Anxiety and watching the war in Ukraine.

On 24 February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. Millions of people tuned into social media to watch the war. Media exposure to disasters and large-scale violence can precipitate anxiety resulting in intrusive thoughts. This research investigates factors related to anxiety while watching the war. Since the war began during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, threat from COVID-19 is seen as a predictor of anxiety when watching the war. A theoretical model is put forward where the outcome was anxiety when watching the war, and predictors were self-reported interference of watching the war with one's studies or work, gender, worry about the war, self-efficacy and coronavirus threat. Data were collected online with independent samples of university students from two European countries close to Ukraine, Germany (n = 348) and Finland (n = 228), who filled out an anonymous questionnaire. Path analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings showed that the model was an acceptable fit to the data in each sample, and standardised regression coefficients indicated that anxiety, when watching the war, increased with interference, war worry and coronavirus threat, and decreased with self-efficacy. Women reported more anxiety when watching the war than men. Implications of the results are discussed.

Do Sleep Problems Explain the Association Between Work Stress and the Trajectories of Work Ability From Midlife to Pensionable Age?

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether mid-life work stress, defined as job strain and effort-reward imbalance (ERI), predicts work ability trajectories observed 12 years preceding the individual pensionable age. In addition, the role of sleep problems as a mediator in these associations was examined. METHODS: Survey data were collected from 2707 Finnish municipal employees. RESULTS: Identified work ability trajectories were "stable excellent," "stable good," "moderate," and "low decreasing." Baseline job strain and ERI were associated with a greater likelihood of belonging to impaired work ability trajectories when compared with "stable good" trajectory. Baseline sleep problems explained the association of job strain by 38% and of ERI by 54%. CONCLUSIONS: Mid-life work stress is associated with work ability in the last years preceding pensionable age. Sleep problems might be a potential mediator in these associations.

Mediation of cognitive interference on depression during the Russo-Ukrainian war in three national samples.

Media coverage of large-scale violence can result in interfering thoughts and depression. This research investigates the relationship between interfering thoughts and depression when watching the Russo-Ukrainian war. In the theoretical model, the more the war is watched, the more it is related to interfering thoughts, which are related to depression. With the ongoing pandemic, depression, when watching the war, was related to coronavirus threat. Data was collected online from April to June, 2022, with university students in Germany, Finland, and Canada (N = 865). Path analysis results in each sample showed that the model fit the data with sample-specific modification indices. There was full mediation of watching the war by interference on depression, indicating that it is not watching the war, per se, but rather its relationship to cognitive interference, that is associated with depression. Denial and coronavirus threat were positively related to depression. Implications for research and student support are considered.

Components of Stress and Their Associations With Sleep Problems: A Cohort Study of Older Employees.

OBJECTIVE: To identify latent components from among 13 work and nonwork stressors and to examine whether the accumulation of stress factors within these components was associated with sleep problems. METHODS: A cohort of older employees (n = 2771 individuals, n = 3921 person-observations) responded to at least two surveys. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify latent components. Analysis of variance was used to examine their associations with sleep. RESULTS: The components were: "Physical workload and shift work," "Psychosocial workload," "Social and environmental nonwork adversity," and "Life event- and health-related nonwork adversity." They were consistently associated with sleep problems, except for "Physical workload and shift work." "Social and environmental nonwork adversity" was associated with sleep problems at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Clusters of work- and nonwork-related stressors were identified, and their accumulation was associated with sleep problems among older employees.

Role clarity, role conflict, and vitality at work: The role of the basic needs.

This study aimed to provide new information on the relationships between vitality at work and role clarity, role conflict, and psychological basic need satisfaction. Participants of the cross-sectional study were 110 employees in a preventive intervention program. Associations between the focal constructs were examined with regression and bootstrapping analyses. The results suggest that the role clarity is associated with subjective vitality at work through higher autonomy and higher competence, and that role conflict is negatively associated with subjective vitality at work through lower autonomy and lower relatedness. Additionally, an interaction between the role characteristics was observed, suggesting that the strength of the association between role clarity and competence, and the strength of the indirect association between role clarity and vitality through competence may vary depending on the level of role conflict. The findings are consistent with the notion that that managers and co-workers may affect the opportunities of individuals to achieve need satisfaction and feel energized by delineating and negotiating role-related factors at work. Need satisfaction, in turn, is an antecedent of well-being and motivation. Employees should feel able to clarify role ambiguities with their supervisor or co-workers and thus reduce the role conflicts imposed by the expectations of various stakeholders. Limitations of the study include the self-rating methodology, cross-sectional design, and properties of the sample restricting generalizability.

Pain self-efficacy moderates the association between pain and somatization in a community sample.

Background and aims Pain is a common condition. However, only a minority of people experiencing pain develop a chronic pain problem. Factors such as somatization, pain self-efficacy and lack of psychological well-being affect the risk of pain chronicity and pain-related disability. However, research on protective pain-related psychological factors in populations without chronic pain is scarce. We aim to examine if pain self-efficacy attenuates the associations between pain and both anxiety and somatization in a community sample. Methods In a cross-sectional study, 211 participants from a community sample responded to measures of average pain over the last 3 months, anxiety, somatization, and pain self-efficacy. The possibility of moderation effects were tested with a series of regression analyses. Results The association between pain and anxiety was not moderated by pain self-efficacy. In contrast, pain self-efficacy moderated the relation of pain and somatization. The interaction explained 3% of the variance in somatization, in addition to the independent effects of pain and self-efficacy (F(1,207)=5.65, p<0.025). Among those in the bottom quartile of pain self-efficacy, the association between pain and somatization was moderate or strong (r=0.62, p<0.01), whereas for those in the top quartile the association was modest (r=0.11, p>0.05). Conclusions The results are partly consistent with the hypothesis that pain self-efficacy attenuates the associations between pain and pain chronification risk factors in a relatively healthy community sample. Should further preferably longitudinal studies replicate the findings, the role pain self-efficacy as a protective factor needs to be explicated in theoretical models of pain chronification. Implications The findings are consistent with the notion that clinicians should promote patient's pain self-efficacy in acute and sub-acute pain conditions especially when the individual is prone to somatization. However, more prominent clinical implications require studies with longitudinal designs.