Does Parental Job Insecurity Matter? Money Anxiety, Money Motives, and Work Motivation Vivien K. G. Lim and Qing Si Sng National University of Singapore A structural model focusing on the spillover effect of parental perceived job insecurity on money anxiety was developed and tested. The crossover effect of parents’ money anxiety on their children’s money anxiety, money motives, and motivation to work was also examined. Data were collected from a sample of undergraduates and their parents. Results of structural equation modeling analyses supported a spillover effect of paternal perceived job insecurity on paternal money anxiety. However, maternal perceived job insecurity was not significantly associated with maternal money anxiety. Results also supported a crossover effect of parental money anxiety on youths’ money anxiety. Youths’ money anxiety was significantly related to youths’ negative money motives. In turn, youths’ negative money motives were associated with their intrinsic motivation to work. Implications of the findings are discussed. Keywords: parental job insecurity, spillover mechanism, crossover mechanism, money attitudes, money anxiety Recent changes in the world and the workplace have generated considerable feelings of job insecurity among employees of today. Job insecurity is defined as “perceived powerlessness to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation” (Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984, p. 438). Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984) ex- plained that what the individual perceives as potential loss of continuity in a job situation can range from permanent loss of the job itself to loss of some subjectively important features of the job. Inherent in this definition is the idea that job insecurity is per- ceived and that there is more to job insecurity than just a potential termination of the whole job. Thus, the prospect of having to lose one’s job or job features involuntarily inevitably generates percep- tions of job insecurity. Job insecurity is expected to increase as employees face increasing uncertainty about the nature and exis- tence of their present jobs due to widespread organizational re- structuring, mergers, acquisitions, and downsizing (Hellgren & Sverke, 2003; Sverke & Goslinga, 2003). Previous research has shown that job insecurity is a stressful experience for employees (e.g., Ashford, Lee, & Bobko, 1989; De Witte, 1999; Lim, 1996). Perceived job insecurity has been asso- ciated with health-related outcomes, such as insomnia, distress, psychological adjustment, and psychosomatic complaints (e.g., Ashford et al., 1989; Rosenblatt & Ruvio, 1996), and work-related outcomes, such as job dissatisfaction, noncompliant job behaviors, reduced organizational commitment, and intention to quit (e.g., Davy, Kinicki, & Scheck, 1997). More recently, another stream of research has emerged. Led by Barling and his associates (e.g., Barling, Dupre, & Hepburn, 1998; Barling & Mendelson, 1999; Barling, Zacharatos, & Hepburn, 1999; Stewart & Barling, 1996), these studies suggest that the effects of job insecurity go beyond the insecure employee. Indeed, Stewart and Barling found that children of job-insecure individuals experienced social and school-related problems. Extant studies, however, have not examined the effects of em- ployees’ perceived job insecurity on their money beliefs or on their children’s 1 money beliefs and intrinsic motivation to work. As parents often serve as the main source of money for their children, parents’ work experiences and money pressures can have signifi- cant impact on their children’s attitudes toward money, work, and the economic world; yet, little is known about how job insecurity affects employees’ money anxiety and their children’s money beliefs and intrinsic motivation to work. Our study has three main objectives. First, it fills the gap in the job insecurity literature by developing and testing a model that clarifies the processes through which parents’ work experience and money anxiety affect their children’s beliefs about money and work. This model draws on research on spillover and crossover mechanisms (e.g., Almeida, Wethington, & Chandler, 1999; Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, & Wethington, 1989) to explain the impact of parents’ perceived job insecurity on their money anxiety and on their children’s money beliefs and intrinsic motivation to work. Second, our study builds on and extends previous theoretical efforts on job insecurity by systematically linking this stream of 1 The youth in our study ranged in age from 18 to 22. In light of their ages, the term children as used in this article refers to the offspring of the job incumbents. Vivien K. G. Lim and Qing Si Sng, Department of Management and Organization, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore. We thank Dan Turban and Thompson Teo for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Vivien K. G. Lim, Department of Management and Organization, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117592. E-mail: bizlimv@nus.edu.sg Journal of Applied Psychology Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association 2006, Vol. 91, No. 5, 1078 –1087 0021-9010/06/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1078 1078