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The present paper deals with three positive facets of the work–family interplay, i.e., transfer of competencies, transfer of positive mood, and cross-domain compensation. The latter refers to the experience that engagement in one domain helps dealing with failures in the other domain. In two correlational studies (N1 = 107 working mothers, N2 = 146 working men and women), cross-domain compensation predicted domain-specific well-being even when we controlled for work–family conflicts and the two other positive facets (viz., transfer of competencies and positive mood). In an additional experiment (N3 = 63 working men and women), which exclusively focused on compensation, participants were asked to remember a job-related failure. Then they were instructed to think about a positive job-related experience (i.e., intradomain compensation) or family-related experience (i.e., cross-domain compensation). Compared to a control group, both experimental groups showed faster emotional recovery, with cross-domain compensation being a slightly more effective strategy at the beginning of that recovery.

In a 3-year longitudinal study, we found in a sample of young professionals (N=82; 44% male; age range: 28 to 39 years) that self-reported behaviors reflecting selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) predicted global and work-specific subjective well-being (multiple correlations ranged from R=.22 to R=.44). In addition to optimization (i.e., implementing goal-relevant means), it was especially the degree of compensation (i.e., investing goal-relevant means to counteract losses) that predicted how emotionally balanced individuals felt and how satisfied they were with their work situation 3 years later. These longitudinal predictions were quite robust when controlling for personality variables (NEO). Results are consistent with previous cross-sectional findings and demonstrate how the SOC framework might be successfully applied to the domain of vocational behavior.

This study ( N = 206 young professionals, 54% male; age range 25 to 36 years) presents evidence for the fruitfulness of applying the theory of selective optimization with compensation (SOC; P. B. Baltes & M. M. Baltes, 1990) to the pursuit of career-related and partnership-related goals in young adulthood. Selection denotes the construction of goal systems; optimization and compensation describe the use of goal relevant means. SOC was measured by self-report using a general and two domain-specific (work, partnership) scales. Results confirmed the hypothesis. Individuals reporting SOC-behaviors scored higher on multiple subjective indicators of global and domain-specific success. Comparing the predictive power of the general and the domain-specific SOC scales, higher domain-specific predictive associations were obtained for the partnership domain. The findings were quite robust when controlling for rival predictors including “Big-Five” traits and control beliefs.