Work-Life Conflict among U.S. Long-Haul Truck Drivers: Influences of Work Organization, Perceived Job Stress, Sleep, and Organizational Support

Adam Hege, Michael K. Lemke, Yorghos Apostolopoulos, Brian Whitaker and Sevil Sönmez
Additional contact information
Adam Hege: Public Health Program, Department of Health & Exercise Science, Appalachian State University, Leon Levine Hall, 1179 State Farm Road, P.O. Box 32071, Boone, NC 28607, USA
Michael K. Lemke: Department of Social Sciences, University of Houston-Downtown, One Main Street, Houston, TX 77002, USA
Yorghos Apostolopoulos: Complexity & Computational Population Health Group, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Brian Whitaker: Department of Management, Appalachian State University, 416 Howard Street, P.O. Box 32089, Boone, NC 28608, USA
Sevil Sönmez: College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida, 12744 Pegasus Drive, Orlando, FL 32816, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Work-life balance and job stress are critical to health and well-being. Long-haul truck driving (LHTD) is among the unhealthiest and most unsafe occupations in the U.S. Despite these disparities, there are no extant published studies examining the influence of work, stress and sleep outcomes on drivers’ work-life balance. The current study investigated whether adverse work organization, stress, and poor sleep health among LHTDs are significantly associated with work-life conflict. Logistic regression was used to examine how work organization characteristics, job stress, and sleep influenced perceived stress and a composite measure of work-life conflict among a sample of 260 U.S. LHTDs. The pattern of regression results dictated subsequent analyses using structural equation modeling (SEM). Perceived job stress was the only statistically significant predictor for work-life balance. Fast pace of work, sleep duration and sleep quality were predictors of perceived job stress. SEM further elucidated that stress mediates the influences of fast work pace, supervisor/coworker support, and low sleep duration on each of the individual work-life balance indicators. There is an urgent need to address work conditions of LHTDs to better support their health, well-being, and work-life balance. Specifically, the findings from this study illustrate that scheduling practices and sleep outcomes could alleviate job stress and need to be addressed to more effectively support work-life balance. Future research and interventions should focus on policy and systems-level change.

Keywords: long-haul truck drivers; work-life balance; work organization; sleep; job stress; occupational health disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/6/984/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/6/984/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:6:p:984-:d:215145

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().