Caught in a Digital Trap: Psychological Detachment as a Mediator between Technostressors and Work-Family Conflict and the Moderating Role of Attentional Resources
As technology becomes increasingly embedded in the modern workplace, understanding its psychological effects on employees is critical for reducing work-family conflict (WFC). This study investigates how technostressors—specifically, techno-overload and techno-invasion—are associated with WFC through psychological detachment. Drawing on the Stressor Detachment Model (SDM), this study also examines attentional resources as a moderating factor in the detachment process. Using a multi-wave design, the findings reveal that both techno-overload and techno-invasion are significantly associated with higher levels of WFC. Notably, psychological detachment mediates the relationship between techno-invasion and WFC, but not between techno-overload and WFC. Furthermore, attentional resources moderate the indirect effects of techno-invasion on WFC, such that individuals with lower attentional resources experience greater difficulty detaching from work, intensifying the influence of technostressors on WFC. Supplemental analyses reveal that these patterns vary across time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based forms of WFC. Together, these results refine the theoretical development of the SDM by identifying low-attentional resources as a vulnerability factor and highlight the need for organizations to consider both technological job demands and employee cognitive capacities when developing strategies to support work-life balance in digitally demanding work environments.
CITE
Guevara, T., Watson, G.P. Caught in a Digital Trap: Psychological Detachment as a Mediator between Technostressors and Work-Family Conflict and the Moderating Role of Attentional Resources. Occup Health Sci 10, 18 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41542-026-00264-3
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