Coping with stress in the australian job network: Gender differences

Nursing work environment, value congruence and their relationships with nurses' work outcomes

AIMS

To explore the relationships between work environment, value congruence and nurses' work outcomes; as well as to test the moderating effects of value congruence.

BACKGROUND

A poor nursing work environment in most of mainland China has negatively influenced nurses' job satisfaction, burnout and turnover intention. New insights such as improving nurses' value congruence should be proposed to better foster nurses.

METHODS

Cross-sectional data were selected from the Chinese Nurses' Environment of Work Status study. In total, 19149 valid samples were collected. Hierarchical regression analyses and simple slope analyses were performed.

RESULTS

The correlation coefficients of the variables were all significant (p < .01) and in the expected direction. Value congruence moderated the relationship between nursing work environment and burnout (emotional exhaustion: β = 0.106, p < .01; depersonalization: β = 0.111, p < .01).

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing work environment and value congruence were positively related to job satisfaction, and negatively related to burnout and turnover intention. The adverse impact of poor work environment on nurses' burnout can be buffered if nurses' value congruence is compatible with that of the organisation.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Except for improving the organisational characteristics, value congruence is a useful concept that managers can leverage to improve positive outcomes for both the organisation and its nurses.

Association between childhood health, socioeconomic and school-related factors and effort-reward imbalance at work: a 25-year follow-up study

OBJECTIVES

Stress pathways can have origins in childhood, but few early predictors have been explored in relation to adult job stress. This study examined whether childhood school, health or socioeconomic factors were associated with adult job stress.

METHODS

Data came from the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health study that began in 1985 with children aged 7-15 years who reported effortreward imbalance (ERI) scales at ages 31-41 years. Linear regression assessed the association between childhood factors and adult ERI adjusted for age and socioeconomic position (SEP) in childhood and adulthood.

RESULTS

There were between 999 and 1390 participants in each analysis. Lower adulthood ERI, indicating less job stress, was predicted by several school-related factors in men. For example, each higher category of learner self-concept was associated with a 19% (95% CI - 32% to 6%) reduction in adult ERI, and each unit increase in academic attainment was associated with a 15% (95% CI -28% to 3%) reduction in adult ERI. Childhood health was associated with adult ERI. For example, in women, overweight children had 14% (95% CI 5% to 22%) higher adult ERI scores compared with healthy weight children, and each unit of negative affect was associated with 2% (95% CI 1% to 4%) increase in adult ERI. Adult SEP had no effect on these associations for men but explained some of the effect in women. Childhood SEP had inconsistent associations with adult ERI.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that a range of childhood socioeconomic, school- and health-related factors might contribute to the development of job stress in adulthood.

Coping Strategies: Gender Differences and Development throughout Life Span

Development during life-span implies to cope with stressful events, and this coping may be done with several strategies. It could be useful to know if these coping strategies differ as a consequence of personal characteristics. This work uses the Coping with Stress Questionnaire with this aim using a sample of 400 participants. Specifically, the effects of gender and age group (young people, middle age and elderly), as well as its interaction on coping strategies is studied. With regard to age, on one hand, it is hypothesised a decrement in the use of coping strategies centred in problem solving and social support seeking as age increases. On the other hand, the use of emotional coping is hypothesised to increase with age. With respect to gender, it is hypothesised a larger use of emotional coping and social support seeking within women, and a larger use of problem solving within men. A MANOVA found significant effects for the two main effects (gender and age) as well as several interactions. Separate ANOVAs allowed us to test for potential differences in each of the coping strategies measured in the CAE. These results partially supported the hypotheses. Results are discussed in relation to scientific literature on coping, age and gender.