Couple-to-work spillover: assessing work performance of individuals in a cross-sectional study

Abstract

This paper explores whether and how the relationship of coupled individuals interacts with work performance through the employment of the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation (VSA) model. Using a random probabilistic sample survey of 864 working Spaniards living as a couple, we tested whether and how individual vulnerabilities, external stressors and individual perception of dyadic adaptiveness affect individual assessment of relationship quality and how this affects work performance. The structural equation model shows that individual vulnerabilities influence individual assessment of relationship quality through the mediation of individual perception of dyadic adaptiveness. Furthermore, individual perception of dyadic adaptiveness significantly influences individual assessment of relationship quality, which in turn significantly affects work performance. These findings shed light on functioning of coupled individuals’ relationships under uncertainty shocks and their spillover effects to the working domain.