Theoretical exposition or development – Work, Stress, and Health

Total Worker Health Participatory Action Research to Impact Health of Workers in Precarious Jobs

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The University of Illinois Chicago Center for Healthy Work (CHW) is a NIOSH-funded Center for Excellence for Total Worker Health? (TWH) that implements participatory action research by engaging communities to understand how precarious work impacts residents, building the skills of public health and labor to collaboratively identify pathways to healthy work, and working with local leaders to leverage resources to implement TWH initiatives. The CHW utilizes PAR through the Greater Lawndale Healthy Work project and Healthy Communities through Healthy Work to embrace social justice and health equity as a research orientation that is better suited to addressing complex health issues, like precarious work and OSH disparities, through TWH.

Examining commuting experiences with a boundary theory lens: How work/home boundary management influences recovery via rumination during the commute

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

As the commute is the transition phase between work and home, this study examined whether one?s work/home boundary management contributes to whether they suffer versus benefit from their commute home from work. Using a daily diary design, this study showed that maintaining a weak family-to-work boundary hinders in-commute recovery from work and points to affective rumination during the commute home as the linking mechanism. These findings suggest that a stronger work/home boundary facilitates recovery from work during the commute home and protects commuters from harmful outcomes stemming from affective rumination.

Healthy Workplace Design for Hybrid Work Arrangements

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

COVID-19 has taught us a great deal about employees? basic needs and the importance of addressing these needs during and after COVID. A ?hybrid? work arrangement has emerged as the strategic choice for businesses to address employees? concerns about returning to the workplace and maintaining their autonomy regarding when and where they work. This study evaluates the degree to which workplace designs under a hybrid work arrangement promote employee health, well-being, and productivity, and offers recommendations for improvement.

An Intersectional Relational Class Framework for Occupational Health Equity Research

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

Workers with multiple minoritized social locations (or socially constructed identities and positions) are more apt to experience inequitable conditions of the work and nonwork environments that affect their health and wellbeing. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce an intersectional relational class framework and discuss how such a framework can help occupational health and safety (OHS) researchers and professionals better understand the relations between systems of power (e.g., racism, sexism, classism), the work and nonwork environments, and occupational health (OH) inequities. This intersectional relational class framework pushes forward the science and disciplines of OHS to comprehensively examine systems of power and its relation to differential OH outcomes through the interplay of the work and nonwork environments. New knowledge guided by this framework will lay the foundation for future OH equity research and practice.

Modeling social comparison in the stress process: an examination of nurses

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

The present study focused on the potential impact of social comparison on workers? interpretations of demanding workplace events and their confidence in coping with stress. A sample of 139 healthcare workers provided personal data (via a self-report survey) in relation to five types of stressors common to the field of nursing, along with relevant information about how they perceive their coworkers? responses to said stressors. Support was found for the hypothesized model through path analysis. Workers reported higher levels of stress when they were 1) frequently exposed to demanding events, and 2) when they perceived high stress in their coworkers; workers felt more prepared to cope when they reported high familiarity with their coworkers? coping tactics; but workers also felt less confident in their coping when they personally felt greater stress.

A theoretical framework to bridge the gap between policy and practice in promoting mental health in the workplace.

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Evidence indicates a gap between macro-level initiatives to manage psychosocial risks and their implementation at the organisational level. A literature review across different social sciences disciplines was conducted, evidencing the need to integrate social pressures with organisational variables to transform psychosocial risk management and mental health promotion into a sustainable organisational practice.

Identifying and examining the impact of worker demographics on worker safety, health, and well-being: Advancing the NORA for Healthy Work Design and Well-Being

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Gaps in the literature on the effects of demographic characteristics on worker safety, health, and well-being continue to persist. The National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) for Healthy Work Design and Well-Being (HWD) identifies those gaps, and the HWD Council has developed a plan for how to address the gaps and advance the Agenda. This poster not only aims to make its audience aware of the NORA for HWD research gaps related to understanding the different effects of demographic characteristics on worker safety, health, and well-being, but also to initiate the process of connecting potential research partners and stakeholders.

Understanding the importance of meaning and motivation in medicine: Preliminary findings from a mixed-method study of resilient healthcare workers

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

In this presentation of baseline data from a longitudinal, mixed-method study of resilient healthcare workers, we provide an overview of the larger study, details about our targeted sample, and evidence that individual-level resilience should not be conceptualized or studied as a singular trait. We also demonstrate that different health-related outcomes are associated with different resilience-related individual characteristics. Further analyses of these data and the additional longitudinal and interview data we have also gathered will help us to understand factors that promote or impede resilience, including positive motivation and meaning experiences at and about work over time. Ultimately, we hope to use information from this study to develop pragmatic educational resources to help current and future HW better manage the challenging realities of their work.

The Relation of the Occupational Depression Inventory to Commonly Used Measures of Workplace Burnout

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

In a study of the relation of the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI), the first-of-its-kind measure of work-related depression, to the Maslach Burnout Inventory?s (MBI) subscales and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), we found that the emotional exhaustion (EE) component of the MBI (in a French schoolteacher sample) and the CBI (in a New Zealand teacher sample) are highly correlated with the ODI (rho and r > .80), higher than the correlations of EE with the other MBI subscales. We also found that individuals who met criteria for the ODI?s algorithmically-generated provisional diagnoses of depression have highly elevated EE and CBI scores. Exploratory structural equation modeling bifactor analyses indicated that the EE, CBI, and ODI items measure the same construct. We underline applications for occupational health specialists of the ODI as a practical replacement of burnout measures.