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Testing assumptions of the widely used demand-control (DC) model in occupational psychosocial epidemiology, we investigated (a) interaction, i.e., whether the combined effect of low job control and high psychological demands on depressive symptoms was stronger than the sum of their single effects (i.e., superadditivity) and (b) whether subscales of psychological demands and job control had similar associations with depressive symptoms. Logistic longitudinal regression analyses of the 5-year cohort of the German Study of Mental Health at Work (S-MGA) 2011/12-2017 of 2212 employees were conducted. The observed combined effect of low job control and high psychological demands on depressive symptoms did not indicate interaction (RERI = -0.26, 95% CI = -0.91; 0.40). When dichotomizing subscales at the median, differential effects of subscales were not found. When dividing subscales into categories based on value ranges, differential effects for job control subscales (namely, decision authority and skill discretion) were found ( p = 0.04). This study does not support all assumptions of the DC model: (1) it corroborates previous studies not finding an interaction of psychological demands and job control; and (2) signs of differential subscale effects were found regarding job control. Too few prospective studies have been carried out regarding differential subscale effects.

Purpose: To investigate whether chronic psychosocial work stressors (low job control, high job demands, job strain, low supervisor and coworker support, job insecurity, and long work hours) are longitudinally associated with suicidal ideation in a working population., Methods: Five-hundred seventy-eight workers (aged 34-69) were chosen for this analysis from those who participated in both project 1 (2004-2006 at baseline) and project 4 (2004-2009 at follow-up) of the Midlife Development in the United States II study. The median time interval between the two projects was 26 months (range 2-62 months)., Results: About 11% of the workers reported suicidal ideation at follow-up, while 3% of them reported moderate/severe suicidal ideation at follow-up. After controlling for age, marital status, race, family history of suicide, and suicidal ideation at baseline, low skill discretion and job strain (a combination of low job control and high job demands) were associated with total suicidal ideation. After excluding those with suicidal ideation at baseline from analysis and further controlling for other work stressors, job strain was strongly associated with moderate/severe suicidal ideation: ORs, 4.29 (1.30-14.15) for quartile-based job strain and 3.77 (1.21-11.70) for median-based job strain. Long work hours (> 40 h/week vs. ≤ 40 h/week) also increased the likelihood for moderate/severe suicidal ideation: OR 4.06 (1.08-15.19)., Conclusions: Job strain and long work hours were longitudinally associated with moderate/severe suicidal ideation. Increasing job control and ensuring optimal level of work demands, including 40 h or less of work per week may be an important strategy for the prevention of suicide in working populations.

Background: Toinvestigate the effects of psychosocial work factors (PWF) and psychological distress (PD) on self-assessed work ability., Methods: This follow-up study included 7,810 individuals (55%women) with good work ability at baseline. PWFandPD (measured by GHQ-12) were assessed at baseline and work ability at 7-year follow-up. Effects of PWF and PD on work ability were analyzed by logistic regression, odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI, and by mediation analysisusing 4-way decomposition., Results: Low support was associated with poor work ability for both women and men (OR 1.78 and 1.89). For men, also low skill discretion was associated with poor work ability (OR 2.07). For both women and men, PD was associated with poor work ability (OR 3.41 and 1.84). PD did not act as an intermediate variablein the association between PWF and work ability., Conclusion: Strategies for sustainable work ability should focus on both working conditions and health factors. Am. J. Ind. Med. 60:121-130, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: This study investigates the determinants of long working hours from the perspectives of the demand-control model [Karasek, 1979] and social exchange theory [Blau, 1964; Goulder, 1960]., Objective: These two theoretical perspectives are tested to understand why individuals work longer (or shorter) hours., Methods: The hypotheses are tested with a representative sample of 1,604 employed Canadians., Results: In line with Karasek's model, the results support that high job demands are positively associated with longer work hours. The social exchange perspective would predict a positive association between skill discretion and work hours. This hypothesis was supported for individuals with a higher education degree. Finally, the results support a positive association between active jobs and longer work hours., Conclusions: Our research suggests that job demands and social exchange dynamics need to be considered together in the explanation of longer (or shorter) work hours.

Objectives: To examine the contribution of genetic factors to self-reported psychological demands (PD), skill discretion (SD) and decision authority (DA) and the possible importance of such influence on the association between these work variables and depressive symptoms., Methods: 11,543 participants aged 27-54 in the Swedish Twin Registry participated in a web survey. First of all, in multiple regressions, phenotypic associations between each one of the three work environment variables and depressive symptoms were analysed. Secondly, by means of classical twin analysis, the genetic contribution to PD, SD and DA was assessed. After this, cross-twin cross-trait correlations were computed between PD, SD and DA, on the one hand, and depressive symptom score, on the other hand., Results: The genetic contribution to self-reported PD, DS and DA ranged from 18% for decision authority to 30% for skill discretion. Cross-twin cross-trait correlations were very weak (r values < .1) and non-significant for dizygotic twins, and we lacked power to analyse the genetic architecture of the phenotypic associations using bivariate twin modelling. However, substantial genetic contribution to these associations seems unlikely. CONCLUSIONS GENETIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SELF-REPORTED WORK ENVIRONMENT SCORES WERE 18-30%., (© 2016 the Nordic Societies of Public Health.)

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to assess both the direct and indirect effects (i.e., interacting with various job demands) of skill discretion on various psychological outcomes (i.e., emotional exhaustion, intention to leave, affective well-being, and job satisfaction)., Material and Methods: Data were collected by a self-reported questionnaire in 3 hospitals in Italy. The sample consisted of 522 nurses. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses were employed., Results: The findings highlighted the direct effect of skill discretion on reducing emotional exhaustion, intention to leave, sustaining affective well-being and job satisfaction. As regards interaction effect, the analyses indicated that skill discretion moderates the negative effect of disproportionate patient expectations on all the considered psychological outcomes. On the other hand, skill discretion was found to moderate the effect of cognitive demands on turnover intention as well as the effect of quantitative demands on emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction only in conditions of low job demands., Conclusions: The study revealed some interesting findings, suggesting that skill discretion is not a resource in the pure sense, but that it also has some characteristics of a job demand. The study has relevant practical implications. Particularly, from a job design point of view, the present study suggests that job demands and skill discretion should be balanced carefully in order to sustain job well-being and worker retention., (This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.)

Introduction: The Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) model is commonly used to investigate associations between psychosocial work factors and employee health, yet research considering obesity using the JDCS model remains inconclusive., Objective: This study investigates which parts of the JDCS model are associated with measures of obesity and provides a comparison between waist circumference (higher values imply central obesity) and body mass index (BMI, higher values imply overall obesity)., Methods: Contrary to common practice, in this study the JDCS components are not reduced into composite or global scores. In light of emerging evidence that the two components of job control (skill discretion and decision authority) could have differential associations with related health outcomes, components of the JDCS model were analysed at the subscale level. A cross-sectional design with a South Australian cohort (N = 450) combined computer-assisted telephone interview data and clinic-measured height, weight and waist circumference., Results: After controlling for sex, age, household income, work hours and job nature (blue vs. white-collar), the two components of job control were the only parts of the JDCS model to hold significant associations with measures of obesity. Notably, the associations between skill discretion and waist circumference (b = -.502, p = .001), and skill discretion and BMI (b = -.163, p = .005) were negative. Conversely, the association between decision authority and waist circumference (b = .282, p = .022) was positive., Conclusion: These findings are significant since skill discretion and decision authority are typically combined into a composite measure of job control or decision latitude. Our findings suggest skill discretion and decision authority should be treated separately since combining these theoretically distinct components may conceal their differential associations with measures of obesity, masking their individual importance. Psychosocial work factors displayed stronger associations and explained greater variance in waist circumference compared with BMI, and possible reasons for this are discussed., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)