The Association Between Work-Related Rumination and Executive Function Using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function

The role of social support in human-automation interaction

This theoretical article examines the concept of social support in the context of human-automation interaction, outlining several critical issues. We identified several factors that we expect to influence the consequences of social support and to what extent it is perceived as appropriate (e.g. provider possibilities, recipient expectations), notably regarding potential threats to self-esteem. We emphasise the importance of performance (including extra-role performance) as a potential outcome, whereas previous research has primarily concentrated on health and well-being. We discuss to what extent automation may provide different types of social support (e.g. emotional, instrumental), and how it differs from human support. Finally, we propose a taxonomy of automated support, arguing that source of support is not a binary concept. We conclude that more empirical work is needed to examine the multiple effects of social support for core performance indicators and extra-role performance and emphasise that there are ethical questions involved.

Unpacking workplace stress and forensic expert decision-making: From theory to practice

Workplace stress can affect forensic experts' job satisfaction and performance, which holds financial and other implications for forensic service providers. Therefore, it is important to understand and manage workplace stress, but that is not simple or straightforward. This paper explores stress as a human factor that influences forensic expert decision-making. First, we identify and highlight three factors that mitigate decisions under stress conditions: nature of decision, individual differences, and context of decision. Second, we situate workplace stress in forensic science within the Challenge-Hindrance Stressor Framework. We argue that stressors in forensic science workplaces can have a positive or a negative impact, depending on the type, level, and context of stress. Developing an understanding of the stressors, their sources, and their possible impact can help forensic service providers and researchers to implement context-specific interventions to manage stress at work and optimize expert performance.

Working from home during lockdown: the association between rest breaks and well-being

One of the challenges with working from home (WFH) is the question of its effect on health and well-being. The impact of home working on health has so far not been studied extensively. We address this gap by investigating the association between internal recovery, operationalised as rest break frequency (low, medium, and high) during the working day, on self-reported musculoskeletal pain, and post-work recovery symptoms in WFH knowledge workers (n = 382). The analysis showed that failing to take frequent breaks was associated with a dose-response increased risk of reporting headaches. For post-work recovery symptoms, failing to take rest breaks throughout the day was associated with an increased risk of reporting psychological fatigue, physical fatigue, and sleep problems, and a decreased risk of psychologically detaching from work and experiencing adequate rest. Our findings emphasise the importance of remote workers taking recovery breaks from work demands in the maintenance of health and well-being.Practitioner Summary: For the foreseeable future, many knowledge workers will be obliged to work from home for at least, some days of the week. It is therefore important for workers to learn to regulate their behaviour, and workers need to be educated about the value of taking regular rest breaks throughout the working day.Abbreviations: ICT: Information and communications technology; MSDs: musculoskeletal disorders; MSPs: Musculoskeletal pain symptoms; OR: Odds ratio; WFH: Working from home; WRRQ: Work-Related Rumination Questionnaire Questionnaire.

Using machine learning algorithm to predict the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder among firefighters in Changsha

OBJECTIVES

Firefighters are prone to suffer from psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the workplace, and have a poor prognosis after PTSD. Reliable models for predicting PTSD allow for effective identification and intervention for patients with early PTSD. By collecting the psychological traits, psychological states and work situations of firefighters, this study aims to develop a machine learning algorithm with the aim of effectively and accurately identifying the onset of PTSD in firefighters, as well as detecting some important predictors of PTSD onset.

METHODS

This study conducted a cross-sectional survey through convenient sampling of firefighters from 20 fire brigades in Changsha, which were evenly distributed across 6 districts and Changsha County, with a total of 628 firefighters. We used the synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) to process data sets and used grid search to finish the parameter tuning. The predictive capability of several commonly used machine learning models was compared by 5-fold cross-validation and using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC), accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score.

RESULTS

The random forest model achieved good performance in predicting PTSD with an average AUC score at 0.790. The mean accuracy of the model was 90.1%, with an F1 score of 0.945. The three most important predictors were perseverance, forced thinking, and reflective deep thinking, with weights of 0.165, 0.158, and 0.152, respectively. The next most important predictors were employment time, psychological power, and optimism.

CONCLUSIONS

PTSD onset prediction model for Changsha firefighters constructed by random forest has strong predictive ability, and both psychological characteristics and work situation can be used as predictors of PTSD onset risk for firefighters. In the next step of the study, validation using other large datasets is needed to ensure that the predictive models can be used in clinical setting.

Executive Function Deficits and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptomatology in a Nonclinical Adult Sample: A Latent Variable Analysis

While borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptomatology has been studied extensively in clinical populations, the mechanisms underlying its manifestation in nonclinical populations remain largely understudied. One aspect of BPD symptomatology in nonclinical populations that has not been well studied is cognitive mechanisms, especially in relation to executive functions. To explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying BPD symptomatology in nonclinical populations, we analysed a large-scale dataset of 233 young adults that were administered with nine executive function tasks and BPD symptomatology assessments. Our structural equation modelling did not find any significant relations between latent factors of executive functions and the severity of BPD symptomatology. Contrary to our hypothesis, our result suggests that deficits in executive functions were not a risk factor for BPD symptomatology in the nonclinical young adult sample.

Work-related rumination declines with age but is moderated by gender

BACKGROUND

Much is known about the physical effects of work and health, but less is known about how older workers unwind mentally from work, and their post-work ruminative thinking.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to explore the association between age, gender and two types of work-related rumination: affective rumination, and problem-solving pondering.

METHODS

This study utilized a sample of 3991 full-time employees (working 30 or more hours per week), who were stratified into five age bands (18-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, and 56-65 yrs.).

RESULTS

Affective rumination was found to significantly decline in the older age groups (46 + yrs.), but this finding was moderated by gender. Males reported lower work-related rumination over the entire age range, but the greatest difference between males and females was observed in the 56-65 age category. The results for problem-solving pondering mirrored those of affective rumination but with the only exception that there was no significant difference in gender between those aged 18-25 years.

CONCLUSION

These findings add to our understanding about how workers (between different age groups) mentally switch off from work and highlight the need for interventions to help older workers mentally recover from the effects of work.

The Mediating Role of Work Engagement in the Relationship between Executive Functioning Deficits and Employee Well-Being

Executive functioning and its related components have been found to promote well-being. However, there is a limited understanding of the underlying mechanism. Drawing from the job demands-resources and PERMA models, the present study examined the hypothetical mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between executive functioning deficit and well-being among 314 working adults in Malaysia. Participants answered a survey consisting of the Executive Skills Questionnaire-Revised (ESQ-R; a new measure of executive functioning deficits for working adults), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Employee Well-Being Scale, and Self-Rated Creativity Scale. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the ESQ-R score was negatively associated with all other target variables, while the latter was positively related to each other. Moreover, supporting the hypotheses, the results of mediation analysis using PROCESS macro found that work engagement mediated the negative relationship between executive functioning deficits and well-being after statistically controlling for the creativity score. The findings not only replicate the beneficial role of executive functioning in employees' well-being but also shed light on the underlying process of the relationship. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

Being Tired or Having Much Left Undone: The Relationship Between Fatigue and Unfinished Tasks With Affective Rumination and Vitality in Beginning Teachers

The present diary study was conducted for the purpose of bridging and integrating empirical research on the antecedents and consequences of work-related ruminative processes in the evening. Based on the control theory, unfinished tasks and fatigue in the afternoon were considered as antecedents of affective rumination, while vitality was investigated as the outcome observed in the next morning to test for cyclical processes. During a 5-day diary study (including 3 weekdays and the weekend), 74 beginning teachers completed three diary entries per day. A total of 795 diary entries were obtained. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, the study supported that both fatigue and unfinished tasks explained unique shares of variance of affective rumination in the evening at the between- and within-person levels. Furthermore, affective rumination mediated the relationship between unfinished tasks and vitality as well as fatigue and vitality. However, this only held true at the between- and not the within-person level, as neither affective rumination nor fatigue and unfinished tasks predicted the following morning’s vitality at this level. The results offer insights into the antecedents of affective rumination and add to extant research on the negative consequences of affective rumination considering vitality as an outcome.

Expressive suppression and rumination mediate the relationship between frailty and depression among older medical inpatients

OBJECTIVE

Frailty is common among older medical inpatients and has been found to be an independent risk factor for depression. However, few studies have explored the underlying mechanisms of the frailty-depression relationship. The present study was aimed to examine emotional regulation strategies as mediators in the frailty-depression relationship based on the process model of emotional regulation.

METHODS

Older medical inpatients (N=684) completed questionnaires and tests on frailty, emotional regulation strategies, and depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

Structural equation models showed that expressive suppression and rumination, but not cognitive reappraisal, mediated the relationship between frailty and depressive symptoms (RMSEA = 0.059, CFI = 0.963, TLI = 0.957).

CONCLUSIONS

Frail older medical inpatients habitually use expressive suppression and rumination in their daily lives, which may lead to more psychological disturbance. Interventions targeting expressive suppression and rumination might be effective in reducing the detrimental effect of frailty on psychological well-being among older medical inpatients.

Review of the Internal Structure, Psychometric Properties, and Measurement Invariance of the Work-Related Rumination Scale - Spanish Version

Background: The aim of the current study was to examine the internal structure and assess the psychometric properties of the Work-Related Rumination Scale (WRRS) – Spanish version in a Puerto Rican sample of workers. This instrument is a 15-item questionnaire, which has three factors, affective rumination, problem-solving pondering, and detachment. This measure is used in the occupational health psychology context; however, there is little evidence of its psychometric properties.

Materials and Methods: A total sample of 4,100 from five different study samples was used in this cross-sectional study design in which the WRRS was used. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to examine the internal structure of the Work-Related Rumination Scale. Measurement invariance across sex and age was examined.

Results: The three-factor model was supported; however, four items were eliminated due to their cross-loadings and factorial complexity. This 11-item Spanish version of the WRRS was invariant across sex and age. Reliability of the three-factors of WRRS were within the range of 0.74 to 0.87 using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega. Correlations between the three factors were as expected as well as with other established measures.

Conclusion: The results suggest that the WRRS-Spanish version appears to be a reliable and valid instrument to measure work-related rumination using its three factors. Comparison across sex and age appear to be useful in occupational health psychology research setting since results suggest that the WRRS is invariant regarding those variables.

Subjective cognitive impairment and presenteeism mediate the associations of rumination with subjective well-being and ill-being in Japanese adult workers from the community

Background

In recent years, the roles of rumination, subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), and presenteeism have been emphasized in occupational mental health. However, associations between rumination, SCI, presenteeism, and psychological well-being are not fully understood. We hypothesized that SCI and presenteeism mediate the associations between rumination and subjective well-being (SWB) and subjective ill-being (SIB). Hence, we investigated the mediating roles of SCI and presenteeism in this study.

Methods

A total of 458 adult workers (mean age, 40.8±11.9 years; 44.1% male), who were recruited in Tokyo using convenience sampling, were analyzed in this study. The Ruminative Responses Scale, Cognitive Complaints in Bipolar Disorder Rating Assessment, Work Limitations Questionnaire 8, and Subjective Well-being Inventory were used to evaluate rumination, SCI, presenteeism, and psychological well-being (SWB and SIB), respectively. Path analyses were performed to evaluate the relations between these parameters.

Results

The path analysis indicated that rumination, SCI, and presenteeism were directly and negatively associated with SWB and SIB. Regarding indirect effects, rumination was negatively associated with SWB and SIB via SCI, presenteeism, and both SCI and presenteeism. Furthermore, SCI was negatively associated with SWB and SIB via presenteeism.

Conclusions

The results suggest that SCI and presenteeism mediate the associations of rumination with SWB and SIB in Japanese adult workers. To address the psychological well-being associated with rumination, evaluating SCI and presenteeism simultaneously may be useful in occupational mental health. This study provides key insights into the development of comprehensive intervention strategy based on the biopsychosocial perspective for worker’s psychological well-being.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13030-021-00218-x.

Always on, never done? How the mind recovers after a stressful workday?

Many workers experience their jobs as effortful or even stressful, which can result in strain. Although recovery from work would be an adaptive strategy to prevent the adverse effects of work-related strain, many workers face problems finding enough time to rest and to mentally disconnect from work during nonwork time. What goes on in workers’ minds after a stressful workday? What is it about their jobs that makes them think about their work? This special issue aims to bridge the gap between research on recovery processes mainly examined in Occupational Health Psychology, and research on work stress and working hours, often investigated in the field of Human Resource Management. We first summarize conceptual and theoretical streams from both fields of research. In the following, we discuss the contributions of the five special issue papers and conclude with key messages and directions for further research.