The impact of life events on job satisfaction

an article by Yannis Georgellis (Kingston University London), Thomas Lange (Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia) and Vurain Tabvuma (University of Surrey, Guildford) published in Journal of Vocational Behavior Volume 80 Issue 2 (April 2012)

Abstract

Employing fixed effects regression techniques on longitudinal data, we investigate how life events affect employees’ job satisfaction.

Unlike previous work-life research, exploring mostly contemporaneous correlations, we look for evidence of adaptation in the years following major life events. We find evidence of adaptation following the first marriage event, but we find that the birth of the first child has a long-lasting impact on employees’ job satisfaction. Our findings also suggest that there is a general boost in job satisfaction prior to first marriage and to a lesser extent prior to the birth of the first child, consistent with evidence of anticipation.

Accordingly, our study provides some of the first evidence on the dynamic effect of non-work related factors on job satisfaction and it introduces a novel methodology and a new perspective for investigating the dynamic interaction between the work and life domains.