Identifying long-term patterns of work-related rumination: associations with job demands and well-being outcomes

The aim of this 2-year longitudinal study was to identify long-term patterns of work-related rumination in terms of affective rumination, problem-solving pondering, and lack of psychological detachment from work during off-job time. We also examined how the patterns differed in job demands and well-being outcomes. The data were collected via questionnaires in three waves among employees (N = 664). Through latent profile analysis (LPA), five stable long-term patterns of rumination were identified: (1) no rumination (n = 81), (2) moderate detachment from work (n = 228), (3) moderate rumination combined with low detachment (n = 216), (4) affective rumination (n = 54), and (5) problem-solving pondering (n = 85), both combined with low detachment. The patterns differed in the job demands and well-being outcomes examined. Job demands (time pressure, cognitive and emotional demands) were at the highest level across time in patterns 3–5 and lowest in pattern 1. Patterns 3 and 4 were associated with poorer well-being outcomes (higher job exhaustion and more sleeping problems, and lower work engagement) across time. By contrast, pattern 5 showed positive outcomes, especially high level of work engagement. Thus, the different patterns of work-related ruminative thoughts suggest diverse relationships with job demands and well-being.     

Work-family conflict and psychological well-being: Stability and cross-lagged relations within one- and six-year follow-ups

The rank-order stability and cross-lagged relations between work-to-family conflict (WFC), family-to-work conflict (FWC), and psychological well-being were examined in two longitudinal studies with full two-wave panel designs. In Study 1 (n = 365), the time lag was one year, and in Study 2 (n = 153), six years. The Structural Equation Modeling showed that the stability for WFC was .69 over one and .73 over six years. The respective stabilities for FWC were .57 and .48. Cross-lagged relations were not detected between WFC/FWC and low psychological well-being (job exhaustion, marital adjustment, parental stress, and psychological distress), expected to exist on the basis of the integrative model of work-family interface [Frone, M. R., Yardley, J. K., & Markel, K. S. (1997). Developing and testing an integrative model of the work-family interface. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 50, 145-167.]. Instead, high job exhaustion preceded high psychological distress, both within one- and six-year time lags, and within a one-year time lag: low marital adjustment preceded high psychological distress, and high psychological distress preceded high parental stress. These findings supported the spillover perspective on work-family interface [Edwards, J. R., & Rothbard, N. P. (2000). Mechanisms linking work and family: Clarifying the relationship between work and family constructs. Academy of Management Review, 25, 178-199.].     

Development of need for recovery from work over one year: a person-centered approach

This longitudinal questionnaire study conducted among 274 Finnish employees (57% women, average age 45.9 years) in a variety of jobs aimed at identifying groups of employees who share similar mean levels and changes in need for recovery and finding out whether factors regarded as antecedents of need for recovery distinguish between the different groups of need for recovery across one year. Using mixture modeling eight groups of need for recovery were identified. The individuals identified as closely resembling each other with respect to need for recovery and its change across one year were considered to belong to the same need for recovery group. Five of these groups indicated stable (low, moderately low, average, moderately high, and high) need for recovery and three showed change (mostly decreasing) in the level of need for recovery across one year. Employees in the favorable (low and moderately low) need for recovery groups (38%) reported to have more favorable work characteristics and better functioning recovery experiences and they spent more time on physical and social off-job activities than those in the unfavorable (high and moderately high) groups (23%). Thus, the antecedents examined play a significant role in maintaining need for recovery over time.     

A longitudinal person-centred view on perceived employability: The role of job insecurity

The primary aim of the present 1-year longitudinal study among university employees (N = 1314) was to investigate individual development of perceived employability (PE) by utilizing a person-centred approach. Thus, we identified latent classes of PE across 1 year based on growth mixture modelling. In addition, the latent classes were characterized by perceived job insecurity and the type of employment contract and its changes over the 1-year time period. The results showed four latent classes of PE that differed in the level and the direction of mean-level changes over time. These latent classes were: (1) stable relatively high PE (n = 641); (2) unstable decreasing PE (n = 45); (3) unstable increasing PE (n = 24); and (4) stable relatively low PE (n = 603). Perceived job insecurity associated with the latent class membership of PE. That is, low levels of perceived job insecurity were associated with favourable PE classes (i.e., “stable relatively high” and “unstable increasing employability”), whereas high levels of job insecurity associated with unfavourable PE classes (i.e., “stable relatively low” and “unstable decreasing employability”). Furthermore, transitions from temporary to permanent job contract occurred more often in the favourable than in unfavourable PE classes, but transitions from permanent to temporary contract were more likely in the unfavourable classes. Thus, our study indicated a substantial amount of heterogeneity in the development of PE across 1 year.     

Job insecurity in Finland: Antecedents and consequences

Abstract

Trends towards more unpredictable and flexible labour markets are often presumed to fuel feelings of job insecurity among employees, especially the threat of losing one's job. The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of job insecurity in a representative sample of Finnish wage and salary earners (N = 3503) gathered in 1990. One out of ten respondents felt the threat of lay-off, dismissal, or unemployment. According to hierarchical regression analysis, perceived job insecurity was best explained by positional factors, especially earlier unemployment experiences and the temporary nature of the employment relationship. The role of demographic factors predicting job insecurity was strikingly minor. Variance and regression analysis confirmed the negative effects of perceived insecurity on work and health behaviour found in previous studies. Social support was found to have a light moderating effect in alleviating the negative effects of job insecurity. Thus, job insecurity was a psychological stressor with adverse effects for a sizeable proportion of the employees.     

Job skill discretion and emotion control strategies as antecedents of recovery from work

Recovery from work protects employees’ health and well-being, and therefore it is important to understand its antecedents. The aim of this study conducted among 183 middle-aged participants drawn from the Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development was to examine whether job skill discretion and emotion control strategies (emotional rumination and emotional inhibition) are related to psychological aspects of recovery from work (subjective recovery evaluation, psychological detachment and relaxation). The results of hierarchical general linear models confirmed the hypothesis that job skill discretion is positively associated with subjective recovery evaluation and relaxation. As expected, high emotional rumination predicted difficulties in psychological detachment and relaxation. Emotional inhibition moderated the relationship between job skill discretion and psychological detachment: where emotional inhibition was at a moderate level, job skill discretion was positively related to psychological detachment. The findings suggest that not only job characteristics but also individual factors contribute to recovery, revealing practical implications for employees, employers and occupational health care professionals seeking to promote employees’ work ability, health and well-being.     

Development of Face Recognition in 5- to 15-Year-Olds

This study focuses on the development of face recognition in typically developing preschool- and school-aged children (aged 5 to 15 years old, n = 611, 336 girls). Social predictors include sex differences and own-sex bias. At younger ages, the development of face recognition was rapid and became more gradual as the age increased up until the age of 11, after which point the influence of age was insignificant. This development could not be sufficiently explained by the improvement in visual attention or design memory tasks. Girls were slightly better than boys at recognizing faces in the youngest age group, but the effect of sex was minor. No significant own-sex bias was found for girls or boys.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Adolescent Self-Control of Emotions and Behavioral Expression on Adult Health Outcomes

In the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, we examined the direct and indirect effects of self-control of emotions and behavioral expression, as rated by teachers at age 14, on various self-reported health outcomes at age 36 in 123 women and 129 men. The relation between independent and dependent variables was expected to be mediated by health-related behaviors at age 36 (exercise, tobacco use, heavy drinking). Path analysis showed that, in men, low self-control of emotions was linked to self-assessed poor health and physical symptoms indirectly via health-risk behaviors, but directly to disabilities. Behavioral expression at age 14, indexed by social activity, was directly linked to disabilities. In women, behavioral expression was unrelated to health outcomes, but low self-control of emotions was indirectly linked to self-assessed poor health, physical symptoms, and disabilities via health-risk behaviors.     

Teacher stress: An eight-year follow-up study on teachers' work,stress, and health

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare teacher stress between the years 1983 and 1991. Seventy teachers in comprehensive and upper secondary schools participated in the study. The teachers were studied first during the school year 1983–84 and again eight years later during the autumn term of 1991 by means of repeated questionnaires. During this 8-year period the general working situation among the teachers had remained quite stable: Most of them had remained at the same school teaching the same subjects at the same level. The results showed a drop in the teachers' well-being over the period. In particular, those over 55 years of age showed more emotional stress reactions in 1991 than eight years earlier. Furthermore, they evaluated their social relations with pupils as worse in 1991 compared to 1983. A half both of those with low emotional stress reactions and those high in them in 1983 were stilll in the same categories in 1991. Emotional stress reactions were reflected in simultaneous work ability and psychosomatic health data. Moreover, long-term stress was seen to lead to various psychosomatic complaints, but these were not reflected in self-rated health status. The results suggest that teacher stress is not necessarily a short-lived problem, and ways of preventing or reducing stress (e.g. continuing education, counseling, co-operation) should be employed.     

Self-esteem: An antecedent or a consequence of social support and psychosomatic symptoms? Cross-lagged associations in adulthood

This study investigated the relationships of self-esteem with social support and psychosomatic symptoms in cross-lagged longitudinal data with two measurement points and a time lag of 6 years. Two hundred thirteen participants were drawn from the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, Finland. The present study focused on data collected by questionnaires at ages 36 and 42. The cross-lagged analyses of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that high self-esteem at age 36 predicted high social support 6 years later and simultaneously, but to a lesser extent, high social support at age 36 predicted high self-esteem at age 42. In addition, low levels of psychosomatic symptoms at age 36 were associated with high self-esteem 6 years later, but not vice versa.