Balancing Work and Home: How Job and Home Demands Are Related to Burnout.

The aim of the present study was to make a clear distinction between work and home domains in the explanation of burnout. First, a 3-factor structure of job and home demands was hypothesized, consisting of quantitative demands, emotional demands, and mental demands. Next, a model was tested that delineates how demands in both life domains are related to occupational burnout through workhome interference (WHI) and homework interfer-ence (HWI). In doing so, the partial mediating role of WHI and HWI was examined. Consistent with hypotheses, empirical support was found for the 3-factor structure of both job and home demands as well as for the partial mediating effects of both WHI and HWI. Job demands and home demands appeared to have a direct and indirect effect (through WHI and HWI, respectively) on burnout. KEY WORDS: burnout; home demands; job demands; workhome interference; homework interference Changes in family structures, increasing participation by women in the workforce, and technological changes (e.g., mobile phones and portable computers) that enable job tasks to be performed in a variety of locations have blurred the boundaries between job and home life. For many workers,