A bidirectional examination of mental health symptoms and perceptions of leader support: Which comes first?

Leader support for psychological health (LSPH) has been identified as an important factor in the prediction of mental health symptoms among warfighters. Although research has examined the relationship between LSPH and mental health symptoms, the extent to which this relationship is bidirectional has been underexplored. Consequently, the present study examined the longitudinal relationships between perceived LSPH and mental health symptoms (depression and PTSD) among military personnel over a 5-month period. We found that perceived LSPH at Time 1 (T1) was associated with fewer mental health symptoms at Time 2 (T2); however, mental health symptoms at T1 were also associated with lower perceptions of LSPH at T2. The results differed slightly based on the type of symptoms experienced, but the relationships between perceived LSPH and symptoms did not vary based on whether soldiers had been exposed to combat. However, it is important to note that the overall sample had low combat experience. Despite this, these findings may suggest that the assumption that leader support can enhance soldier mental health may fail to consider that the symptoms themselves may also affect how leaders are perceived. Therefore, organizations such as the military should consider both directions to optimally understand the relationship between leaders and subordinate mental health.

College students' perceptions of anticipated career burnout.

Objective: Although burnout has been studied in-depth among working professionals, less is known about college students' perceptions of burnout in their future careers. In this study, we explored the prevalence and correlates of anticipated career burnout and engagement among students. Participants: Participants were 351 undergraduate students. Methods: Students completed an online survey. Results: Students planning to enter both helping and non-helping professions were worried about burnout in their chosen careers. They expected more burnout and less engagement 10 years into their career when compared to two or three years. However, students who perceived their future work as a good fit to their personal skills and abilities expected less burnout and more engagement. Conclusions: These findings can be applied to career assessment and planning so that students are able to move into careers that align with their goals, career orientation, and expectations to maximize their experience of engagement in their future work.

Understudied social influences on work-related and parental burnout: Social media-related emotions, comparisons, and the "do it all discrepancy".

Recent societal changes, including a global pandemic, have exacerbated experiences of and attention to burnout related to work and parenting. In the present study, we investigated how several social forces can act as demands and resources to impact work-related and parental burnout. We tested two primary hypotheses in a sample of women who responded to an online survey (N for analyses ranged from 2376 to 3525). We found that social comparisons, social media use, negative emotions when comparing oneself to others on social media, and a high do it all discrepancy (feeling one should be able to do it all more so than perceptions that one can) were correlated with higher reports of work-related and parental burnout. Alternatively, positive emotions when comparing oneself to others and social support were related to lower reports of work-related and parental burnout. The influence of social media use on burnout was mediated by the emotions experienced when comparing oneself to others on social media. Tests of moderation indicated that social comparisons had stronger relationships with burnout for those with higher expectations that they should be able to do it all verses can do it all. Tests of social support as a moderator of the relationships between social demands and burnout were largely non-significant. Based on these findings, we make practical suggestions for interventions to increase positive emotions experienced from social media use, and to mediate the do it all discrepancy by redefining expectations around "doing it all."

Antecedents and outcomes of daily anticipated stress and stress forecasting errors.

Stressors can have negative effects on well-being, but little is known about how an individual's inability to precisely forecast upcoming stress could be a risk factor for well-being. Antecedents and outcomes of two stress forecasting variables, anticipated stress level and underestimation errors in stress forecasting (operationalized by the residual change scores obtained by regressing the evening experienced stress on the morning anticipated stress), were investigated. In a daily diary study of 110 undergraduate students over a workweek, poor sleep quality and negative affect reported in the morning predicted a higher anticipated stress of the upcoming day. Poor sleep quality was found to be related to less underestimation errors (i.e., more overestimation). Mispredicting the daily stress level was found to predict greater health complaints and negative affect by the end of the day. Those high on trait resilience were found to make fewer underestimation errors on average. Worse emotional outcomes were associated with underestimation errors during stress forecasting than with overestimation errors. This study demonstrates that examining an individual's experience in forecasting upcoming stressors is an important area for future research in determining points of intervention to promote adaptive management of daily demands.

Psychosocial safety climate and stigma: Reporting stress-related concerns at work.

While researchers have begun to investigate theory and methods related to attenuating stress-related issues at work, one underexplored area is a barrier to reporting stress-related concerns in the workplace. Research on organizational climate broadly covers psychosocial safety at work. However, the literature has not examined other, more specific factors such as stigma towards reporting stress-related concerns in the workplace. Using a prospective design, the current study examined the distinction between psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and stigmas surrounding reporting stress that may exist in organizations. Furthermore, we investigated whether PSC would buffer against the effects of such stigmas. The findings of this study indicate that stigma and PSC are distinct and can independently predict psychosocial outcomes. The results also indicate that PSC may play a role in attenuating the effects of these stigmas on some psychosocial outcomes. Implications and potential avenues for future research in this area are discussed.

Stigma at work: The psychological costs and benefits of the pressure to work safely.

INTRODUCTION: Workplace accidents and injuries can be quite costly to both individual employees and their organizations. While safety climate (i.e., perceptions of policies and procedures related to safety that should reflect an organization's value of safety) has been established as a predictor of safety behaviors, less research has considered the possible negative pressures that could result from an environment that emphasizes safety. Though organizations may intend to create a positive safety climate, concerns about being treated differently if an employee were to be involved in a safety incident may result in unintended, but detrimental safety and health outcomes. METHOD: This study investigated the stigma associated with being involved in a safety-related incident in relation to self-reported safety behaviors and psychological health outcomes. The data were acquired through a two-wave prospective design, surveying workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; N = 528) who indicated they were exposed to at least one physical work stressor (e.g., heavy lifting; air quality; standing for extended periods) a few times each month or more. RESULTS: When controlling for safety climate, safety stigma was related to decreased safety compliance and poorer psychological health. There was a marginally significant interaction between safety stigma and safety motivation in relation to safety compliance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that experiencing pressure to work safely, for fear of being evaluated negatively, may actually come at the cost of employees' safety compliance and psychological health. Practical applications: These results may be useful in assessing and intervening to improve an organization's safety climate. Organizations should closely examine the climate for safety to ensure that positive aspects of safety are not undermined by a stigmatizing pressure associated with safety in the work environment.

Economic stress and well-being: Does population health context matter?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of county-level population health determinants in predicting individual employee reactions to economic stress. Using multilevel modeling and a population health perspective, we tested a model linking nationally representative individual-level data (N = 100,968) on exposure to economic stressors and county-level population health determinants (N = 3,026) to responses on a composite measure of individual well-being that included the facets of purpose, community, physical, and social well-being, as well as life satisfaction. Results indicate that higher income- and employment-related economic stress were significantly related to poorer well-being. Additionally, living in a county with more positive population health determinants was significantly predictive of individual well-being. Finally, the Level-1 relationship between income-related stress and well-being was significantly attenuated for individuals living in counties with more positive population health determinants. In contrast, employment-related stress had a stronger negative relationship with well-being for individuals who lived in counties with more positive population health determinants. We discuss these findings in light of conservation of resources and relative deprivation theories, as well as how they may extend the scientific foundation for evidence-based social policy and evidence-based intervention programs aimed at lessening the effects of economic stress on individual well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record