Prospective effect of family recognition of work on meaningful work experience appears to be spurious: A simulated reanalysis and comment on Hwang et al. (2025)

Based on findings from analyses with cross-lagged panel models, Hwang et al. (2025) concluded that family recognition of work facilitates an individual’s meaningful work experience. Here, we simulated data to resemble the data used by Hwang et al. We used triangulation and fitted complementary models to the simulated data and found contradicting increasing, decreasing, and null effects of initial family recognition of work on subsequent change in meaningful work experience. These divergent findings suggest that it is premature to assume a facilitating effect of family recognition of work on meaningful work experience and the conclusions by Hwang et al. in this regard can be challenged. It is important for researchers to be aware that correlations, including adjusted cross-lagged effects, do not prove causality in order not to overinterpret findings, something that appears to have happened to Hwang et al. We recommend researchers to triangulate by fitting complementary models to their data in order to evaluate if observed effects may be due to true causal effects or if they appear to be spurious.