Rapid advances in digitization technologies are changing modern working conditions especially in industrial settings. Consequently, employees are confronted with new forms of human–machine interaction. Whether changes in working conditions in general, and the increasing relevance of human–machine interaction in particular, affect psychosocial working conditions, and employee's health is currently matter of debate, but empirical data are lacking. Therefore, we conducted semistructured interviews with 36 employees working in five different companies. The interviews were aimed at identifying potential stressors associated with the introduction and use of modern technologies in the manufacturing industry. The results show that stressors linked to human–machine interaction are technical problems, poor usability, low situation awareness, and increased requirements on employees' qualification. For example, technical problems such as breakdowns or slowdowns were described as a main stressor when employees were not qualified to handle these problems on their own, thus decelerating work flows and causing additional time pressure. Overall, the results show that problems in human–machine interaction, which have been observed in laboratory and nonindustrial settings, also apply to industrial work places with highly automated working conditions and are a potential source of stress. These factors should be considered in psychosocial risk assessment of work‐related stressors.

Hard-to-reach families could be recruited for a voluntary parent survey in the SEE to a satisfying degree. This illustrates the potential of the SEE for population-based basic and evaluation research.

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The response rate was adequate. Personal delivery achieved the highest response rate compared to the other stages. A parent survey at the SEE is a promising approach to access families in difficult socio-economic circumstances. Nevertheless, families with low education are still underrepresented.