Can supervisor support improve daily employee well-being? Evidence of supervisor training effectiveness in a study of veteran employee emotions.

Workplace supportive supervisor interventions offer an effective, though underutilized mechanism to bolster employee well-being, which may have important benefits particularly for understudied groups such as military veterans in the civilian workforce. The present study employed a two-wave daily diary study to test the effectiveness of a supportive supervisor training on positive and negative emotions of veteran employees. Daily diaries are instrumental to understanding well-being, in that they accurately capture emotions as they are experienced without retrospective biases that reflect more global emotional assessments. Each wave (baseline and 6 months later) comprised emotion reports over 32-day periods. Thirty-five organizations were randomized into intervention and control groups; 144 veterans (91% men) participated in the daily diaries at baseline. The training significantly improved well-being facets including improvements in unactivated positive (i.e., calm) emotions at follow-up. Two significant moderation effects were also revealed for PTSD screening. For veteran employees with positive PTSD screens, the intervention functioned to reduce negative emotions. For those employees with negative PTSD screens, the intervention enhanced positive emotions. Our work highlights the benefit of workplace supervisor support to positive and negative employee mood.

Military sexual trauma among women Veterans: The buffering effect of coworker support.

Prior research has demonstrated the impact of military sexual trauma (MST) on health and well-being. However, little empirical work has been published identifying protective factors for women who have experienced MST. We examined the impact of two different forms of MST, harassment-only and assault MST, on PTSD symptoms and social functional impairment in a sample of women Veterans employed in the civilian workforce. The effects of MST were examined at three different times over a period of 9 months. We found that MST that included both harassment and assault was associated with significantly higher levels of PTSD symptoms and social functional impairment across three different time points among women Veterans employed in civilian jobs. Further, the pattern of results suggested that coworker support can buffer against these negative outcomes experienced by women who reported assault MST. Overall, findings suggest that coworker support is one critical resource for women Veterans who experienced assault MST.

PTSD Symptomology and Motivated Alcohol Use Among Military Service Members: Testing a Conditional Indirect Effect Model of Social Support.

BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and problematic alcohol use commonly co-occur among military service members. It remains critical to understand why these patterns emerge, and under what conditions. OBJECTIVES: This study examined whether PTSD symptoms (PTSS) and alcohol involvement (quantity and frequency of use, heavy episodic drinking, and alcohol problems) are indirectly related through four distinct drinking motivations. A secondary aim was to identify factors, specifically forms of social support, which buffer these associations. METHODS: Using baseline data from a randomized-controlled trial of health and well-being among civilian-employed separated service members and reservists, the present study examined these issues using a subsample of 398 current drinkers. RESULTS: Parallel mediation models revealed PTSS-alcohol consumption associations were indirect through coping and enhancement motivations. PTSS was only related to alcohol problems through coping motivations. In addition, the indirect effect of PTSS on average level of consumption via coping motives was conditional on perceived support from friends and family, whereas the indirect effect for alcohol problems was conditional only on friend support. In contrast, the indirect effects of PTSS on alcohol consumption variables (but not problems) via enhancement motives were conditional on perceived support from friends and family. Conclusions/Importance: Future research and screening efforts should attend to individual motivations for drinking as important factors related to alcohol use and problems among service members experiencing PTSS, and emphasize the importance of communication, trust, and effective supports among military and nonmilitary friends and family.

Bad Versus Good, What Matters More on the Treatment Floor? Relationships of Positive and Negative Events With Nurses' Burnout and Engagement.

Many investigators have reported the stressful aspects of nursing; fewer have focused on nurses' positive work experiences. For this study, we developed a 2 × 2 typology of positive and negative events related to the tasks of nursing work and the social and organizational context of that work: successes, supports, constraints, and conflicts. We hypothesized that positive events would predict engagement, negative events would predict burnout, and negative events would be more strongly related to both burnout and engagement. In secondary analyses of data from 310 acute care nurses who completed survey measures of workplace events at one time point and burnout and engagement measures approximately eight months later, regression results indicated that both positive and negative work events contributed to engagement, whereas only negative events were related to burnout. The results of dominance analyses established that constraints and conflicts more strongly predicted burnout than did supports and successes. Additionally, consistent with a "bad is stronger than good" perspective, the strongest predictor of engagement was lower constraints, although successes, supports, and conflicts also predicted engagement.

A Framework for Protecting and Promoting Employee Mental Health through Supervisor Supportive Behaviors.

The attention to workplace mental health is timely given extreme levels of burnout, anxiety, depression and trauma experienced by workers due to serious extraorganizational stressors - the COVID-19 pandemic, threats to climate change, and extreme social and political unrest. Workplace-based risk factors, such as high stress and low support, are contributing factors to poor mental health and suicidality (Choi, 2018; Milner et al., 2013, 2018), just as low levels of social connectedness and belonging are established risk factors for poor mental health (Joiner et al., 2009), suggesting that social support at work (e.g., from supervisors) may be a key approach to protecting and promoting employee mental health. Social connections provide numerous benefits for health outcomes and are as, or more, important to mortality as other well-known health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol consumption (Holt-Lundstad et al., 2015), and can serve as a resource or buffer against the deleterious effects of stress or strain on psychological health (Cohen & Wills, 1985). This manuscript provides an evidence-based framework for understanding how supervisor supportive behaviors can serve to protect employees against psychosocial workplace risk factors and promote social connection and belongingness protective factors related to employee mental health. We identify six theoretically-based Mental Health Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (MHSSB; i.e., emotional support, practical support, role modeling, reducing stigma, warning sign recognition, warning sign response) that can be enacted and used by supervisors and managers to protect and promote the mental health of employees. A brief overview of mental health, mental disorders, and workplace mental health is provided. This is followed by the theoretical grounding and introduction of MHSSB. Suggestions for future research and practice follow, all with the focus of developing a better understanding of the role of supervisors in protecting and promoting employee mental health in the workplace.

Multidimensionality of the PROMIS sleep disturbance 8b short form in working adult populations.

OBJECTIVES: The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System sleep disturbance measures were developed using item response theory assumptions of unidimensionality and local independence. Given that sleep health is multidimensional, we evaluate the factor structure of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System sleep disturbance 8b short form to examine whether it reflects a unidimensional or multidimensional construct. METHODS: Six full-time working adult samples were collected from civilian and military populations. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Single-factor and two-factor models were performed to evaluate the dimensionality of sleep disturbance using the 8b short form. Sleep duration and subjective health were examined as correlates of the sleep disturbance dimensions. RESULTS: Across six working adult samples, single-factor models consistently demonstrated poor fit, whereas the two-factor models, with insomnia symptoms (ie, trouble sleeping) and dissatisfaction with sleep (ie, subjective quality of sleep) dimensions demonstrated sufficient fit that was significantly better than the single-factor models. Across each sample, dissatisfaction with sleep was more strongly correlated with sleep duration and subjective health than insomnia symptoms, providing additional evidence for distinguishability between the two sleep disturbance factors. CONCLUSIONS: In working adult populations, the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System sleep disturbance 8b short form is best modeled as two distinguishable factors capturing insomnia symptoms and dissatisfaction with sleep, rather than as a unidimensional sleep disturbance construct.

Drinking to Cope in the COVID-19 Era: An Investigation Among College Students.

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in abrupt, drastic changes to daily life in many nations. Experiences within the United States have varied widely. In the State of Oregon in the early months of the pandemic protective protocols (e.g., social distancing) were comparatively high, resulting in concern for increases in loneliness and COVID-related stress. The present study of college students examined the indirect relationship of loneliness and other stressors to alcohol use, via drinking-to-cope motives. METHOD: A sample of traditional- and nontraditional-aged college students (N = 215; 68.1% female; mean age = 24.8 years) completed an online survey assessing COVID-19 experiences during shelter-in-place orders in Oregon over a 5-week period in April and May of 2020. RESULTS: Cross-sectional structural equational modeling revealed that loneliness and COVID-19 news consumption were associated with stronger coping motives, whereas rated seriousness of COVID-19 was related to weaker coping motives. Coping motives, in turn, were related to more frequent past-30-day consumption; significant indirect effects were revealed for all three predictors on drinking frequency and heavy drinking frequency, via drinking-to-cope motives. Drinking-to-cope motives were also related to greater past-30-day marijuana use. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide insight into how COVID-related stressors and associated social relationship repercussions relate to alcohol and marijuana use and drinking-to-cope motivations while sheltering in place. These results have implications for how frequent substance use and coping-motivated use can be mitigated during a crisis.

Supportive supervisor training improves family relationships among employee and spouse dyads.

Employee family relationships have been increasingly tied to job outcomes and are known to be a strong predictor of employee health and well-being. As such, taking steps toward uncovering actionable tools organizations can implement to foster improvements in family relationship quality is important and should not be overlooked in occupational health psychology interventions. Supportive supervisor training (SST) targets improving employees' ability to meet their nonwork needs; however, the focus and discussions of the implications tied to SST have largely excluded marital and parent-child relationships, spouses, and spousal outcomes. Further, mounting evidence suggests contextual factors shape when SST is most meaningful; however, more research is needed to uncover individual-level factors that may facilitate training effects. This study used a cluster-randomized controlled trial design to evaluate a worksite-based SST with a sample of 250 employees (separated military veterans) and their matched spouses. Using an intent-to-treat approach and 2-level random effects models, results demonstrated that the SST promoted couples' dyadic marital relationship quality 9 months following baseline. Additionally, when employees were under higher levels of baseline stress, couples' dyadic marital relationship quality and positive parenting both improved following the SST. Thus, an SST is beneficial for family relationships as reported by both employees and spouses, which goes beyond previously demonstrated employee health and well-being benefits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of a Total Worker Health® leadership intervention on employee well-being and functional impairment.

Although evidence has been mounting that supervisor support training interventions promote employee job, health, and well-being outcomes, there is little understanding of the mechanisms by which such interventions operate (e.g., Hammer et al., 2022; Inceoglu et al., 2018), nor about the integration of such organizational-level interventions with individual-level interventions (e.g., Lamontagne et al., 2007). Thus, the present study attempts to unpack the mechanisms through which supervisor support training interventions operate. In addition, the present study examines an integrated Total Worker Health® intervention that combines health protection in the form of supervisor support training (i.e., family supportive supervisor behaviors and supervisor support for sleep health) with a health promotion approach in the form of feedback to improve sleep health behaviors. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial drawing on a sample of 704 full-time employees, results demonstrate that the Total Worker Health intervention improves employee job well-being (i.e., increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover intentions), personal well-being (i.e., reduced stress before bedtime), and reduces personal and social functional impairment at 9 months postbaseline through employee reports of supervisors' support for sleep at 4 months postbaseline, but not through family supportive supervisor behaviors. Effects were not found for general stress or occupational functional impairment outcomes. Implications are discussed, including theoretical mechanisms by which leadership interventions affect employees, supervisor training, as well as the role of integrated organizational and individual-level interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived partner responsiveness, pain, and sleep: A dyadic study of military-connected couples.

OBJECTIVE: The health-promoting influence of supportive close relationships has been extensively documented, yet the mechanisms of this effect are still being clarified. Leading researchers have theorized that examining particular interpersonal interactions and the mediating intrapersonal processes they facilitate is the key to understanding how close relationships benefit health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of perceived partner responsiveness (PPR) on pain and sleep quality via affect in a sample of veterans and spouses (collectively called military-connected couples). METHOD: Military-connected couples (N = 162) completed 32 days of daily diaries. Mediated actor-partner interdependence models were conducted using multilevel structural equation modeling to assess the effects of PPR at baseline on the daily levels of positive affect, negative affect, pain, and sleep across the following 32 days. RESULTS: Indirect effects emerged such that affect mediated the association between PPR and pain for veterans only whereas affect mediated the association between PPR and sleep quality for both partners. Daily direct effects emerged as well; for example, positive affect was positively associated with higher sleep quality for both partners and lower pain for veterans. Partner effects were revealed such as veteran PPR was positively associated with spouse positive affect. Overall, greater PPR was associated with positive health outcomes for military-connected couples. CONCLUSION: The implications of this study include providing insights for couple-oriented interventions for preventing and treating pain and sleep problems in couples who are at high risk of these health problems such as military-connected couples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Coping-anxiety and coping-depression motives predict different daily mood-drinking relationships.

Individuals with different drinking motives show distinctive patterns of alcohol use and problems. Drinking to cope, or endorsing strong coping motives for alcohol use, has been shown to be particularly hazardous. It is important to determine the unique triggers associated with coping drinking. One limitation of past research has been the failure to contend with the complexities inherent in coping motives. Using the Modified Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (Grant, Stewart, O'Connor, Blackwell, & Conrod, 2007), which separates coping-anxiety and coping-depression motives, we investigated whether these motives moderated relationships between daily mood and subsequent drinking (statistically controlling for sex, baseline anxious and depressive symptomatology, initial alcohol problems, and additional drinking motives). College students (N=146) provided daily reports of mood and alcohol consumption online for 3 weeks. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that, as hypothesized, stronger initial coping-depression motives predicted higher daily depressed mood-alcohol consumption slopes. Also consistent with expectation, stronger initial coping-anxiety motives predicted higher anxious mood-alcohol consumption slopes. We discuss how this identification of the unique mood triggers associated with each type of coping drinking motive can provide the basis for targeted interventions.

Stress and counterproductive work behavior: multiple relationships between demands, control, and soldier indiscipline over time.

Cognitive Resource Theory (CRT) suggests that under high levels of stress, employees are more prone to committing indiscipline. As few studies have examined this relationship over time, the authors conducted a six-wave longitudinal study examining the relationship of soldiers' indiscipline with work demands and control. The study included archival data collected quarterly over 2 years from 1,701 soldiers representing 10 units in garrison (Germany and Italy), in training rotations (Grafenwoehr, Germany), and on peacekeeping deployments (Kosovo, Kuwait). No main effects were found for work overload, and the findings for the moderating effects of control were contradictory. Within each time point, as work overload increased, soldiers who felt less control committed more indiscipline, supporting CRT. Over time, however, as work overload increased, soldiers who perceived less control 6 months earlier committed less indiscipline. Additionally, the authors found reverse causal effects for control such that prior perceptions of a lack of control were associated with indiscipline and prior incidents of indiscipline with less control.

Transient Loneliness and the Perceived Provision and Receipt of Capitalization Support Within Event-Disclosure Interactions.

Research affirms that loneliness is a distressing experience with social-perceptual and behavioral consequences. Yet, little is known about consequences of transient loneliness, particularly within social interactions. The current study builds on reaffiliation motive and evolutionary models of state loneliness to investigate the effects of experimentally manipulated loneliness on individual and interaction partner perceptions during an event-sharing interaction, within 97 female dyads. Actor-partner interdependence mediation analyses revealed indirect effects for induction group (high vs. low loneliness) on positive affect, enjoyment, responsiveness, and partner positive affect, via induced state loneliness. Furthermore, state loneliness influenced actor and partner provision of responsiveness, via perceived responsiveness. Results reveal interpersonal consequences of transient loneliness, offering preliminary insight into conditions through which state perceptions of isolation may interfere with engagement in positive social interactions. Furthermore, implications for previously theorized evolutionary models of state loneliness and the reaffiliation motive are discussed.

Supervisor support training effects on veteran health and work outcomes in the civilian workplace.

This randomized controlled trial involved the development and evaluation of a supervisor support training intervention in the civilian workforce called VSST: Veteran-Supportive Supervisor Training. A theoretically based intervention in the workplace is critical to ensuring a smooth transition for service members and their families to civilian life, leading to improved psychological and physical health and improved work outcomes among service members. Thirty-five organizations were recruited and randomized to the VSST training program or a waitlist control group. Within those organizations, 497 current or former (post 9/11) service member employees were asked to complete baseline and 3- and 9-month follow-up surveys covering work, family, and health domains. The computerized 1-hr training, and the behavior tracking that followed were completed by 928 supervisors from the participating organizations. Intervention training effects were evaluated using an intent-to-treat approach, comparing outcomes for service members who were in organizations assigned to the training group versus those who were in organizations assigned to the control group. Moderation effects revealed the intervention was effective for employees who reported higher levels of supervisor and coworker support at baseline, demonstrating the importance of the organizational context and trainee readiness. The results did not show evidence of direct effects of the intervention on health and work outcomes. Qualitative data from supervisors who took the training also demonstrated the benefits of the training. This study affirms and adds to the literature on the positive effects of organizational programs that train supervisors to provide social support, thereby improving health and work outcomes of employees who receive more support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Evidence for positive mood buffering among college student drinkers.

Positive experiences play an important role in buffering the effects of negative experiences. Although this process can play out in a myriad of contexts, the college context is one of particular importance because of significant concerns about student stress levels and alcohol abuse. Building on evidence that at least some students drink in response to negative experiences, we considered the possibility that positive moods would moderate college student negative mood-drinking relationships. Using a Web-based daily process study of 118 (57% women) undergraduate student drinkers, the authors reveal that positive moods indeed buffer the effects of negative moods on student drinking, depending on the mood and drinking context. Furthermore, the buffering of ashamed mood appears to explain the buffering of other negative moods. Implications of these findings are considered in terms of the relationship between negative self-awareness and drinking to cope.

"A well spent day brings happy sleep": A dyadic study of capitalization support in military-connected couples.

Among couples, sleep is theorized to be a dyadic process, within which relationship quality exerts a large influence (Troxel, Robles, Hall, & Buysse, 2007). In turn, research has shown that capitalization, or positive-event disclosure, influences relationship quality. The benefits of capitalization, however, are contingent on the receipt of a supportive response, here referred to as capitalization support (Reis & Gable, 2003). Accordingly, the current study examined daily capitalization support, loneliness, and intimacy as predictors of sleep (i.e., quality, duration, difficulty falling asleep). Post-9/11 military veterans and their spouses (N = 159) completed a 32-day internet-based survey assessing daily relationship experiences and health. Results of an actor-partner interdependence mediation model on aggregated daily data revealed actor indirect effects of capitalization support on sleep outcomes via loneliness and intimacy, for veterans and spouses. Partner indirect effects were observed for veteran capitalization support on spouse difficulty falling asleep and sleep quality, via spouse loneliness and intimacy. Lagged actor-partner models revealed similar actor effects for daily capitalization support on loneliness (spouses) and intimacy (spouses and veterans), which in turn uniquely predicted daily sleep. Partner effects were observed for veteran capitalization support on spouse intimacy, and veteran loneliness on spouse sleep quality. Results highlight potential new avenues for interventions to promote better sleep by promoting positive relationship functioning between romantic partners. Such work is especially important for high-risk individuals, including military veterans and their spouses for whom prolonged postdeployment sleep difficulties pose particular concern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Drinking Motives and Alcohol Use: The SERVe Study of U.S. Current and Former Service Members.

OBJECTIVE: Hazardous drinking in the armed forces is a significant problem. Alcohol use motivations, known risk factors for problem drinking, have been underexplored in this population. Our study extends knowledge about drinking motives among current and former U.S. service members and provides recommendations on their utility in identifying alcohol-related problems by examining the factor structure of multidimensional drinking motives and their association to alcohol use. METHOD: Post-9/11 separated service members and current reservists were recruited from 35 Oregon employers to participate in a workplace study of supervisor support. The resulting sample (N = 509; 84% male; mean age = 39) completed a baseline assessment, which included a comprehensive drinking motives assessment. RESULTS: Drinkers comprised 88% of the sample, with a mean Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score of 5.4 (SD = 4.6); 23.9% scored 8 or more. The four-factor structure of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised, short form (DMQ-R-SF) was affirmed through confirmatory factor analysis. Internal drinking motives related to enhancement (positive) and coping (negative) were most predictive of alcohol use; coping motives were uniquely predictive of alcohol-related problems, when drinking quantity/frequency, as well as psychological distress, were controlled for. Coping motives also mediate the relationship between psychological distress and AUDIT scores. Results thus demonstrated the generalizability of the DMQ-R-SF motives measure for use with separated service members and reservists. CONCLUSIONS: Drinking motives, assessed by the DMQ-R-SF, represent reliable and important predictors of drinking and associated problems among service members. Inclusion of motivated drinking questions may enhance screening for alcohol-related problems among current and former service members.

Who benefits from family support? Work schedule and family differences.

Prior research has demonstrated the benefits of family-supportive organization perceptions (FSOP) for reducing stress, increasing satisfaction, and increasing worker commitment; however, less research has studied health outcomes or possible differences in the effects of FSOP based on worker characteristics. The present study examined relationships between FSOP and health outcomes, as well as how those relationships may depend on work schedule and family differences. Using a sample of 330 acute care nurses, the findings indicated that FSOP predicted several health and well-being outcomes obtained 9 months later. Further, the relationships between FSOP and the outcome variables depended on some work schedule and family differences. In terms of family differences, FSOP was most strongly related to life satisfaction for those who cared for dependent adults. The relationship between FSOP and health outcomes of depression, musculoskeletal pain, and physical health symptoms were generally significant for workers with dependent children, but not significant for workers with no children. Regarding schedule differences, the relationship between FSOP and life satisfaction was significant for those on nonstandard (evening/night) shifts but not significant for standard day shift workers; however, there were no differences in FSOP relationships by number of hours worked per week. The findings demonstrate that FSOP may benefit some employees more than others. Such differences need to be incorporated into both future work-family theory development and into efforts to document the effectiveness of family-supportive policies, programs, and practices.

Moving beyond the keg party: a daily process study of college student drinking motivations.

Theoretical models of alcohol consumption assert that young adults endorse multiple drinking motives, including drinking to cope with negative experiences and to enhance positive experiences. Social contacts may be important to both pathways. This study applied daily process methodology to determine the relationship between college student drinking in different contexts and daily social contacts and moods. Each afternoon for 3 weeks, 122 undergraduates (43% men, 57% women) logged onto a secure Web site during specified hours to report daily activities, moods, and contacts. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses provided support for motivational models and the context-specific nature of motivated drinking. Individual differences were revealed for each motivation. These findings highlight the importance of studying within-person processes using daily process designs.