Occupational Health Science最新文献

We examined the association between changes in employee job and off-job crafting and their self-rated health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, we investigated how these associations differed across sample subgroups, contrasting differences in work location, living situation, and contractual changes (short-time work). We used four waves of a longitudinal dataset surveying N_Total = 783 German-speaking employees from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from 2019 to 2021. We applied latent change score modeling and multigroup analyses to investigate our research questions. Results indicated that the mean job and off-job crafting and self-rated health trajectories remained relatively stable. However, we observed significant interindividual variance in job and off-job crafting changes. We found a consistent small positive relationship between crafting changes in both life domains over time, indicating that employees tended to change their crafting efforts similarly across domains. Additionally, job crafting increases between Waves 1 and 2 were linked to higher subsequent self-rated health at Wave 2, and similarly, off-job crafting increases between Waves 3 and 4 were linked to higher self-rated health at Wave 4. We observed only minor differences in this pattern across subgroups. Our results show how adaptive changes in crafting are linked to broader interindividual health differences and help identify groups who are not able to increase crafting during crises and thus could benefit from targeted support. Crafting can be an effective individual strategy for maintaining health, complementing organizational and public health measures. We encourage future research to incorporate temporal and contextual phenomena into crafting research.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41542-025-00222-5.

This study examined how client violence, or violence from clients, contributes to emotional health over the first three years of employment among one group of susceptible workers: child protective services workers in child welfare. The study assessed the impact of three types of client violence (i.e., yelling, threats, and physical assault) and job characteristics (e.g., time pressure, supervisory support) on emotional health (i.e., stress, psychological distress, and personal burnout), using a sample of 1,117-1,122 newly hired workers over six waves of data collected at six-month intervals. Using multi-level mixed effects regression models, findings indicated that general stress and personal burnout were curvilinear, peaking about 18-24 months post baseline. Experiencing threats and yelling both increased stress and personal burnout, and all three forms of violence were associated with higher levels of psychological distress symptoms. Further, although emotional health trajectories changed over time, the effects of violence did not; violent experiences were equally detrimental to emotional health symptoms at each wave of data collection. Workplace characteristics such as time pressure exacerbated the relationship between client violence and emotional health, while supervisor support countered negative effects of physical violence. Findings suggest the importance of policies and protocols that emphasize reporting client violence for agency personnel, including supervisors, to provide appropriate emotional and tangible support.

Although research has documented the relationship between sleep and work outcomes among employees, less research has focused on the role of sleep among workplace leaders. We investigate the link between leader self-reported and actigraphic sleep quantity and outcomes of positive leader support behaviors (i.e., family supportive supervisor behaviors [FSSB], and sleep leadership supportive behaviors [SLSB]) reported by both the leader (N = 178) and their direct reports (N = 393). Additionally, we examine the interaction between leader sleep quantity and sleep quality indicators (i.e., insomnia symptoms, sleep dissatisfaction, and actigraphic wake after sleep onset [WASO]) on FSSB and SLSB. No main effects were found; however, the results suggest that the relationship between leader sleep and downstream support behaviors is more intricate and nuanced than formerly theorized. Surprisingly, the relationship between leader sleep duration and employee reports of FSSB and SLSB was positive under conditions of high leader insomnia symptoms, yet negative under conditions of low leader insomnia symptoms. A similar pattern emerged for actigraphic total sleep time and employee reports of SLSB which were positive when leaders had increased WASO, yet negative when leaders had lower ratings of WASO. In addition, the relationship between leader sleep duration and leader reports of SLSB was negative when leaders were dissatisfied with their sleep, yet positive when leaders were satisfied. These results inform workplace interventions aimed at promoting leader support behaviors as well as public health campaigns focused on improving sleep health among the general population.

Self-esteem, both personal and social, constitutes a core concern for many people. Accordingly, Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory focuses on threats, as well as boosts, to the self as important topics in occupational health science. Workplace social support is well established as a resource that signals acceptance and appreciation. At the same time, however, social support, notably support actually received, as opposed to perceived support availability, has been shown to have the potential to "backfire" and act as a stressor rather than a resource. The current study emphasizes the potential of social support to constitute a threat to the self if not delivered appropriately, that is, if it contains derogatory messages, even minor ones. The "Bern Dysfunctional Social Support Scale" (BDSSS) focuses on such threats entailed in supportive attempts, focusing on provider behavior rather than recipient reactions and covering a broader range of (mostly subtle) derogatory behaviors than previously existing measures. In a cross-sectional study of 468 Swiss employees, it was associated with strain and attitudes in a way that characterizes it as a stressor. Effects were not strong, but dysfunctional support explained variance over and above demographic characteristics, neuroticism, classical social stressors, task stressors, and functional social support, as well as the outcome variables from a previous wave of measurement. The BDSSS therefore constitutes a valuable complement to existing measures. Although further research on this issue is needed, results underscore the need to sensitize employees and supervisors about pitfalls of support that is well intended but delivered in a potentially offending way.

Employee recovery during non-work hours benefits health in a variety of areas. However, little research has evaluated how recovery may be affected by perceptions of income (in)adequacy. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships among workers' perceived income adequacy (PIA), relaxation remorse, recovery experiences outside of work, and health outcomes. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with data obtained from a two-wave, time-lagged survey of Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers (N = 683). We found a positive relationship between PIA and recovery, which were both related to better health. PIA was negatively related to relaxation remorse, with relaxation remorse being associated with poor health. There was evidence of indirect relationships via relaxation remorse, where relaxation remorse explained portions of the relationships between PIA and health symptoms. Indirect relationships via recovery experiences were largely unsupported. Our findings expand our understanding of employee recovery as it relates to perceptions of income. Specifically, our studies highlight that one's perceived income adequacy may be an important contributor to comfort with and/or actual experienced recovery, which can have further health effects.