Physical activity buffers the effects of work-family conflict on work engagement through mastery recovery experience

Based on the Effort-Recovery model and the Job Demands-Resources model, this study investigated the moderated mediational process in which physical activity after work interacted with one type of work-family conflict, work-to-family conflict (work interference with family), to predict mastery recovery experience, which in turn explained work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption). Participants were 373 employees in South Korea who responded to an online survey twice with a two-day interval. Work-to-family conflict was measured on Tuesday, physical activity and mastery experience during Wednesday after work were retrospectively measured on Thursday, and three subtypes of work engagement were measured on Thursday. Our results indicated that physical activity after work moderated the relationship between work-to-family conflict and mastery experience such that the negative effect of work-to-family conflict on mastery experience was reduced in longer hours of physical activity. Furthermore, work-to-family conflict had conditional indirect effects on three subtypes of work engagement through mastery experience depending on the hours of physical activity, and the conditional indirect effect was strongest for vigor. These findings suggest that physical activity can promote recovery experience even in harsh conditions including the experience of work-family conflict, ultimately improving work engagement.