All that glitters is not gold! Job insecurity and well-being in STEM research fellows: a latent profile analysis.

Job insecurity is now one of the major stressors affecting well-being at work. In academia, researchers appear to be in the most precarious position. To explore the relationship between job insecurity and well-being at work, we analyzed a sample of research fellows belonging to STEM disciplines in Italy. Using a latent profile approach, we identified three "hidden" subgroups: "Safe & Sound"; "Safe not so Sound" and "Neither Safe or Sound." Compared to previous studies, our results show that even within a population of STEM researchers that tends to have good levels of employability and mobility, there are subgroups of people characterized by greater job insecurity and low work commitment, who suffer from emotional exhaustion and cynicism at work level, i.e., more exposed to the risk of burnout.

Work Ability and Its Correlates With Workers Aging Among Blue-Collar Workers in a Manufacturing Company: A Cross-sectional Study.

OBJECTIVE: This article assesses work ability in a sample of blue-collar workers who often perform physically demanding tasks. METHOD: The data collected resulted in 354 validly completed questionnaires from 426 participants (response rate: approximately 90%). RESULTS: In this sample, the average score on WAI of workers is 37.42 (SD = 6.62), indicating good work ability. Regression analyses revealed that work ability was significantly associated skill discretion (ß = 0.365, P = 0.001), home-work conflict (ß = -0.199, P = 0.001), and work-home conflict (ß = -0.320, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Of the psychosocial factors examined in this study, skill discretion was the most important factor associated with work ability. Therefore, it is necessary to develop measures that support this component.

The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on early childhood educational contexts and on educators' working conditions. This study aims to examine the change over time in personal contribution to workplace safety and perception of risk of infection among preschool teachers after returning to in-person work during the third wave of the pandemic (spring 2021). Teachers' perceptions of workplace safety can influence their quality of work-life and, as a consequence, the quality of service offered to children. Data were collected using two questionnaires: at T0 (January) and at T1 (May). The results showed relations between organizational and personal actions to manage risk and fear of infection at work. Concern about COVID-19 contagion decreased over time (t = 5.53, p = 0.000) and perceptions of personal contribution to workplace safety related to COVID-19 improved: t = -2.18 p = 0.031. The decrease in these concerns illustrates how perceptions of ability to manage contagion and protect workplace safety of preschool teachers improved over time, despite the stability of the pandemic context in the first half of 2021. After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study gives an account of some good practices and their perceived effectiveness in terms of safety for childhood educational contexts.

Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Spanish Burnout Inventory Among Professionals Across 17 Countries and Regions.

Studies on the prevalence of burnout in professionals in service organizations who work in direct contact with the clients or users of the organization have concluded that burnout is a serious health disorder that has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant advantage of the Spanish Burnout Inventory (SBI) over other instruments is that it provides a broader conceptualization of burnout by including feelings of guilt as a dimension of burnout to explain its development. However, the measurement invariance of the SBI across countries has not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to test the measurement invariance of the SBI among professionals across 17 countries and regions in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, and in different languages. All the countries showed a good fit to the four-factor model, except the Indian sample, which was excluded from the measurement invariance study. Using the alignment method, it was possible to verify the scalar measurement invariance of the four SBI factors across 15 countries and one Spanish region (16 samples). The comparison of estimated latent means indicates that France is the country with the lowest scores on the Enthusiasm factor and the highest scores on the negative factors (Exhaustion, Indolence, and Guilt). In contrast, the Andean countries, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, show the highest latent means on the Enthusiasm factor and the lowest means on the negative factors. These results support the validity of the SBI in the countries and regions in Europe and Latin America included in this study.

Contribution to validation of the Italian version of work ability personal radar.

BACKGROUND: Work ability (WA) is an important construct in the occupational health field. Over the years, various WA detection tools have been developed, and a new one is: Work Ability Personal Radar (WA-PR), capable of investigating all the dimensions that define the complexity of WA. The WA-PR was born in the Finnish context, however recently it has also been validated elsewhere. In light of literature on WA assessment tools, our goal is to contribute to the validation of the WA-PR in the Italian context. METHODS: Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire administered to 405 workers in the chemical industrial sector. RESULTS: Results show that the WA-PR correlate with WAI and with other constructs conceptually related to work ability: need for recovery, stress and general health. CONCLUSIONS: Data analysis confirms that the WA-PR is a useful and reliable tool for evaluating work ability in Italian context.

Exposure to Death and Bereavement: An Analysis of the Occupational and Psychological Wellbeing of Funeral and Mortuary Operators.

Confronting death and suffering represent central work-related contents in the funeral industry occupations. Despite past research evidence on the role of psychosocial risks, a positive side of the relationship with death exposure has also been highlighted. To expand research on these topics, the aim of the present study was to analyze the role of death exposure in affecting funeral and mortuary operators' wellbeing. Analysis of variance was performed on 201 questionnaires to analyze differences between work exposure. Workers always/very often exposed to death through sight or manipulation of bodies showed better psychological and occupational wellbeing compared to those not at all/very rarely committed with these tasks. Those who interacted very frequently with the bereaved showed better psychological and occupational wellbeing, compared to those who were never/very rarely committed with these relational tasks. Insights on the role of death and suffering exposure and information for occupational health practitioners are discussed.

A New Academic Quality at Work Tool (AQ@workT) to Assess the Quality of Life at Work in the Italian Academic Context.

The present study provides evidence for a valid and reliable tool, the Academic Quality at Work Tool (AQ@workT), to investigate the quality of life at work in academics within the Italian university sector. The AQ@workT was developed by the QoL@Work research team, namely a group of expert academics in the field of work and organizational psychology affiliated with the Italian Association of Psychologists. The tool is grounded in the job demands-resources model and its psychometric properties were assessed in three studies comprising a wide sample of lecturers, researchers, and professors: a pilot study (N = 120), a calibration study (N = 1084), and a validation study (N = 1481). Reliability and content, construct, and nomological validity were supported, as well as measurement invariance across work role (researchers, associate professors, and full professors) and gender. Evidence from the present study shows that the AQ@workT represents a useful and reliable tool to assist university management to enhance quality of life, to manage work-related stress, and to mitigate the potential for harm to academics, particularly during a pandemic. Future studies, such as longitudinal tests of the AQ@workT, should test predictive validity among the variables in the tool.

Return to Work during the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Study on the Role of Job Demands, Job Resources, and Personal Resources upon the Administrative Staff of Italian Public Universities.

BACKGROUND: Compared to healthcare workers and teleworkers, occupational wellbeing of employees who continued or suddenly returned to work during the COVID-19 pandemic have received less attention thus far. Using the Job Demand-Resource model as a framework, the present study aimed at evaluating the role of job demands and job and personal resources in affecting emotional exhaustion among university administrative staff. METHODS: This cross-sectional study analyzed data collected through an online questionnaire completed by 364 administrative employees that continued working in presence (WP) and 1578 that continued working blended (WB), namely, partly remotely and partly in presence. RESULTS: Among job demands, quantitative job demand overloads and perceived risk of being infected were positively associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Among job resources, colleague support was significantly associated with lower emotional exhaustion for both WB and WP, whereas supervisor support and fatigue management were salient only for WB. Among personal resources, personal contribution in managing COVID-19-related risk at work emerged as a protective factor for emotional exhaustion. CONCLUSION: Insights for the development of targeted preventive measure for a more psychologically safe and productive return to work can be derived from these results.

Do Menopausal Symptoms Affect the Relationship between Job Demands, Work Ability, and Exhaustion? Testing a Moderated Mediation Model in a Sample of Italian Administrative Employees

(1) Background: The increasing presence of employed women undergoing menopause has stimulated a growing corpus of research highlighting the complex relationship between menopause and work. Nevertheless, little is known regarding the mechanism by which menopause affects work ability and work-related well-being. In order to fill this gap in the literature, the present study examines whether and how menopausal symptoms affect the relationship between job demands, work ability, and exhaustion. (2) Method: In total, 1069 menopausal women, employed as administrative officers in a public organization, filled out a self-report questionnaire. A moderated mediation analysis was carried out using the latent moderated structural (LMS) equation. (3) Findings: The findings of this analysis indicate that the indirect effect of work ability on the relationship between job demands and exhaustion is influenced by the exacerbating effect of menopausal symptoms on the relationship between job demands and work ability. Moreover, the conditional effect confirmed that women with high menopausal symptoms receive more exposure to the negative effects of job demands on work ability compared to women with low menopausal symptoms. (4) Conclusion: The present findings may help in addressing interventions to prevent negative outcomes for menopausal women and their organizations.

The perceived risk of being infected at work: An application of the job demands-resources model to workplace safety during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Safety at work, both physical and psychological, plays a central role for workers and organizations during the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. Building on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model applied to safety at work, in this study we proposed that the perceived risk of being infected with COVID-19 at work can be conceptualized as a job demand (i.e., a risk factor for work-related stress), whereas those characteristics of the job (physical and psychosocial) that help workers to reduce or manage this risk can be conceived as job resources (i.e., protective factors). We hypothesized that the perceived risk of being infected at work is positively associated with emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, we hypothesized that job resources, in terms of safety systems, communication, decision-making, situational awareness, fatigue management, and participation in decision-making, are negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. We also hypothesized that job resources buffer the association between perceived risk and emotional exhaustion. Overall, 358 workers (meanage = 36.3±12.2 years) completed a self-report questionnaire, and the hypothesized relationships were tested using moderated multiple regression. Results largely supported our predictions. The perceived risk of being infected at work was positively associated with emotional exhaustion, whereas all the job resources were negatively associated with it. Furthermore, safety systems, communication, decision-making, and participation in decision-making buffered the relationship between the perceived risk of being infected at work and emotional exhaustion. In a perspective of prevention and health promotion, this study suggested that organizations should reduce the potential risk of being infected at work, whenever possible. At same time, those characteristics of the job that can help workers to reduce or manage the risk of infection should be strengthened.

Funeral and Mortuary Operators: The Role of Stigma, Incivility, Work Meaningfulness and Work-Family Relation to Explain Occupational Burnout.

The funeral and mortuary sector, including funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoria, is a largely neglected sector in regard to the study of occupational factors that can affect the quality of working life. The present study aimed at overcoming this gap by investigating job demands and resources that may affect burnout levels. Data were collected through a self-report questionnaire involving funeral industry employees (N = 229) from cemetery, morgues, crematoria and funeral agencies in a Northern Italian region. The survey was cross-sectional and non-randomized. Results reveal that among job demands, stigma consciousness, supervisor incivility and work-to-family negative spillover significantly affect levels of burnout, whereas meaningfulness of work and family-to-work positive spillover may represent relevant resources to counter the onset of burnout. The results of this study contribute to new insights into the psychosocial working conditions that affect occupational wellbeing among the funeral industry sector by also giving insight into how to promote resources to prevent burnout.

Working during a Pandemic between the Risk of Being Infected and/or the Risks Related to Social Distancing: First Validation of the SAPH@W Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic led the worldwide healthcare system to a severe crisis in which personnel paid the major costs. Many studies were promptly dedicated to the physical and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 exposure among healthcare employees, whereas the research on the other working populations has been substantially ignored. To bridge the current lack of knowledge about safe behaviors related to the risk of COVID-19 contagion at work, the aim of the study was to validate a new tool, the SAPH@W (Safety at Work), to assess workers' perceptions of safety. METHODS: A total of 1085 participants, employed in several organizations sited across areas with different levels of risk of contagion, completed an online questionnaire. To test the SAPH@W validity and measurement invariance, the research sample was randomly divided in two. RESULTS: In the first sub-sample, Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated the adequacy of the SAPH@W factorial structure. In the second sub-sample, multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that the SAPH@W was invariant across gender, ecological risk level, and type of occupation (in-person vs. remote working). CONCLUSIONS: The study evidenced the psychometric properties of the SAPH@W, a brief tool to monitor workers' experiences and safety perceptions regarding the COVID-19 risk in any organisational setting.

How workers' emotional dissonance explains the association between customers' relations, burnout and health in an Italian supermarket chain.

INTRODUCTION: Dealing with customers has increasingly became a risk factor that organisations should be aware of. Having to deal with difficult customers, pupils, patients it has been found to be the second most frequent reported risk factor in the recent 2019 ESENER survey (61%, up from 58%), just after repetitive hand or arm movements. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study is to explore the relationship between negative relations with customers and its association with employees' burnout and general health. METHODS: Data were collected using an anonymous, self-report questionnaire employed in an Italian company working in the large-scale retail sector. The sample was composed of 610 employees (70% women) working in 28 supermarkets. RESULTS: Results showed that negative customer relations were associated to higher levels of emotional dissonance (b = .25; p = .000), which in turn was associated with higher levels of burnout (b = .72; p = .017) and consequently to higher levels of poor general health (b = .03; p = .000). CONCLUSION: This study contributed to the current understanding of how negative relationship with clients could trigger a health impairment process which could lead to higher levels of burnout and poorer general health in employees. Findings suggest that organizations whose employees' work activities are characterized by a daily contact with customers should implement interventions such as training activities in order to enhance the employees' skills in dealing with custumers, for example on how to manage emotions at work.

Violence exposure and burnout in healthcare sector: mediating role of work ability.

BACKGROUND: One of the most difficult problems faced by health care professionals is experiencing verbal and physical abuse from patients and their family members. Some studies have shown that health care workers, especially nurses, are up to 16 times more likely to be subject to violence than other workers. AIMS: The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between exposure to violence, work ability and burnout. METHODS: Data were collected through a questionnaire to investigate health care workers' exposure to violence (Violent Incident Form), burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory) and work ability (Work Ability Index). A sample of 300 nurses was obtained for the study. RESULTS: A total of 36% of nurses indicated that they had been a victim of violence in the past 12 months. The data analysis highlighted highly significant differences in work ability, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization between health care workers who had been victims of violence and those who had not experienced violence. Finally, work ability was shown to have a mediating effect on emotional exhaustion (indirect effect: b = 2.7, BCa CI: 1.37-4.33) and depersonalization (indirect effect: b = 1.1, BCa CI: 0.48-1.87). DISCUSSION: This study is one of the first to consider the mediation effect of work ability between workplace violence experienced and burnout in the healthcare sector; it reports the complexity and severity of the consequences of workplace violence in this sector.

[Orthorexia Nervosa between growing attention to food quality and eating disorders: diagnostic criteria and evaluation tools]. / L'ortoressia nervosa tra attenzione per la qualità dell'alimentazione e disturbi alimentari: criteri diagnostici e strumenti di valutazione.

The literature on Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) rapidly grew in recent years, highlighting the perverse and paradoxical aspects of healthy eating. In this review, authors examine the different meanings of ON, the proposals of diagnostic criteria and evaluation tools, and the most promising research tracks that, if developed, will allow to fully understand the nature of ON, and therefore identify strategy for secondary and primary prevention.

Fostering Work Ability Among Menopausal Women. Does Any Work-Related Psychosocial Factor Help?

INTRODUCTION: Due to the aging workforce, it will become even more common for organizations to count, among their employees, women who are dealing with menopause. To date, no knowledge is available regarding the work ability among menopausal women. With this view, the aim of the present study was to identify work-related psychosocial factors associated with work ability in a sample of menopausal working women. METHODS: A self-report questionnaire was administered to 1069 menopausal women employed as administrative officers in the Italian public sector. The study design was cross-sectional. RESULTS: Work ability was found to be negatively associated with family-work conflict (ß = -0.21, p = 0.0001) and positively associated with health-oriented organizational climate (ß = 0.12, p = 0.0001), job autonomy (ß = 0.08, p= 0.006), and skill discretion (ß = 0.08, p= 0.048). Conversely, work ability did not show significant associations with job demands, flexible working hours, and social support. DISCUSSION: From a practical point of view, our study identifies various areas of intervention that could foster job sustainability during menopause. In particular, our findings suggest that, to improve women's job sustainability across their entire work-life span, it may be crucial to develop organizational policies, training, and activities specifically dedicated to sustaining menopausal women's well-being.

I'll Be a Caregiver-Employee: Aging of the Workforce and Family-to-Work Conflicts.

BACKGROUND: The double role of caregiver-employee (CE) defines those workers who simultaneously serve as an informal, unpaid care provider for sick, disabled, or elderly relatives, and it is a situation that is on the increase in most western countries. Providing informal caregiving can lead to detrimental effects on emotional well-being and several physical and psychological diseases (e.g., caregiver-burden). CEs can suffer double discomfort (at work and at home), but, first of all, they can be exposed to a high level of home-to-work conflict (HWI). In this study, we analyzed the CE phenomenon in a typical Italian public company, where the mean age of workers is particularly high. METHODS: An online questionnaire related to the perception of HWI, well-being, and discomfort at work (depression, emotional exhaustion, job engagement) in relation to the family load (none, parents with <12 children to care for, caregiver to other adults, or children and older adults to care for/old/children to care for employees) was answered by 1704 administrative workers. RESULTS: More than 20% of our sample was included in the elder caregiver condition or in the double role or "sandwiched" condition with older adults and children to care for. The family load changed significantly between the different age groups: for workers aged between 55 and 64 years, the percentage was nearly 27%. CEs had higher levels of HWI and of personal and job discomfort and lower levels of engagement, when compared with non-CEs. Having "only" older adults to care for (the typical CE condition) was associated with having the most negative results. CONCLUSION: This study confirms and underlines the increasing number of CEs in western organizations and their higher levels of HWI, work disengagement, emotional exhaustion, and depression. As the general population and workforce experience increased "graying," and many more workers become CEs out of necessity, stable caregiver-friendly workplace policies (CFWPs) should be developed.

Corrigendum: Organizational Climate and Teachers' Morale: Developing a Specific Tool for the School Context - A Research Project in Italy.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02132.].

The relationship between menopausal symptoms and burnout. A cross-sectional study among nurses.

BACKGROUND: Despite the growing presence of menopausal women in workplaces, studies aimed at exploring the link between menopausal symptoms and job well-being are scarce. In the interest of addressing this gap, the present study aimed to explore whether menopausal symptoms might contribute to increased levels of burnout and whether this relationship can be moderated by social or personal resources. METHOD: The study design was cross-sectional and non-randomized. Ninety-four menopausal nurses completed a self-report questionnaire including scales aimed at measuring menopausal symptoms, burnout, social (i.e., support from superiors and colleagues) and personal (i.e., self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) resources. Moderated regression analyses were performed to test study hypotheses. RESULTS: Whereas menopausal symptoms were associated significantly with emotional exhaustion, no social or personal resources were found to moderate this relationship. Regarding depersonalization, our study indicated that it was affected by menopausal symptoms only among nurses who reported low social support (from superiors and colleagues), optimism, and resilience. CONCLUSION: The present study highlights the importance of organizations that employ a growing number of menopausal women to seek solutions at the individual and social levels that help these women deal with their menopausal transition while working.

Organizational Climate and Teachers' Morale: Developing a Specific Tool for the School Context - A Research Project in Italy.

The school context is exposed to several demanding factors relating to student and family needs and external evaluative processes of students' learning and process outcomes, such as abilities in planning training courses and a learning environment. However, there is a need to develop tools that adequately support schools in making self-assessment evaluations of the internal organizational climate and teacher morale (TM). The present study proposes an Italian version of the School Organizational Health Questionnaire (SOHQ), developed by Hart et al. (2000). An Italian version of the SOHQ was deployed to 9 public primary schools in the north of Italy, and 325 cases were eventually retained as being valid for the analysis. Using confirmatory factor analysis, results highlight that a 56-item version is model fit and presents satisfactory psychometric properties, demonstrating the suitability of a latent structure composed of 12 intercorrelated factors. The present study gives further insight into increasing the use of self-assessment tools in the development of good practices and the monitoring of teacher morale within the school context.