IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v64y2007i2p401-410.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The contribution of working conditions and social support to the onset of depressive and anxiety disorders among male and female employees

Author

Listed:
  • Plaisier, Inger
  • de Bruijn, Jeanne G.M.
  • de Graaf, Ron
  • Have, Margreet ten
  • Beekman, Aartjan T.F.
  • Penninx, Brenda W.J.H.

Abstract

Poor working conditions may be an important source of stress and may therefore contribute to the development of depressive and anxiety disorders. Social support may act as a buffer and protect against the development of depression or anxiety in the face of poor working conditions. With longitudinal data from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS), the effect of working conditions and social support on the incidence of depressive and anxiety disorders was examined among 2646 working men and women, aged 18 through 65 years. Three dimensions of self reported working conditions were assessed: psychological demands, decision latitude and job security. Social support was assessed through validated scales for daily emotional support. About 10.5% of working women and 4.6% among working men developed an incident depressive and/or anxiety disorder over 2 years. Psychological demands predicted the incidence of depressive and anxiety disorders in both men and women (RR per score increase=2.29, 95% CI: 1.44-3.63), whereas decision latitude and job security did not. Social support protected against the incidence of depressive and anxiety disorders. This effect was stronger for men compared to women. Social support did not buffer the unfavorable mental effect of working conditions. Women were more likely to report low levels of decision latitude, whereas men reported higher psychological demands. Working conditions did not explain sex differences in the incidence of depressive and anxiety disorders.

Suggested Citation

  • Plaisier, Inger & de Bruijn, Jeanne G.M. & de Graaf, Ron & Have, Margreet ten & Beekman, Aartjan T.F. & Penninx, Brenda W.J.H., 2007. "The contribution of working conditions and social support to the onset of depressive and anxiety disorders among male and female employees," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 401-410, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:2:p:401-410
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00476-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fuhrer, R. & Stansfeld, S. A. & Chemali, J. & Shipley, M. J., 1999. "Gender, social relations and mental health: prospective findings from an occupational cohort (Whitehall II study)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 77-87, January.
    2. Evans, Olga & Steptoe, Andrew, 2002. "The contribution of gender-role orientation, work factors and home stressors to psychological well-being and sickness absence in male- and female-dominated occupational groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 481-492, February.
    3. Doeglas, Dirk & Suurmeijer, Theo & Briançon, Serge & Moum, Torbjørn & Krol, Boudien & Bjelle, Anders & Sanderman, Robbert & van den Heuvel, Wim, 1996. "An international study on measuring social support: Interactions and satisfaction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1389-1397, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Belloni, Michele & Carrino, Ludovico & Meschi, Elena, 2022. "The impact of working conditions on mental health: Novel evidence from the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Lang, Jessica & Ochsmann, Elke & Kraus, Thomas & Lang, Jonas W.B., 2012. "Psychosocial work stressors as antecedents of musculoskeletal problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis of stability-adjusted longitudinal studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1163-1174.
    3. Juyeon Oh & Seunghyun Lee & Juho Sim & Seunghan Kim & Ara Cho & Byungyoon Yun & Jin-Ha Yoon, 2021. "Association between Self-Perceived Social Support in the Workplace and the Presence of Depressive/Anxiety Symptoms," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-11, September.
    4. Milner, Allison & King, Tania & LaMontagne, Anthony D. & Bentley, Rebecca & Kavanagh, Anne, 2018. "Men’s work, Women’s work, and mental health: A longitudinal investigation of the relationship between the gender composition of occupations and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 16-22.
    5. Amira Barrech & Reinhold Kilian & Edit Rottler & Lucia Jerg-Bretzke & Michael Hölzer & Monika Annemarie Rieger & Marc Nicolas Jarczok & Harald Gündel & Eva Rothermund, 2018. "Do Working Conditions of Patients in Psychotherapeutic Consultation in the Workplace Differ from Those in Outpatient Care? Results from an Observational Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-10, January.
    6. Qiu, Hanyao & Bures, Regina & Shehan, Constance L., 2012. "The inconsistent mediating effects of psychosocial work characteristics on the education–health relationship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1539-1546.
    7. Solé, Meritxell & Diaz-Serrano, Luis & Rodríguez, Marisol, 2013. "Disparities in work, risk and health between immigrants and native-born Spaniards," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 179-187.
    8. Marchand, Alain & Bilodeau, Jaunathan & Demers, Andrée & Beauregard, Nancy & Durand, Pierre & Haines, Victor Y., 2016. "Gendered depression: Vulnerability or exposure to work and family stressors?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 160-168.
    9. Young-Mee Kim & Sung-il Cho, 2017. "Work–Life Imbalance and Musculoskeletal Disorders among South Korean Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-13, November.
    10. Hjordis Sigursteinsdottir & Fjola Bjork Karlsdottir, 2022. "Does Social Support Matter in the Workplace? Social Support, Job Satisfaction, Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Hessels, Jolanda & Rietveld, Cornelius A. & van der Zwan, Peter, 2017. "Self-employment and work-related stress: The mediating role of job control and job demand," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 178-196.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Evelina Landstedt & Per Gustafsson & Klara Johansson & Anne Hammarström, 2016. "Longitudinal associations between social relationships at age 30 and internalising symptoms at age 42: findings from the Northern Swedish Cohort," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 61(1), pages 75-81, January.
    2. Ilaria Buonomo & Caterina Fiorilli & Luciano Romano & Paula Benevene, 2020. "The Roles of Work-Life Conflict and Gender in the Relationship between Workplace Bullying and Personal Burnout. A Study on Italian School Principals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-17, November.
    3. Shor, Eran & Roelfs, David J., 2015. "Social contact frequency and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis and meta-regression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 76-86.
    4. Jessica Michgelsen & Daniel Boateng & Karlijn A.C. Meeks & Erik Beune & Juliet Addo & Silver Bahendeka & Karien Stronks & Charles Agyemang, 2021. "Association between Practising Religion and Cardiovascular Disease Risk among Ghanaian Non-Migrants and Migrants in Europe: The RODAM Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-13, March.
    5. Barron, David Nicholas & West, Elizabeth, 2007. "The emotional costs of caring incurred by men and women in the British labour market," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 2160-2171, November.
    6. Rosario Fernández-Peña & José Luis Molina & Oliver Valero, 2020. "Satisfaction with Social Support Received from Social Relationships in Cases of Chronic Pain: The Influence of Personal Network Characteristics in Terms of Structure, Composition and Functional Conten," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-17, April.
    7. Yunong Huang & Hung Wong, 2014. "Impacts of Sense of Community and Satisfaction with Governmental Recovery on Psychological Status of the Wenchuan Earthquake Survivors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 421-436, June.
    8. Conklin, Annalijn I. & Forouhi, Nita G. & Surtees, Paul & Khaw, Kay-Tee & Wareham, Nicholas J. & Monsivais, Pablo, 2014. "Social relationships and healthful dietary behaviour: Evidence from over-50s in the EPIC cohort, UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 167-175.
    9. Urbig, Diemo & Monsen, Erik, 2012. "The structure of optimism: “Controllability affects the extent to which efficacy beliefs shape outcome expectancies”," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 854-867.
    10. Gerrit Bauer & Martina Brandt & Thorsten Kneip, 2023. "The Role of Parenthood for Life Satisfaction of Older Women and Men in Europe," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 275-307, January.
    11. Kumar, Santosh & Calvo, Rocio & Avendano, Mauricio & Sivaramakrishnan, Kavita & Berkman, Lisa F., 2012. "Social support, volunteering and health around the world: Cross-national evidence from 139 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 696-706.
    12. Therese Rydberg Sterner & Pia Gudmundsson & Nazib Seidu & Kristoffer Bäckman & Ingmar Skoog & Hanna Falk, 2018. "A Psychometric Evaluation of a Swedish Version of the Positive–Negative Sex-Role Inventory (PN-SRI)," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, February.
    13. Anne-Lise Biotteau & Carole Bonnet & Emmanuelle Cambois, 2019. "Risk of Major Depressive Episodes After Separation: The Gender-Specific Contribution of the Income and Support Lost Through Union Dissolution," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(3), pages 519-542, July.
    14. Gøril Kvamme Løset & Harald Dale-Olsen & Tale Hellevik & Arne Mastekaasa & Tilmann von Soest & Kjersti Misje Østbakken, 2018. "Gender equality in sickness absence tolerance: Attitudes and norms of sickness absence are not different for men and women," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, August.
    15. Milner, Allison & King, Tania & LaMontagne, Anthony D. & Bentley, Rebecca & Kavanagh, Anne, 2018. "Men’s work, Women’s work, and mental health: A longitudinal investigation of the relationship between the gender composition of occupations and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 16-22.
    16. Baek, Seong-Uk & Yoon, Jin-Ha & Won, Jong-Uk, 2023. "Reciprocal longitudinal associations of supportive workplace relationships with depressive symptoms and self-rated health: A study of Korean women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    17. Avdic, Daniel & Johansson, Per, 2013. "Gender Differences in Preferences for Health-Related Absences from Work," IZA Discussion Papers 7480, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Mastekaasa, Arne, 2005. "Sickness absence in female- and male-dominated occupations and workplaces," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 2261-2272, May.
    19. von Walter, Benjamin & Wentzel, Daniel & Raff, Stefan, 2023. "Should service firms introduce algorithmic advice to their existing customers? The moderating effect of service relationships," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 280-296.
    20. Kobayashi, Tomoko & Kawachi, Ichiro & Iwase, Toshihide & Suzuki, Etsuji & Takao, Soshi, 2013. "Individual-level social capital and self-rated health in Japan: An application of the Resource Generator," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 32-37.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:2:p:401-410. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.