Adverse trajectories of mental health problems predict subsequent burnout and work-family conflict - a longitudinal study of employed women with children followed over 18 years

Incorporating gendered analysis and flexibility in heavy work investment studies: a systematic literature review

Introduction

Significant impacts of heavy work investment on employee well-being and organizational performance have prompted its increasing importance as a research topic. The findings about good or evil of these repercussions are nonetheless inconclusive. The intersection of Heavy Work Investment construct with gender has not been explicitly addressed by previous literature review and research. Besides, the relevance of flexibility for women, as one of the key factors for successful work-family balance management, still remains to be analyzed.

Methods

A literature review on Heavy Work Investment was conducted using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, wherein 83 articles were selected from a pool of 208 previously identified works. Bibliometric and content analysis techniques were employed, including co-word analysis, to evaluate research production, impact, and trends in the gender perspective within Heavy Work Investment.

Results

As a result, a strategic diagram illustrates thematic topics, providing a clear understanding of the field's structure and evolution. Six thematic groups were identified, around work-family conflict as the central theme.

Discussion

The explicit consideration of a gender perspective in literature involves nuanced differences regarding the conclusions of studies with a broader focus. First, the emerging prominence of studies on China and Japan becomes clear with gender as the specific focus of the review, aiming to clarify the experiences women face in more traditional societies with a more decisive division of roles. Second, there is a shift in interest regarding the analysis of Job Demands and Job Resources. Despite the apparent decline in interest in the former, the focus in gender literature clearly shifts toward the side of Job Resources, showing potential for the future. It could be understood that in a context of talent war and employee retention efforts, priority is given to better understanding of facilitating individual and organizational factors for work-life balance, especially for women. Future research areas are identified, including gender differences in organizational support and the impact of flexible work on the work-life balance, providing valuable insights for academia, practitioners, and organizations. The need for more comprehensive cross-cultural and gender research is also made clear.

Parallel latent trajectories of mental health and personal earnings among 16- to 20 year-old US labor force participants: a 20-year longitudinal study

PURPOSE

Determine the number of latent parallel trajectories of mental health and employment earnings over two decades among American youth entering the workforce and estimate the association between baseline sociodemographic and health factors on latent trajectory class membership.

METHODS

This study used data of 8173 participants from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 who were 13-17 years old in 1997. Surveys occurred annually until 2011 then biennially until 2017, when participants were 33-37 years old. The Mental Health Inventory-5 measured mental health at eight survey cycles between 2000 and 2017. Employment earnings were measured annually between 1998 and 2017. Latent parallel trajectories were estimated using latent growth modeling. Multinomial logistic regression explored the association between baseline factors and trajectory membership.

RESULTS

Four parallel latent classes were identified; all showed stable mental health and increasing earnings. Three percent of the sample showed a good mental health, steep increasing earnings trajectory (average 2017 earnings ~ $196,000); 23% followed a good mental health, medium increasing earnings trajectory (average 2017 earnings ~ $78,100); 50% followed a good mental health, low increasing earnings trajectory (average 2017 earnings ~ $39,500); and 24% followed a poor mental, lowest increasing earnings trajectory (average 2017 earnings ~ $32,000). Participants who were younger, women, Black or Hispanic, from lower socioeconomic households, and reported poorer health behaviors had higher odds of belonging to the poor mental health, low earnings class.

CONCLUSION

Findings highlight the parallel courses of mental health and labor market earnings, and the influence of gender, race/ethnicity, and adolescent circumstances on these processes.

Onset of Work-Life Conflict Increases Risk of Subsequent Psychological Distress in the Norwegian Working Population

We aimed to assess whether the onset of work-life conflict is associated with a risk of subsequent onset of psychological distress. Respondents from a randomly drawn cohort of the general Norwegian working population were interviewed in 2009 (T1), 2013 (T2), and 2016 (T3) (gross sample n = 13,803). Participants reporting frequent work-life conflict at T1 and/or psychological distress (five-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist mean score ≥ 2) at T2 were excluded to establish a design that allowed us to study the effect of the onset of work-life conflict at T2 on psychological distress at T3. Logistic regression analysis showed that the onset of frequent work-life conflict more than doubled the risk of the onset of psychological distress at T3 (OR = 2.55; 95% CI 1.44-4.51). The analysis of the association between occasional work-life conflict and psychological distress was not conclusive (OR = 1.21; 95% CI 0.77-1.90). No differential effects of sex were observed (log likelihood ratio = 483.7, p = 0.92). The calculated population attributable risk (PAR) suggests that 12.3% (95% CI 2.84-22.9%) of psychological distress onset could be attributed to frequent work-life conflict. In conclusion, our results suggest that the onset of frequent work-life conflict has a direct effect on the future risk of developing symptoms of psychological distress in both male and female workers.

Is work-life interference a risk factor for sickness absence? A longitudinal study of the Swedish working population

Background

While there is increasing literature on the health effects of work–life interference, few studies have investigated the relationship between a direct measure of work–life interference and objective sickness absence measures. The aim of this study is to investigate whether work–life interference is a risk factor for subsequent long-term sickness absence (LTSA).

Methods

Data were derived from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. Data were linked to register data on LTSA (having at least one continuous period of medically certified sick leave exceeding 14 days) the following 2 years after each data collection wave. We applied generalized estimating equations, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The sample included 15 244 individuals (43.1% men and 56.9% women). Nearly a fifth of the sample (18.7%, n = 1110) started at least one period of LTSA at any point between 2010 and 2018.

Results

Work–life interference was found to be a risk factor for subsequent LTSA (OR = 1.55; 95% CI = 1.44–1.67) even when adjusting for relevant factors including general health (OR = 1.39; 95% CI = 1.29–1.51). We found no significant moderating effect of gender.

Conclusion

The results of this study indicate that work–life interference is a risk factor for subsequent LTSA for working men and women in Sweden.

Work-Family Conflict, Enrichment, and Adolescent Academic Adjustment in Dual-Earner Family

There is ample evidence that work-family conflict (WFC) and work-family enrichment (WFE), respectively, have detrimental and beneficial impacts on the functioning of couples, families, and children. In this study, cross-sectional data from 2,136 dual-earner families in China, including parents and their children (51.2% girls, ages: 11.6-19.3 years), were used together with Actor-Partner Interdependence Model-Structural Equation Modeling (APIM-SEM) to test the hypothesis that work-family spillover can impact academic adjustment in adolescents through parental educational expectations and perceived educational expectations. The results of this analysis suggested that academic adjustment among adolescents is primarily influenced by maternal work-family experiences, such that maternal but not paternal WFC can impact academic adjustment in adolescents through parental educational expectations and perceived educational expectations. Maternal WFE was found to be indirectly associated with the academic adjustment in adolescents as a result of actual and perceived educational expectations. Additionally, we observed a significant effect of maternal WFC on the educational expectations of fathers within couple-relationship dyads. These results underscore the importance of the work-family interface as a factor that shapes the overall family health and associated outcomes, especially the importance of maternal work-family experiences in this context. Interventions that aim to promote more positive maternal work environments are thus likely to yield greater benefits for their children and families. Overall, these data indicate that work-family spillover is a core determinant of adolescent development, which warrants further study.

Health and suffering are associated with social support: a cross-sectional study of women and mothers with exhaustion and pain

BACKGROUND

Despite women are generally overrepresented in behavioral, mental, and musculoskeletal disorders, motherhood as a central part of women's life is poorly understood in relation to exhaustion and long-lasting pain. Mothers' health impairments imply suffering both for herself and her family. A profound understanding of health is needed taking mothers' subjective health experience, their suffering and life situation into account to give women, their families and society better prerequisites to alleviate exhaustion and long-lasting pain. The aim of the study was to describe health and suffering of women and mothers undergoing rehabilitation for long-lasting pain and exhaustion and its correlation with perceived social support.

METHODS

The study had a cross-sectional design with an exploratory approach. A main sample consisted of 166 women undergoing rehabilitation for exhaustion and long-lasting pain and a reference sample included 129 women working and studying within health care professions. Both samples included women with and without children. Women's subjective health and suffering was assessed from a caring science perspective using the recently developed and validated Health and Suffering Scale. Two additional scales measuring exhaustion and social support were distributed among the two samples. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression models, including health and suffering and perceived social support, were analyzed.

RESULTS

Mothers undergoing rehabilitation for pain and exhaustion reported significantly poorer health and more suffering compared to healthy mothers, but similar health and suffering when compared with childless women in rehabilitation. Health and suffering were correlated with perceived social support among both healthy and exhausted mothers. In both samples, the correlation between health and suffering and social support was stronger among mothers than among women without children.

CONCLUSIONS

Women and mothers living with exhaustion and long-lasting pain show signs of unbearable suffering and perceived insufficient social support. Social support from various sources particularly helps mothers to create meaning in life and make their suffering bearable. Hence, health care must address the fact that mothers are dependent on their immediate social environment and that this dependency interacts with their health and suffering on an existential level.

Risk and resilience of vulnerable families in Hong Kong under the impact of COVID-19: an ecological resilience perspective

PURPOSE

Hong Kong has experienced four waves of COVID-19 since the first case was confirmed in January 2020. Several studies have highlighted the psychological impacts of the outbreak in Hong Kong but have largely ignored the protective factors that contribute to resilience among vulnerable families. This study adopted an ecological resilience framework to explore the impact of this epidemic on members of families with youth with a delinquent tendency/mental health concerns and the ecological protective factors for these vulnerable families.

METHODS

Random sampling based on a sampling frame provided by one of the largest local social service organizations in Hong Kong led to the recruitment of 407 respondents who were interviewed using a battery of standardized questionnaires.

RESULTS

The results showed that 30.6% and 11.5% of respondents reported a moderate and a severe level of psychological distress, respectively, almost double the percentages reported in a previous study conducted in Hong Kong before the COVID-19 outbreak. Around 36.6% of respondents indicated they had encountered financial problems and almost 40% indicated aggravated financial circumstances since the outbreak. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that financial stress was the strongest predictor of psychological distress. Structural equation modeling indicated that family support, indoor leisure activities and community resources significantly mediated the negative influence of COVID-19-related stressors on psychological distress of family members.

CONCLUSION

Family leisure activities, family support, community spirit and mutual help within the context of social-distancing restrictions may need to be promoted to benefit vulnerable families in Hong Kong under the COVID-19 epidemic.

Impact of disaster exposure severity: Cascading effects across parental distress, adolescent PTSD symptoms, as well as parent-child conflict and communication

RATIONALE

Natural disasters are common and have potentially deleterious impacts on individuals, as well as on the relationships among family members (Adams et al., 2015; Paul, 2015). Additionally, caregiver-, offspring-, and family-level outcomes are often correlated following disaster.

OBJECTIVE

Thus, longitudinal work is needed to clarify the prospective associations among such constructs following severe disasters.

METHOD

The current study included 1,271 adolescents and investigated whether disaster exposure impacted adolescent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, parent distress, and family parent-child conflict and communication, as well as whether/how these factors influenced one another over time. This study used a dynamic cascade model and included adolescents (ages 12-17) and caregivers present for tornadoes in Missouri and Alabama in 2011. These participants were part of a larger study involving a web-based intervention.

RESULTS

Over and above covariates (i.e., adolescent age, gender, race, treatment, prior trauma, adolescent alcohol use and depressive symptoms, and household income), families who experienced greater severity of disaster exposure had adolescents who reported more baseline PTSD symptoms and caregivers who reported more distress at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS

Providing tangible resources (e.g., housing, food, transportation, essential possessions) to families post-disaster may reduce parent distress and adolescent PTSD symptoms. Additionally, reducing adolescent PTSD symptoms may prospectively improve relationships between parents and adolescents.

The health effects of work-family conflict in men and women Japanese civil servants: a longitudinal study

High level of work-family conflict (WFC) is an important risk factor for stress-related health outcomes. However, many studies are cross-sectional studies. In this study, we aimed to clarify how changes in WFC levels over a period 5 yr can affect workers' mental and physical health, and to clarify whether there are gender differences of them. This study examined 1,808 civil servants (1,258 men and 550 women) aged 20-65 yr working in a local government in the west coast of Japan from 2003 to 2008. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine whether the change in WFC contributes to workers' health problems and whether there are gender differences. This study revealed association sustained high WFC and deterioration of WFC conflict with poor mental health and poor job satisfaction for both men and women. In men high WFC conflict and deterioration was associated with poor mental health (OR=2.74). On the other hand, women had strong relationship between WFC changes and poor physical health (OR=2.64). WFC was an important factor as a social determinant of health of Japanese civil servants, and the change in WFC affects subsequent health problems with different trends in men and women.