The development and test of a framework examining the associations between gambling behavior, strain-based gambling interference with work and nonwork, cognitive disengagement, and role performance

Despite considerable advances, existing work–family conflict research tends to ignore the possibility that some behaviors may transcend work and nonwork, potentially causing interference in both domains. One such experience is gambling, which involves staking something of material value (often money) on an event with an uncertain outcome in an attempt to win additional goods of material values. The current study builds on and extends recent research by examining gambling behavior as a potential source of strain-based interference with both work and nonwork within a sample of 259 working adults who gamble at least weekly. A framework is developed and tested that links gambling behavior to strain-based gambling interference with both work and nonwork, and then links gambling interference to reduced role performance in each respective domain. We also investigate whether reduced cognitive engagement in each domain serves as a partial explanatory mechanism for the deleterious effects of gambling interference. These links are tested controlling for the effects of overall strain-based work interference with family and family interference with work, in order to isolate the effects of gambling interference and provide a rigorous test of the study predictions. Strong support was found for the proposed framework.