From mental strain to burnout

This study examines the relationships between burnout and short-term consequences of mental strain within and outside human services professions, at the same time contributing to the understanding of the development of burnout as a long-term effect of impairing work and job design. A total of 294 German employees working in human services (N=149) and industrial production (N=145) completed the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and four scales measuring short-term consequences of mental strain. Results of factor analyses confirmed that the elements of the OLBI's two-factor structure-exhaustion and disengagement-are distinct from a range of impairing short-term consequences of mental strain. In addition, structural equation modelling showed that each burnout dimension is differentially related to specific short-term consequences of strain: Exhaustion is primarily related to mental fatigue, whereas disengagement is primarily related to satiation and the experience of monotony. The findings did not differ substantially for the two occupational groups. Burnout, as a long-term consequence of impairing mental strain, is distinct from and presumably temporally-causally related to specific impairing short-term consequences of mental strain, which, in turn, can be attributed to inadequate job design.     

New Spirituality and Social Engagement

New spirituality has often been accused of being egocentric and thus lacking incentives for social engagement. The discussion on this subject is tangled because authors differ in specifying who they are writing about and what the criticism is. After seeking an adequate demarcation of the target group (people involved in new spirituality), we established a concept of social engagement that distinguishes between behavior that is and that is not driven by egocentric motivation. Using measures based on this conceptual model, we surveyed a representative sample of the Dutch population. We found that on most measures people involved in new spirituality are less socially engaged than affiliated or traditionally religious people but more engaged than “secular” people. However, they are more committed to organizations for environmental protection, peace, or animal rights than others. Overall, demographic factors—especially education, age, and gender—are stronger predictors for social engagement than religious and spiritual beliefs, experiences, or practices. The most important spirituality variable that predicts some social engagement measures is connectedness with self, others, and nature.     

Cultural–geographical differences in the occurrence of child physical abuse? A meta‐analysis of global prevalence

Our comprehensive meta‐analysis combined prevalence figures of child physical abuse reported in 111 studies, including 168 independent samples with a total of 9,698,801 participants. The overall estimated prevalence was 3/1000 for studies using informants and 226/1000 for studies using self‐report measures of child physical abuse, with no apparent gender differences. Methodological factors partly explained the vast variation of self‐reported prevalence rates in individual studies. The highest prevalence rates were found for studies using a broad definition of child physical abuse, studies measuring physical abuse over the longest period of 0–18 years, studies using college samples, studies in which adults served as respondents, and studies using more questions on physical abuse. Cultural–geographical factors did not seem to affect prevalence rates of physical abuse, which may be partly due to procedural factors. More crosscultural research on physical abuse is badly needed, especially in Africa and South America. We conclude that child physical abuse is a widespread, global phenomenon affecting the lives of millions of children all over the world, which is in sharp contrast with the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child.     

The role of goal adjustment in symptoms of depression,anxiety and fatigue in cancer patients receiving psychosocial care: A longitudinal study

Objective: This study examined whether cancer patients reported increases in their goal adjustment capacities while receiving psychosocial care and whether these increases were related to changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety and fatigue. Goal adjustment was conceptualised as two independent capacities: goal disengagement (i.e. disengage from unattainable goals) and goal reengagement (i.e. reengage into new goals).

Design: This naturalistic, longitudinal study focused on 241 cancer patients receiving psychosocial care at one of the seven psycho-oncology institutions in the Netherlands. Data was collected before the start of psychosocial care (T1) and nine months thereafter (T2). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the research questions.

Main Outcome Measures: Goal adjustment, symptoms of depression, anxiety and fatigue.

Results: At group level, patients reported small increases in goal disengagement (d = .22) but no significant change in goal reengagement (d = .09). At an individual level, 34% of cancer patients reported an increase in goal disengagement and 30% reported an increase in goal reengagement. Increases in goal reengagement were significantly associated with decreases in both depressive and anxiety symptoms, but not to changes in fatigue.

Conclusion: Findings indicate that particularly improvements in goal reengagement are beneficial for cancer patients’ psychological functioning.     

Is family-to-work interference related to co-workers' work outcomes?

Previous studies have convincingly shown that employees' family lives can affect their work outcomes. We investigate whether family-to-work interference (FWI) experienced by the employee also affects the work outcomes of a co-worker. We predict that the employee's FWI has an effect on the co-worker's outcomes through the crossover of positive and negative work attitudes. Using a sample of 1430 co-worker dyads, we found that the employee's FWI had a positive relationship with the co-worker's sickness absence through the crossover of feelings of burnout. Similarly, employee FWI was positively related to co-worker turnover intention through the crossover of (reduced) work engagement. The results show that family matters at work, affecting not only employee but also co-worker work outcomes.     

Job crafting and extra-role behavior: The role of work engagement and flourishing

This study investigates whether crafting of job demands and resources relates positively to extra-role behavior (i.e. contextual performance and creativity) through work engagement and flourishing. We collected data from 294 employees and their supervisors regarding employees' contextual performance and creativity. Results show that seeking resources had a positive indirect relationship with contextual performance through work engagement, and with creativity through work engagement and flourishing. Reducing demands had negative indirect relationships with both contextual performance and creativity through work engagement. We conclude that particularly seeking resources has important implications for extra-role behavior and discuss the practical implications of these findings.     

Crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion within teams: a longitudinal multilevel study

This study investigated the crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion among team members and the moderating effect of cohesiveness and social support on this process. Participants were 310 employees of an employment agency in the Netherlands, working in one of 100 teams. Multilevel analysis using a longitudinal design did not reveal a main effect of crossover. However, consistent with the study's hypotheses, the results showed a moderating effect of team cohesiveness and social support. We detected crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion across time from the group to individual team members only in teams characterized by high levels of cohesiveness and social support. Teams characterized by low levels of cohesiveness and social support showed no crossover of job demands and exhaustion. The findings demonstrate that team-level moderators play an important role in crossover processes. Moreover, social support and cohesiveness may not always be positive.     

Inequity in work and intimate relationships: a Spillover–Crossover model

Abstract

This study among 267 Greek teachers and their partners tested and expanded the recently proposed Spillover–Crossover model (SCM) of well-being. Accordingly, experiences built up at work spill over to the home domain, and then influence the partner. The authors integrated equity theory in the model by formulating hypotheses about exchange in interpersonal relationships. Structural equation modeling analyses supported the spillover hypothesis that teachers who lose their work engagement as a result of an inequitable relationship with their students invest less in the relationship with their partner. In addition, the results supported the crossover hypothesis that teachers' relationship investments, in turn, show a negative relationship with inequity in the intimate relationship as perceived by the partner; and inequity in the intimate relationship contributed to partner depression. The findings are discussed in light of the SCM of well-being.