Open Access

ARTICLE

How Does Family Financial Stress Impair Employees’ Mental Health? Spillover Effect of Stress from Home to Workplace

Mian Xia^1,2, Baoguo Xie^3,4, Lijun He^5,*, Jingru Chen⁶

1 Key Laboratory of Human Development and Mental Health of Hubei Province, School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
2 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, 430079, China
3 School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China
4 Research Institute of Digital Governance and Management Decision, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China
5 Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China
6 Yale Health Mental Health & Counseling, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA

* Corresponding Author: Lijun He. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Exploring anxiety, stress, depression, addictions, executive functions, mental health, and other psychological and socio-emotional variables: psychological well-being and suicide prevention perspectives)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2025, 27(2), 231-240. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2025.058878

Received 23 September 2024; Accepted 15 January 2025; Issue published 03 March 2025

Abstract

Objectives: Recently, how family-related factors influence employees’ mental health has garnered increasing attention from researchers and practitioners. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, this study aims to examine how and when family financial stress affects the employees’ mental health and investigate the mediating role of performance stress and the moderating role of workplace competition. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 23,520 Chinese employees by using a voluntary and anonymous structured questionnaire, which included family financial stress, performance stress, symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) scale, and workplace competition. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 software and macro PROCESS. Results: The analysis of the mediating effect showed that performance stress mediated the relationship between family financial stress and psychological depression (b = 0.064, SE = 0.002, p < 0.0001) and physical somatization (b = 0.042, SE = 0.002, p < 0.0001), indicating spillover effects of stress from home to workplace. The moderating mediation analysis revealed that the crossover effects were amplified by workplace competition. For psychological depression, index of moderated mediation was: b = 0.012, SE = 0.001, p < 0.001; For physical somatization, index of moderated mediation was: b = 0.008, SE = 0.001, p < 0.001. Conclusion: Performance stress acts as a mediator in the link between family financial stress and mental health. Furthermore, the mediating effects was amplified by workplace competition. These findings suggest that workplace competition may serve to exacerbate the negative spillover effects from home to work through the mechanism of work-related stress. Organizations should consider implementing supportive measures to mitigate family financial stress, such as providing financial counseling and fostering a collaborative work environment, to reduce the adverse effects of family financial stress on employees’ mental health.

---

Keywords

---