The mutual effects between job resources and mental health: a prospective study among Dutch youth

The current study construes the relation between job resources (such as job autonomy, skill utilization, and variety) and mental health as a reciprocal process. Following conservation of resources theory (S. E. Hobfoll, 1989), the author expected job resources to have a positive effect on mental health. Poor mental health was assumed to impede workers' attempts to maintain or enhance their job resources either by changing the content of their jobs or attempting to find another (less distressing) job. Longitudinal data from a representative sample of 699 Dutch youth were analyzed with analysis of variance and covariance structure modeling. The results provided good support for the proposition that job resources and mental health mutually influence each other. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.