Impact of Work-Family Integration on Subjective Happiness Among Street Vendors: Moderating Role of Defense Styles

Abstract

This paper has discussed how the defense mechanisms (mature, neurotic, and immature) moderate the association between work-family integration (WFI) and subjective happiness in street sellers in Pakistan. The 260 street vendors in Quetta were sampled using a purposive strategy and used standardized forms of self-report to collect data, including the Work-Family Integration Scale, the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, and the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40). Moderation and hierarchical regression analyses were done. Findings showed that there existed a positive relationship between work family integration and subjective happiness. Happiness was positively correlated with mature and neurotic defense mechanisms, but negatively correlated with immature defenses. The moderation analysis showed the presence of significant negative interaction effects, which suggested that an increase in the levels of defense mechanisms undermined the positive relationship between WFI and happiness. The effect sizes were small (R 2 =.06-08), but results indicate that the determination of well being in informal workers is very difficult. The study has provided a contribution to occupational mental health literature in the South Asian informal economy scenario.