Longitudinal associations of psychological resilience with mental health and functioning among military personnel: A meta-analysis of prospective studies.

BACKGROUND: Military personnel are exposed to severe stressors across different stages of their career that may have a negative impact on mental health and functioning. It is often suggested that psychological resilience plays an important role in the maintenance and/or enhancement of their mental health and functioning under these circumstances. METHOD: A systematic literature search was conducted using PsycINFO, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Web of Science, and PubMed up to August of 2019 retrieving 3,698 reports. Schmidt and Hunter meta-analytical techniques were used to assess the predictive value of psychological resilience on ten different military relevant mental health and functioning outcomes. Multivariate meta-analysis assessed the origin of heterogeneity among bivariate effect sizes. RESULTS: The effect sizes of 40 eligible peer-reviewed papers covering 40 unique samples were included in the meta-analysis. Seventy-eight percent of these studies were published after 2010 and were predominantly conducted in western countries. Bivariate effect sizes were low to medium (absolute values: 0.08 to 0.36) and multivariate effect sizes, adjusting for across studies varying sets of covariates, were low to trivial (absolute values: 0.02 to 0.08). Moderator analyses using multivariate meta-analysis on 60 bivariate effect sizes, revealed no significant effect of type of psychological resilience scale, time-lag, and career stage. CONCLUSIONS: The current review found no indications that different conceptualizations of psychological resilience across a variety of research designs, are strongly predictive of mental health and functioning among military personnel. Future directions (moderator/mediator models, stressor type specifications, and directionality) for prospective studies are discussed. Our results question the usefulness of interventions to enhance the resilience of soldiers to improve their mental health and functioning.

Predictive value of psychological resilience for mental health disturbances: A three-wave prospective study among police officers.

Psychological resilience is considered an important predictor for mental health disturbances among rescue workers. To what extent resilience predicts mental health disturbances among police officers at different stages while adjusting for existing (mental) health disturbances is unclear. Among 566 police officers resilience was operationalized by the Resilience Scale-nl and the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 questionnaires (8 scales in total). Mental health disturbances (such as depression symptoms and PTSD) and other health-related variables were assessed at baseline and follow-ups at three and nine months. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses assessed the predictive values of the 8 resilience scales for mental health disturbances at baseline (n = 566), three months (n = 566) and nine months (n = 364), adjusted for demographics, work circumstances, and health-related factors at baseline. Seven of the eight resilience scales at baseline were cross sectional associated with mental health disturbances at baseline. Only four scales were independent predictors for mental health disturbances at three months. When examining mental health disturbances at nine months, only one resilience scale remained a significant predictor. In sum, psychological resilience has a declining protective capacity for mental health disturbances over a medium time-span, specifically when corrected for baseline mental health disturbances.

Social organizational stressors and post-disaster mental health disturbances: a longitudinal study.

Social organizational stressors are well-known predictors of mental health disturbances (MHD). However, to what extent these stressors predict post-disaster MHD among employed victims hardly received scientific attention and is clearly understudied. For this purpose we examined to what extent these stressors independently predict MHD 1.5 years post-disaster over and above well-known risk factors such as disaster exposure, initial MHD and lack of general social support, life-events in the past 12 months and demographics (N=423). Exposure, social organizational stressors and support were significantly associated with almost all examined mental health disturbances on a bi-variate level. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that these stressors, i.e. problems with colleagues, independently predicted anxiety (Adj. OR=5.93), depression (Adj. OR=4.21), hostility (Adj. OR=2.85) and having two or more mental health disturbances (Adj. OR=3.39) in contrast to disaster exposure. Disaster exposure independently predicted symptoms of PTSD symptoms (Adj. OR=2.47) and agoraphobia (Adj. OR=2.15) in contrast to social organizational stressors. Importantly, levels of disaster exposure were not associated nor correlated with (levels of) social organizational stressors. Findings suggest that post-disaster mental health care programs aimed at employed affected residents, should target social organizational stressors besides disaster-related stressors and lack of general social support.

Work-related fatigue: the specific case of highly educated women in the Netherlands.

PURPOSE: This study aims to establish the prevalence of high work-related fatigue (need for recovery, NFR) among employees and to explain group differences categorized by gender, age, and education. The study particularly aims to clarify prevalence and explanatory factors in highly educated women. METHODS: In 2005 and 2006, large representative samples of 80,000 Dutch employees (net response rate 33.0%; N = 47,263) received the Netherlands working conditions survey questionnaire. First, we calculated the prevalence of high NFR for men and women with different age and education levels. The average prevalence of high NFR was 28.8% and was highest among highly educated women (35.2%) in particular those aged 50-64 years (40.3%). Second, logistic regression analyses were used to compare subgroups' NFR in relation to situational factors, working conditions, and health. Three comparisons were made: (1) highly educated women versus men; (2) highly educated versus lower educated women and; (3) older highly educated versus younger highly educated women. RESULTS: The situational, working conditions and health factors in our model did not explain the gender differences among highly educated employees (OR = 1.37; CI = 1.3-1.5, adjusted for all factors OR = 1.32; CI = 1.2-1.5). Despite that lower autonomy and workplace violence explained highly educated women's NFR, working fewer hours counterbalanced this. Time pressure in work largely explained the differences in NFR among women at different education levels (crude OR 1.44; CI = 1.4-1.5, adjusted OR 1.14; CI = 1.0-1.3). In the age comparison, lower health ratings, more adverse working conditions, and working as a teacher explained older highly educated women's high prevalence of high NFR (crude OR 1.32; CI = 1.2-1.5, adjusted OR 0.94; CI = 0.8-1.2). CONCLUSION: NFR has high prevalence in highly educated women (35.2%) in particular those aged 50-64 years (40.3%). Our model did not explain gender differences in NFR, because working fewer hours counterbalanced the effects of lower autonomy and external workplace violence. Our model, in particular time pressure, largely explained differences in NFR between women at different education levels. Age differences in the prevalence of high NFR among highly educated women's were fully explained by our model. Main factors were lower health ratings, adverse working conditions, and working as a teacher.

Work-related recovery opportunities: testing scale properties and validity in relation to health.

OBJECTIVES: Recovery opportunities allow employees to recuperate from work and diminish load effects. The aims of this study are to present a scale for measuring recovery opportunities, study its psychometric properties and its relationship with health. METHODS: Data from three Dutch worker samples were used with response rates over 60%. Sample 1 contained 6,863 employees working in a wide variety of jobs in 114 organizations. Sample 2 contained data from 992 mental health care workers from ten different organizations. Sample 3 were 436 employees working in several specialized health care clinics. RESULTS: Internal consistency of the nine-item recovery opportunities scale is good. Content validity of recovery opportunities, especially how it discriminates from other aspects of job control, is also good. Recovery opportunities show significant effects on work-related fatigue (need for recovery), sleep complaints, and health complaints, but not on future absenteeism. CONCLUSION: The recovery opportunities scale has good reliability and shows good content-, construct- and criterion-related validity in three samples of workers that differ in amount of heterogeneity.

Emotional exhaustion and mental health problems among employees doing "people work": the impact of job demands, job resources and family-to-work conflict.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the relationship between four job characteristics and family-to-work conflict on emotional exhaustion and mental health problems. METHODS: Multiple regression analyses were performed using data from 1,008 mental health care employees. Separate regression analyses were computed for high and low patient interaction jobs. RESULTS: Different job characteristics as well as family-to-work conflict were associated with emotional exhaustion and mental health problems in each job type. The relationship between family-to-work conflict and emotional exhaustion was mitigated by social support from colleagues for those who worked in low patient interaction jobs. CONCLUSION: In addition to general and specific stressors, it is worthwhile to include home-related stressors that interfere with the work domain in stress research.

Predicting group-level outcome variables from variables measured at the individual level: a latent variable multilevel model.

In multilevel modeling, one often distinguishes between macro-micro and micro-macro situations. In a macro-micro multilevel situation, a dependent variable measured at the lower level is predicted or explained by variables measured at that lower or a higher level. In a micro-macro multilevel situation, a dependent variable defined at the higher group level is predicted or explained on the basis of independent variables measured at the lower individual level. Up until now, multilevel methodology has mainly focused on macro-micro multilevel situations. In this article, a latent variable model is proposed for analyzing data from micro-macro situations. It is shown that regression analyses carried out at the aggregated level result in biased parameter estimates. A method that uses the best linear unbiased predictors of the group means is shown to yield unbiased estimates of the parameters.

The development and validation of the On-the-job Learning Styles Questionnaire for the Nursing Profession.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to develop and test the psychometric properties of the On-the-job Learning Style Questionnaire for the Nursing Profession. BACKGROUND: Although numerous questionnaires measuring learning styles have been developed, none are suitable for working environments. Existing instruments do not meet the requirements for use in workplace settings and tend to ignore the influence of different learning situations. METHOD: The questionnaire was constructed using a situation-response design, measuring learning activities in different on-the-job learning situations. Content validity was ensured by basing the questionnaire on interview studies. The questionnaire was distributed to 912 Registered Nurses working in different departments of 13 general hospitals in the Netherlands at the end of 2005. FINDINGS: The response rate was 41% (372 questionnaires). The internal factor structure of the questionnaire was partly based on the learning activities in which nurses participate and partly on the learning situation in which they are performed. The internal consistency was good. The situation-response design of the questionnaire demonstrated its added value. Construct validity was estimated using intercorrelations between the scales, and criterion validity was estimated based on the relationships of the scales with perceived professional competence. CONCLUSION: The On-the-job Learning Styles Questionnaire for the Nursing Profession is well suited to describing nurses' learning styles in on-the-job settings and has satisfactory psychometric properties.

Working overtime hours: relations with fatigue, work motivation, and the quality of work.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to better understand the relationship between overtime and mental fatigue by taking into account work motivation and the quality of overtime work and studying theoretically derived subgroups. METHODS: We conducted a survey-study among a representative sample of the Dutch full-time workforce (n = 1807). The prevalence of overtime work and the associations between overtime and job demands, job variety, decision latitude, fatigue, and work motivation was studied through descriptive statistics. We used MANCOVA (covariates: age, gender, salary level) to compare six overtime-fatigue subgroups with respect to work motivation and job characteristics. RESULTS: A total of 67% of the respondents worked overtime (mean, 3.5 hours). Overtime workers appeared to be nonfatigued, motivated workers with favorable work characteristics. MANCOVA revealed no significant overtime-fatigue interaction. CONCLUSIONS: Moderate overtime is common among Dutch workers, who seem to be happy workers with attractive jobs rather than fatigued employees.