Work and Stress最新文献

Caregivers are responsible for the care of another, such as a young adult, disabled child, elderly parent, or sick spouse. Individuals who have caregiving responsibilities must blend the often-contradictory behavioral expectations from the different roles in which they reside. Building on the theoretical foundations of Conservation of Resources theory, this study tests a mediational model explicating the process through which caregiver burden impacts mental health through work-family conflict among a community sample of 1,007 unpaid caregivers in the greater Chicago area who responded to a mail survey at three time points. Structural equation modeling analyses indicate strain-based conflict as being a consistent mediator between caregiver burden and mental health at baseline and two years later. These findings can inform practice and policy for workers with caregiving responsibilities.

Individuals with higher work-to-family conflict (WTFC) in general are more likely to report poorer physical and mental health. Less research, however, has examined the daily implications of WTFC, such as whether individuals' reactions to minor WTFC day-to-day (e.g., missing family dinner due to work obligation) are associated with health outcomes. We examined whether affective reactivity to daily WTFC was associated with poorer sleep, health behaviors, and mental health in a sample who may be particularly vulnerable to daily WTFC. Employed parents in the IT industry with adolescent-aged children (N = 118, M _age = 45.01, 44.07 % female) reported daily WTFC and negative affect on 8 consecutive days, in addition to completing a survey that assessed sleep, health behaviors (smoking, drinking, exercise, fast food consumption), and psychological distress. Multilevel modeling outputted individual reactivity slopes by regressing daily negative affect on the day's WTFC. Results of general linear models indicated that affective reactivity to WTFC was associated with poorer sleep quality and higher levels of psychological distress - even when controlling for average daily negative affect on non-WTFC days. Individual differences in reactivity to daily WTFC have implications for health. Interventions aimed to reduce daily WTFC and reactivity to it are needed.

While social support is generally considered a helpful resource for employees, it can also serve as a job stressor. Unhelpful workplace social support (UWSS) is any action taken by a supervisor and/or colleague that the recipient believes was intended to benefit him or her but is perceived as unhelpful or harmful. Two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, identified types of UWSS and demonstrated that unhelpful support can operate as a job stressor in relating to strains. In Study 1, critical incidents were collected from 116 employees, and a content analysis revealed 11 distinct categories of UWSS. In Study 2, the taxonomy of UWSS was further refined using quantitative methods. Results of two samples (176 diverse employees and 496 registered nurses) demonstrate that UWSS is associated with higher job-related negative affect, lower competence-based self-esteem, lower coworker satisfaction, higher work-related burnout, higher organisational frustration, and more physical symptoms (e.g. headache, nausea, and fatigue) among recipients. Together, the studies demonstrate that unhelpful workplace social support is a meaningful job stressor worthy of further investigation.