Publications by Author: Lee, Soomi

Objectives. To examine whether workplace interventions to increase workplace flexibility and supervisor support and decrease work–family conflict can reduce cardiometabolic risk. Methods. We randomly assigned employees from information technology (n = 555) and long-term care (n = 973) industries in the United States to the Work, Family and Health Network intervention or usual practice (we collected the data 2009–2013). We calculated a validated cardiometabolic risk score (CRS) based on resting blood pressure, HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin), HDL (high-density lipoprotein) and total cholesterol, height and weight (body mass index), and tobacco consumption. We compared changes in baseline CRS to 12-month follow-up. Results. There was no significant main effect on CRS associated with the intervention in either industry. However, significant interaction effects revealed that the intervention improved CRS at the 12-month follow-up among intervention participants in both industries with a higher baseline CRS. Age also moderated intervention effects: older employees had significantly larger reductions in CRS at 12 months than did younger employees. Conclusions. The intervention benefited employee health by reducing CRS equivalent to 5 to 10 years of age-related changes for those with a higher baseline CRS and for older employees. Trial Registration. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02050204. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(12):1322–1331. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307413)

Heightened affective and physical reactions to daily stressful events predict poor long-term physical and mental health outcomes. It is unknown, however, if an experimental manipulation designed to increase interpersonal resources at work can reduce associations between daily stressors and physical and affective well-being. The present study tests the effects of a workplace intervention designed to increase supervisor support for family and personal life and schedule control on employees’ affective and physical reactivity to daily stressors in different domains (i.e., work, home, interpersonal, and noninterpersonal stressors). Participants were 102 employed parents with adolescent children from an information technology (IT) division of a large U.S. firm who participated in the Work, Family, and Heath Study. Participants provided 8-day daily diary data at baseline and again at a 12-month follow-up after the implementation of a workplace intervention. Multilevel models revealed that the intervention significantly reduced employees’ negative affect reactivity to work stressors and noninterpersonal stressors, compared to the usual practice condition. Negative reactivity did not decrease for nonwork or interpersonal stressors. The intervention also did not significantly reduce positive affect reactivity or physical symptom reactivity to any stressor type. Results demonstrate that making positive changes in work environments, including increasing supervisor support and flexible scheduling, may promote employee health and well-being through better affective responses to common daily stressors at work.

ABSTRACT Individuals with higher work-to-family conflict (WTFC) in general are more likely to report poorer physical and mental health. Less research, however, has examined the daily implications of WTFC, such as whether individuals’ reactions to minor WTFC day-to-day (e.g. missing family dinner due to work obligation) are associated with health outcomes. We examined whether affective reactivity to daily WTFC was associated with poorer sleep, health behaviours, and mental health in a sample who may be particularly vulnerable to daily WTFC. Employed parents in the IT industry with adolescent-aged children (N = 118, Mage  = 45.01, 44.07% female) reported daily WTFC and negative affect on 8 consecutive days, in addition to completing a survey that assessed sleep, health behaviours (smoking, drinking, exercise, fast food consumption), and psychological distress. Multilevel modelling outputted individual reactivity slopes by regressing daily negative affect on the day’s WTFC. Results of general linear models indicated that affective reactivity to WTFC was associated with poorer sleep quality and higher levels of psychological distress – even when controlling for average daily negative affect on non-WTFC days. Individual differences in reactivity to daily WTFC have implications for health. Interventions aimed to reduce daily WTFC and reactivity to it are needed.

Healthcare is the fastest growing occupational sector in America, yet patient care workers experience low job satisfaction, high turnover, and susceptibility to poor sleep compared to workers in other jobs and industries. Increasing schedule control may be one way to help mitigate these issues. Drawing from conservation of resources theory, we evaluate associations among schedule control (i.e. a contextual resource), employee sleep duration and quality (i.e. personal resources), job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Patient care workers who reported having more schedule control at baseline reported greater sleep duration and sleep quality 6 months later, as well as higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions 12 months later. Workers who experienced greater sleep sufficiency (i.e. feeling well-rested) reported higher job satisfaction 6 months later, and workers who experienced fewer insomnia symptoms (i.e. trouble falling and staying asleep) reported lower turnover intentions 6 months later. The association between schedule control and job satisfaction was partially mediated by greater sleep sufficiency, though this effect was small. Providing patient care workers with greater control over their work schedules and opportunities for improved sleep may improve their job attitudes. Results were not replicated when different analytical approaches were performed, so findings should be interpreted provisionally.

ABSTRACTThis study examined whether one partner’s additional resources obtained from a workplace intervention influence the other partner’s perception of having those resources at home (crossover of resources). We also examined whether one partner’s decreased stress by increased work resources crosses over to the other partner’s stress levels (crossover of well-being). Longitudinal data came from IT employees and their married/cohabiting partners in midlife (N = 327). A randomized workplace intervention significantly increased employee-reported schedule control at the 6-month follow-up, which, in turn, increased partner-reported employees’ work schedule flexibility to handle family responsibilities at the 12-month follow-up. The intervention also decreased partners’ perceived stress at the 12-month follow-up through the processes by which increases in schedule control predicted decreases in employees’ perceived stress, which further predicted decreased levels of partners’ perceived stress. Notably, crossover of resources and well-being were found in couples who lived with children in the household, but not in couples without children. Our findings suggest that benefits of workplace support can permeate into the family domain, by increasing partner-perceived family resources and well-being.

Summary There is evidence that insufficient sleep and more stressors are individually associated with poor metabolic health outcomes. Examining sleep and stressors jointly may account for greater variability in health outcomes; however, we know little about the combined effect of both insufficient sleep and more stressors on metabolic health. This study examined whether experiencing more stressors in response to insufficient sleep (“stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep”) was associated with body mass index in middle-aged workers. One-hundred and twenty-seven participants (Mage = 45.24 ± 6.22 years) reported nightly sleep characteristics and daily stressors on 8 consecutive days. We collected height and weight measurements to calculate body mass index (kg m−2). On average, workers reported more stressors following nights with shorter-than-usual sleep duration or poorer-than-usual sleep quality (negative slope means higher stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep). When examining stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep with insufficient sleep represented by shorter-than-usual sleep duration, compared with those with average stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep (within ±½ SD; reference), workers with high stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep (≤−½ SD) had higher body mass index (B = 3.24, p < .05). The body mass index of these workers fell in the obese range. There was no difference in body mass index between workers with low stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep (≥+½ SD) and the reference group. When examining stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep with insufficient sleep represented by poorer-than-usual sleep quality, stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep was not significantly associated with body mass index. Results suggest that middle-aged workers with higher stressor reactivity to insufficient sleep duration may be at greater risk for obesity. Results may inform future studies on interventions for improving sleep and reducing stress in middle-aged workers.

Individuals tend to report more stressors on days after nights with fewer hours of sleep. There may be individual differences such that this negative sleep duration—stressor perception relationship is stronger for some than others, which may have implications for health outcomes. However, we know little about whether differences in stressor perception in response to insufficient sleep (“psychocognitive reactivity to insufficient sleep”) are associated with health outcomes such as body weight. This study examined whether psychocognitive reactivity to insufficient sleep were associated with body mass index (BMI) in midlife workers. We used a sample of 127 office workers (Mage=45.2±6.2) who participated in a daily diary study for 8 consecutive days as part of the Work, Family, and Health Study. 
      Multilevel models tested whether daily number of stressors was predicted by previous 
      nights’ sleep. We outputted within-person slopes of stressors regressed on sleep duration to predict BMI (kg/m2). Analyses adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and mean stressors across days. On average, workers reported more stressors following nights with shorter sleep duration than usual (negative slope means higher reactivity). Compared to those with average reactivity (within ±½SD; reference), workers with higher reactivity (≤-½SD) had higher BMI (p<.05). The BMI of these workers fell in the obese range. This study is one of the first to report that middle-aged workers with higher psychocognitive reactivity to insufficient sleep may be at greater risk for obesity. Future interventions should focus on improving middle-aged workers’ sleep health to reduce next-day stressors and thereby improve their body weight.

OBJECTIVES: Studies have reported bidirectional associations of sleep with daily stressors and negative mood. Yet we know little about how sleep is associated with workers' daily cognitive interference, or the experience of off-task and distracting thoughts. This study examined whether nightly sleep was associated with next-day cognitive interference, and vice versa, during workdays and non-work days. DESIGN: Daily telephone interviews. SETTING: US information technology workplaces. PARTICIPANTS: 130 middle-aged employees. MEASUREMENTS: On 8 consecutive days, participants reported the frequency of experiencing off-task and distracting thoughts during the day (0 = never to 4 = very often) and multiple sleep characteristics (bedtimes, wake times, sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep latency). Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics and work hours. RESULTS: Multilevel models revealed that, on days following earlier wake times (B = -0.32, P < .01), shorter sleep duration (B = -0.27, P < .01), or poorer sleep quality (B = -0.17, P < .01), participants reported more cognitive interference than usual. That is, waking 19 minutes earlier and sleeping 16 minutes less were associated with one additional point on the cognitive interference scale the next day. With cognitive interference predicting nightly sleep, more same day's cognitive interference was associated with earlier bedtimes (B = -0.19, P < .05) and earlier wake times (B = -0.30, P < .01) than usual. The temporal associations of nightly sleep duration and sleep quality with the following day's cognitive interference were significant on work days, but not on non-work days. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest bidirectional associations between poorer sleep and more cognitive interference, particularly on work days with implications for workday productivity and quality of life.

This study examined whether perceived unfairness about work was linked to midlife workers' insomnia symptoms over time, and if the association was mediated by negative work-to-family spillover (NWFS). We used 3 waves of longitudinal data across 20 years from the Midlife in the United States Study (N = 971, Mage = 40.52). Results revealed that, wave-to-wave increases in perceived unfairness about work predicted wave-to-wave increases in NWFS over 20 years. Wave-to-wave increases in NWFS, in turn, predicted wave-to-wave increases in insomnia symptoms. Perceived unfairness about work was indirectly, but not directly associated with insomnia symptoms through NWFS. These within-person indirect mediation pathways were found after controlling for sociodemographic and family characteristics, work hours, neuroticism, physical health, and between-person associations between perceived unfairness about work, NWFS, and insomnia symptoms. These findings suggest that perceived unfairness about work may degrade workers’ sleep health over time, through the spillover of work stress to the personal domain.

Objectives Cross-sectional research has found that shorter and poorer sleep are associated with lower work performance and greater work-to-family conflict (WTFC). However, we know little about daily mechanisms linking sleep, work performance, and WTFC. This study tested whether previous nights' sleep was linked to next day WTFC, mediated by work performance. Design Daily interview methodology. Setting US extended-care workplaces. Participants One hundred seventy-one female employees with children aged 9 to 17 years. Measurements In telephone interviews on 8 consecutive evenings, participants reported their daily work performance (work productivity, work quality), WTFC (e.g., “how much did things you wanted to do at home not get done because of the demands your job put on you?”), and previous nights' sleep duration (in hours) and sleep quality (1 = very badl

ABSTRACTWork-related stressors are known to adversely affect employees’ stress physiology, including the cortisol awakening response (CAR) – or the spike in cortisol levels shortly after people wake up that aids in mobilizing energy. A flat or blunted CAR has been linked to chronic stress and burnout. This daily diary study tested the effects of a workplace intervention on employed parents’ CAR. Specifically, we tested whether the effects of the intervention on CAR were moderated by the type of days (workday versus non-work day). Data came from 94 employed parents from an information technology firm who participated in the baseline and 12-month diurnal cortisol components of the Work, Family, and Health Study, a group-randomized field experiment. The workplace intervention was designed to reduce work-family conflict (WFC) and implemented after the baseline data collection. Diurnal salivary cortisol was collected on 4 days at both baseline and 12 months. Multilevel modeling revealed that the intervention significantly increased employees’ CAR at 12 months on non-workdays, but this was not evident on workdays or for employees in the usual practice condition. The results provide evidence that the intervention was effective in enhancing employees’ biological stress physiology particularly during opportunities for recovery that are more likely to occur on non-work days.

ABSTRACTWorkplace interventions may change how employed parents experience family and personal time. This study examined the day-to-day linkages between time resources (assessed by time use and perceived time adequacy for parenting, partner, and personal roles) and daily well-being and tested whether a workplace intervention enhanced the linkages. Participants were employed, partnered parents in the information technology division of a large US firm and who provided eight-day diary data at two times (N = 90). Multilevel modeling revealed that, on days when parents perceived lower time adequacy than usual for the three roles, they reported less positive affect, more negative affect, and more physical symptoms, independent of time spent in the roles. Moreover, a workplace intervention designed to give employees more temporal flexibility and support for family responsibilities increased daily time spent with the focal child and increased perceived time adequacy for exercise. The intervention also decreased negative affect and physical symptoms for parents who spent more time with child and partner than the sample average. Our results highlight the importance of perceived time adequacy in daily well-being and suggest that workplace support can enhance perceived time adequacy for self and the experience of family time.

AbstractObjectives For most partnered adults, sleep is not an individual-level behavior―it is a shared health behavior with a partner. This study examined whether perceived nightly sleep duration and sleep quality covaried within couples and whether the unique influence of partner sleep on individual sleep differed by gender. Design Eight consecutive days of diary data. Participants \US\ hotel employees and their spouses/partners (N = 76 from 38 couples, 600 daily observations). Measurements Each day, couples separately reported their previous night's sleep duration (in hours) and sleep quality (1 = very unsatisfactory to 5 = very satisfactory). Analyses adjusted for sociodemographic, family, work, and day-level characteristics. Results Dyadic multilevel modeling revealed positive covariation in nightly sleep duration within couples. After controlling for the effects of contextual covariates, partner influence on individual sleep duration was more apparent in men's sleep. When a female's sleep duration was longer or shorter than usual, their male partner's sleep duration was also longer or shorter than usual, respectively. However, a female's sleep was not significantly predicted by her male partner's sleep duration after taking into account the effects of her sleep on the male partner's sleep and contextual covariates. Sleep quality covaried on average across days between partners, and this association did not differ by gender. Conclusions Our results demonstrate positive covariation in sleep duration and sleep quality within couples. Couples' sleep duration covaried night-to-night, and their sleep quality covaried on average across days. A male's sleep duration is predicted by the female partner's sleep duration but not vice versa. Future research should examine health consequences of couple sleep covariation.

To examine the effects of a workplace flexibility/support intervention on employees' sleep quantity and quality during nights and days and whether the effects differ by employee age. Cluster-randomized controlled trial. Information technology industry workplaces. US employees (Mage=46.9years) at an information technology firm who provided actigraphy at baseline and a 12-month follow-up (N=396; n=195 interventio

Sleep can serve as both cause and consequence of individuals’ everyday experiences. We built upon prior studies of the correlates of sleep, which have relied primarily on cross-sectional data, to examine the antecedents and consequences of sleep using a daily diary design. Specifically, we assessed the temporal sequence between nightly sleep and daily psychosocial stressors. Parents employed in a US information technology company (n = 102) completed eight consecutive daily diaries at both baseline and 1 year later. In telephone interviews each evening, participants reported on the previous night's sleep hours, sleep quality and sleep latency. They also reported daily work-to-family conflict and time inadequacy (i.e. perceptions of not having enough time) for their child and for themselves to engage in exercise. Multi-level models testing lagged and non-lagged effects simultaneously revealed that sleep hours and sleep quality were associated with next-day consequences of work-to-family conflict and time inadequacy, whereas psychosocial stressors as antecedents did not predict sleep hours or quality that night. For sleep latency, the opposite temporal order emerged: on days with more work-to-family conflict or time inadequacy for child and self than usual, participants reported longer sleep latencies than usual. An exception to this otherwise consistent pattern was that time inadequacy for child also preceded shorter sleep hours and poorer sleep quality that night. The results highlight the utility of a daily diary design for capturing the temporal sequences linking sleep and psychosocial stressors.

AbstractObjectives To evaluate the effects of a workplace-based intervention on actigraphic and self-reported sleep outcomes in an extended-care setting. Design Cluster randomized trial. Setting Extended-care (nursing) facilities. Participants \US\ employees and managers at nursing homes. Nursing homes were randomly selected to intervention or control settings. Intervention The Work, Family, and Health Study developed an intervention aimed at reducing work-family conflict within a 4-month work-family organizational change process. Employees participated in interactive sessions with facilitated discussions, role-playing, and games designed to increase control over work processes and work time. Managers completed training in family-supportive supervision. Measurements Primary actigraphic outcomes included total sleep duration, wake after sleep onset, nighttime sleep, variation in nighttime sleep, nap duration, and number of naps. Secondary survey outcomes included work-to-family conflict, sleep insufficiency, insomnia symptoms, and sleep quality. Measures were obtained at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months postintervention. Results A total of 1522 employees and 184 managers provided survey data at baseline. Managers and employees in the intervention arm showed no significant difference in sleep outcomes over time compared with control participants. Sleep outcomes were not moderated by work-to-family conflict or presence of children in the household for managers or employees. Age significantly moderated an intervention effect on nighttime sleep among employees (P = .040), where younger employees benefited more from the intervention. Conclusion In the context of an extended-care nursing home workplace, the intervention did not significantly alter sleep outcomes in either managers or employees. Moderating effects of age were identified where younger employees' sleep outcomes benefited more from the intervention.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Work-family conflict is a threat to healthy sleep behaviors among employees. This study aimed to examine how Work-to-Family Conflict (demands from work that interfere with one's family/ personal life; WTFC) and Family-to-Work Conflict (demands from family/ personal life that interfere with work; FTWC) are associated with several dimensions of sleep among information technology workers. METHODS: Employees at a U.S. IT firm (N=799) provided self-reports of sleep sufficiency (feeling rested upon waking), sleep quality, and sleep maintenance insomnia symptoms (waking up in the middle of the night or early morning) in the last month. They also provided a week of actigraphy for nighttime sleep duration, napping, sleep timing, and a novel sleep inconsistency measure. Analyses adjusted for work conditions (job demands, decision authority, schedule control, and family-supportive supervisor behavior), and household and sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: Employees who experienced higher WTFC reported less sleep sufficiency, poorer sleep quality, and more insomnia symptoms. Higher WTFC also predicted shorter nighttime sleep duration, greater likelihood of napping, and longer nap duration. Furthermore, higher WTFC was linked to greater inconsistency of nighttime sleep duration and sleep clock times, whereas higher FTWC was associated with more rigidity of sleep timing mostly driven by wake time. CONCLUSION: Results highlight the unique associations of WTFC/ FTWC with employee sleep independent of other work conditions and household and sociodemographic characteristics. Our novel methodological approach demonstrates differential associations of WTFC and FTWC with inconsistency of sleep timing. Given the strong associations between WTFC and poor sleep, future research should focus on reducing WTFC.

This study examined feelings of having enough time (i.e., perceived time adequacy) in a sample of employed parents (N = 880) in information technology and extended-care industries. Adapting a person-centered latent profile approach, we identified 3 profiles of perceived time adequacy for paid work, parenting, and partner roles: family time protected, family time sacrificed, and time balanced. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory (Hobfòll, 1989), we examined the associations of stressors and resources with the time adequacy profiles. Parents in the family time sacrificed profile were more likely to be younger, women, have younger children, work in the extended-care industry, and have nonstandard work schedules compared to those in the family time protected profile. Results from multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that, with the time balanced profile as the reference group, having fewer stressors and more resources in the family context (less parent-child conflict and more partner support), work context (longer company tenure, higher schedule control and job satisfaction), and work-family interface (lower work-to-family conflict) was linked to a higher probability of membership in the family time protected profile. By contrast, having more stressors and fewer resources, in the forms of less partner support and higher work-to-family conflict, predicted a higher likelihood of being in the family time sacrificed profile. Our findings suggest that low work-to-family conflict is the most critical predictor of membership in the family time protected profile, whereas lack of partner support is the most important factor to be included in the family time sacrificed profile.

Using a daily diary design, the current study assessed within-person associations of work-to-family conflict with negative affect and salivary cortisol. Furthermore, the authors investigated whether supervisor support moderated these associations. Over 8 consecutive days, 131 working parents employed by an information technology company answered telephone interviews about stressors and mood that occurred in the previous 24 hours. On Days 2–4 of the study protocol, they also provided 5 saliva samples throughout the day that were assayed for cortisol. Results indicated a high degree of day-to-day fluctuation in work-to-family conflict, with employed parents having greater negative affect and poorer cortisol regulation on days with higher work-to-family conflict compared to days when they experience lower work-to-family conflict. These associations were buffered, however, when individuals had supervisors who offered support. Discussion centers on the use of dynamic assessments of work-to-family conflict and employee well-being.