Relationship Between Hiding Emotions and Health Outcomes Among South Korean Interactive Service Workers

The darkness of reacculturation: examining factors influencing depression among Chinese international student returnees in the post-COVID-19 era

Introduction

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reintegration of Chinese international student returnees intersects with China's critical effort to combat a significant brain drain of highly skilled talents, highlighting an unprecedented psychological battleground. This convergence underscores the urgent need for nuanced research to navigate the uncharted territory of their mental health.

Methods

Employing Bayesian analysis supported by Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, this study examined depression prevalence and associated factors among 1,014 Chinese returnees. The sample comprised 44.87% male participants (455), 51.58% female participants (523), and 3.55% identifying as "Others" (36), with an age distribution of 61.74% aged 18-30 (626), 28.80% aged 31-40 (292), and 9.47% aged 41-50 (96). The mean age of participants was 29.6 years, ranging from 18 to 50 years. PHQ-9 diagnoses revealed alarming levels of depression, with 47.9% exhibiting a moderately severe degree of depressive disorder.

Results

Our findings highlight the intricate interplay between identity clusters- "homestayers" (those leaning towards a Chinese cultural identity), "navigators" (those with a bicultural identity), and "wayfarers" (those leaning towards a foreign cultural identity)-and the likelihood of depression. Specifically, homestayers showed a clear and strong negative association, navigators demonstrated a positive association, and wayfarers had a positive yet unclear correlation with depression levels. Furthermore, acculturation, age, and gender showed no significant effects, whereas education mildly mitigated depression.

Discussion

Based on these findings, we suggest the implementation of better-tailored mental health support and policies to facilitate smoother reintegration.

Health-Related Symptoms and Working Conditions on Vulnerability to Presenteeism Among Nurses in South Korea

Presenteeism among nurses is reported to be higher than that of other professional workers, and affects one's health and the safety of their patients. Therefore, study on correlation between complex working condition and presenteeism is needed among nurses. This study aimed to predict characteristics of high-risk groups for presenteeism among nurses. The analysis used data which generated 478 nurses who participated in the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey (2017). This study built a complex samples logistic regression model and decision tree analysis. Presenteeism was significantly higher among those who experienced musculoskeletal pain, high emotional demands, discrimination, and psychological adverse social behavior at the workplace. Combined presence of psychological adverse social behavior and musculoskeletal pain was predicted presenteeism, and should be treated as groups with a high risk of presenteeism. Nurses should be aware of high-risk group for presenteeism and treat them as a priority group to manage.

Factors that Affect Depression and Anxiety in Service and Sales Workers Who Interact With Angry Clients

Introduction

We evaluated depression and anxiety in service and sales workers from Korea who interacted with angry clients to identify factors that mediated and moderated depression and anxiety in these workers.

Methods

This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey conducted in 2017. A structural equation model was used for mediation and moderation analysis.

Results

Service and sales workers who had more interactions with angry clients had increased risk for depression and anxiety. Experiencing clients' adverse behaviors (acute episodes) mediated the relationship between interacting with angry clients (a chronic situation) on depression and anxiety. Job satisfaction and managers' support moderated the relationship between interacting with angry clients and mental health problems.

Conclusion

We suggest that employers of service and sales workers should recruit staff based on their aptitude for such work, thus ensuring job satisfaction, and train them to deal with angry clients in such a way that they experience less emotional burden. Employers should also make bylaws requiring managers to directly take care of adverse social behavior by clients. Furthermore, a sociocultural campaign to prevent adverse social behavior by clients is also needed.

Association of Co-Exposure to Psychosocial Factors With Depression and Anxiety in Korean Workers

INTRODUCTION

This study assessed the association of co-exposure to psychosocial factors with depression and anxiety in Korean workers.

METHODS

All data were from the 2017 Korean Working Conditions Survey.

RESULTS

Males and females who perceived organizational injustice, hid their emotions at the workplace, felt they were paid inappropriately, and had no support from managers were more likely to report depression and anxiety. Males who reported long working hours, no ability to influence decisions, work pressure, and no ability to apply their own ideas at the workplace were more likely to report depression and anxiety. Co-exposure to a greater number of psychosocial factors had stronger associations with depression and anxiety in men and women.

CONCLUSION

Employers should reduce depression and anxiety in their workers by providing comprehensive interventions that protect them from co-exposure to work stressors.

Health and intention to leave the profession of nursing - which individual, social and organisational resources buffer the impact of quantitative demands? A cross-sectional study

Background

The aim of this study was to analyse the buffering effect of individual, social and organisational resources on health and intention to leave the profession in the context of burden due to quantitative job demands.

Methods

In 2017, a cross-sectional survey was carried out anonymously among nurses in palliative care in Germany. One thousand three hundred sixteen nurses responded to the questionnaire (response rate 38.7%), which contained, amongst others, questions from the German version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). Moderator analyses were conducted to investigate the buffering effect of different resources on health (‘self-rated health’ and ‘burnout’) and ‘intention to leave’ in the context of quantitative demands.

Results

‘Self-rated health’ was significantly buffered by the resources ‘recognition through salary’ (p = 0.001) and ‘good working team’ (p = 0.004). Additionally, buffering effects of the resources ‘workplace commitment’ and ‘good working team’ on ‘burnout’ (p = 0.001 and p = 0.006, respectively) as well as of the resources ‘degree of freedom’, ‘meeting relatives after death of patients’, ‘recognition from supervisor’ and ‘possibilities for development’ on ‘intention to leave’ (p = 0.014, p = 0.012, p = 0.007 and p = 0.036, respectively) were observed.

Conclusions

The results of our study can be used to develop and implement job (re) design interventions with the goal of reducing the risk of burnout and enhancing job satisfaction among nurses in palliative care. This includes for example adequate payment, communication training and team activities or team events to strengthen the team as well as the implementation of some rituals (such as meeting relatives after the death of patients). As our study was exploratory, the results should be confirmed in further studies.

Assessing the Association Between Emotional Labor and Presenteeism Among Nurses in Korea: Cross-sectional Study Using the 4th Korean Working Conditions Survey

Background

Presenteeism has emerged as an important health-related issue and has been studied in a variety of occupation groups. This study examines the relationship between emotional labor and presenteeism in nurses in Republic of Korea.

Methods

As a cross-sectional study, our study was conducted on 328 female nurses participating in the fourth Korean Working Conditions Survey (2015). Nurses were identified by the Korean Industry Classification Code. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between emotional labor and presenteeism.

Results

Female nurses who always or sometimes hide their emotions in the workplace were found to have a high risk for presenteeism compared with female nurses who rarely hide their emotions in the workplace {odds ratio [OR] = 2.40 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04–5.54]; OR = 4.12 [95% CI 1.72–9.84], respectively}. Furthermore, the risk of presenteeism was higher in nurses who sometimes engaged with complaining customers compared with nurses who rarely did so, but it lacked statistical significance.

Conclusion

Presenteeism in nurses can cause various negative secondary effects; therefore, an alternative should be sought to mediate nurses' emotional labor to prevent presenteeism.

Sickness presenteeism: Are we sure about what we are studying? A research based on a literature review and an empirical illustration

BACKGROUND

There has been an increasing interest in studying sickness presenteeism (SP). An ever-increasing amount of scientific literature is published using this term, yet there appears to be considerable heterogeneity in how it is assessed, which could result in substantial differences in the definition and interpretation of the phenomenon really being studied. We aim to discuss what really is being studied, depending on how the phenomenon is operationalized, measured, and analyzed.

METHODS

A study based on a literature review and an empirical illustration using data of the third Spanish Psychosocial Risks Survey (2016).

RESULTS

Differences are observed based on the population in which SP is measured, the cut-off points used to define a worker as presenteeist, the reasons for an SP episode and even an analysis of the phenomenon treated as a count or as a dichotomous.

CONCLUSIONS

Without being completely exclusive, it seems that restricting the population of analysis to only those workers who consider that they should not have gone to work due to their health, and/or establishing low cut-off points to define someone as presenteeist, would more clearly delimit the study of SP to the exercise of a right to sick leave. In contrast, working with the entire population or using high cut-off points appears to relate the study of SP more with health status and less with the exercise of rights. On the other hand, taking the reasons for SP into account would probably help to improve interpretation of the phenomenon.