Published In
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-10-2026
Subjects
Work–life, Work–nonwork, Biopsychosocial stress
Abstract
Job satisfaction and the resource-building processes it supports may have meaningful implications for health and well-being. These processes may work differently for employees who have informal (i.e., unpaid) caregiving duties outside of work. Guided by conservation of resources theory, we examined two indirect stress-buffering pathways in a sample of 799 nursing home workers, measured four times over 18 months. We tested how job satisfaction affects gain strengthening (via higher positive spillover) and loss weakening (via lower work-family conflict), how these processes impact indices of physiological (i.e., C-reactive protein) and psychological (i.e., perceived) stress, and how informal caregiving status may moderate these associations. We did not find strictly distinct pathways by caregiver status, but we did find differential within-person patterns among informal caregivers and noncaregivers. Most relevant for noncaregivers, times of higher job satisfaction were indirectly associated with (a) lower C-reactive protein through times of higher work-family positive spillover and with (b) lower perceived stress through times of lower work-family conflict. When employees (regardless of caregiver status) reported job satisfaction that was higher than their own average, they also reported lower perceived stress and showed lower chronic inflammation than at times when their job satisfaction was equal to or lower than their own average. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2026 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000447
DOI
10.1037/ocp0000447
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/45185
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Citation Details
Paoletti-Hatcher, J., Lai, V. D., & Fagundes, C. P. (2026). How we benefit from job satisfaction: The moderating effect of informal caregiving on the associations between job satisfaction and physiological and psychological stress. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 31(5), 492–508.