duration. These results indicate that different dimensions of work–family conflict may pose threats to cardiometabolic health and sleep duration for employees. This study contributes to the research on work–family conflict, suggesting that work-to-family and family-to-work conflict are associated with specific health outcomes. Translating theory and findings to preventive interventions entails recognition of the dimensionality of work and family dynamics and the need to target specific work and family conditions.

Cortisol is a biomarker of stress reactivity, and its diurnal pattern is an indicator of general neuroendocrine health. Despite theories conceptualizing marital dyads as dynamic systems wherein spouses are interdependent in their physiology and stress coping, little is known about the daily processes in which spouses possibly influence each other in biological stress. Nineteen heterosexual couples provided saliva samples containing cortisol 4 times a day for 4 consecutive days. We used multilevel modeling to examine whether one’s cortisol awaking response (CAR) and diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) predict those of the spouse’s on the same day and/or on the next day. We found that spouses synchronize their DCS, such that on days when one experiences faster or slower decline in diurnal cortisol than usual, the spouse also experiences faster or slower decline than usual. For CAR, positive synchrony was only observed in couples reporting high levels of marital strain and disagreement. Cross-lagged regression analysis reveals stability in diurnal cortisol pattern. A steeper cortisol slope on a particular day predicts a steeper slope on the next day within an individual, but no significant cross-lagged relation was found between spouses. Couples reporting more spousal support tend to have stronger stability in CAR. These findings provide evidence that spouses are interdependent in their diurnal cortisol patterns on a day-to-day basis, and that these daily dynamics are associated with marital relationship quality. The study contributes to our understanding of marital processes and biobehavioral health. It also contributes methodologically to the advancement of longitudinal dyadic analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)