Overview
This initiative, funded through NICHD's Population Dynamics Branch, supports interdisciplinary research to develop innovative designs for evaluating the effects of workplace policies and practices on the health and well-being of workers and their families and on the organization/workplace.
The long-range goals of this project are to identify workplace interventions that can improve health and well-being by improving workers' ability to successfully meet demands of both work and family. This work also aims to develop a common theoretical model that can guide the design of additional research, and a common return-on-investment model that users can adapt to different workplace settings. These common models enable researchers to better examine and compare employer costs and benefits for the interventions.
The Work, Family & Health Network is the primary component of the initiative and is supported by NICHD, the National Institute on Aging, the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, and the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Administration for Children and Families, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation also contribute to network research activities.
Topic Areas
Examples of potential workplace interventions include changes in workplace structure and culture include:
- Increasing employees' sense of control over the time and timing of their work
- Improving supervisor support for work and family balance
- Changing culture to focus on work results that matter most for the business/workplace
Researchers are studying the following topics and issues:
- Behavioral measures of supervisory support
- Flexible work schedules
- Family-responsive workplace policies and practices in small businesses
- Work stress, health, and parenting among hotel employees
- Family to work conflict and work to family conflict
- Parenting practices and stressors
- Couple relationships
- Children's health and well-being
- Changes in business outcomes: job satisfaction, performance, employee turnover and absenteeism, and workplace safety
More Information
- Work, Family & Health Network website
(Harvard Center for Health Research)
- Could the Pandemic Wind Up Fixing What’s Broken About Work in America? (interview with network principal investigator (PI) Erin Kelly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management; and network PI Phyllis Moen, University of Minnesota)
- How to Avoid the Biggest Pitfalls of Working from Home (interview with network PI Phyllis Moen, University of Minnesota)
- Ideas Made to Matter: What Does Remote Work Mean to You? Workers Share Experiences (blog co-written by network PI Erin Kelly, MIT Sloan School of Management)
- Oregon and the Workplace: Four Key Strategies to Help Supervisors Support Employee Well-being During COVID-19 (blog co-written by network PI Leslie Hammer, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU))
- Supporting Worker Sleep is Good for Business (article co-written by network PI Leslie Hammer, OHSU)
- What Moms Always Knew About Working from Home (interview with network PI Erin Kelly, MIT Sloan School of Management)
- What’s Happening to How We Work? (interview with network PI Phyllis Moen, University of Minnesota)
- NIOSH Science Blog
- NICHD Contact: Rebecca Clark
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