Occupational gender roles in relation to workplace stress, allostatic load, and mental health of psychiatric hospital workers

Kerr, Philippe; Torre, Margot Barbosa Da; Giguère, Charles–Édouard; Lupien, Sonia J.; Juster, Robert‐Paul

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110352

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Gender differences in perceived working conditions were generally larger than sex differences, highlighting the importance of including gender and sex as separate constructs in studies on working conditions. This finding is in line with findings from a recent study by Kerr et al [14]. In our study, gender was operationalised as gender roles, including income and educational level.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Gender roles often categorise and define individuals within the family, the labour force, or the educational system" (10, p.3). The distinction between sex and gender is important because sex and gender may have a different effect on health and vulnerability to stressors [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women usually have jobs with more psychosocial demands, have less autonomy, and have less variation in their tasks compared to men [8,18]. There is some evidence that gender (as measured by gender roles) differences in (perceived) working conditions are larger than sex differences [14]. Poor working conditions, such as low job control, high job demands, and low social support, have been found to be associated with poor mental health [19][20][21][22][23].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Sex and gender differences in depressive symptoms in older workers: the role of working conditions

et al. 2022

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Background Female older workers generally leave the work force earlier than men. Depressive symptoms are a risk factor of early work exit and are more common in women. To extend working lives, pathways leading to these sex inequalities need to be identified. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of sex and gender with depressive symptoms in older workers, and the role of working conditions in this association. Methods We used data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (2012–2013/2015–2016, n = 313). Our outcome was depressive symptoms, measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. We included biological sex, a gender index ranging from masculine to feminine (consisting of six items measuring gender roles: working hours, income, occupation segregation, education, informal caregiving, time spent on household chores), and working conditions (physical demands, psychosocial demands, cognitive demands, autonomy, task variation, social support) in our models. We examined the differential vulnerability hypothesis, i.e., sex/gender moderates the association between working conditions and depressive symptoms, and the differential exposure hypothesis, i.e., working conditions mediate the association between sex/gender and depressive symptoms. Results Female sex and feminine gender were both associated with more depressive symptoms. The differential vulnerability hypothesis was not supported by our results. We did find that femininity was negatively associated with autonomy and task variation. In turn, these working conditions were associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Thus, autonomy and task variation partially mediated the association between gender and depressive symptoms, supporting the differential exposure hypothesis. Mediation effects for sex inequalities were not significant. Conclusions Older female workers and older feminine workers have more depressive symptoms than their male/masculine counterparts. Autonomy and task variation appeared to be important in – partially – explaining gender differences in depressive symptoms rather than sex differences. By improving these conditions, gender inequality in mental health among older workers can be reduced, so that both genders have similar chances to reach the retirement age in good mental health.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Sex and gender differences in depressive symptoms in older workers: the role of working conditions

et al. 2022

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“…Occupational gender roles and age show a significant relation to workplace stress and mental health in workers ( Kerr et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, job tenure is associated with symptoms of musculoskeletal disorder ( Warren et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linear and non-linear relationships between job demands-resources and psychological and physical symptoms of service sector employees. When is the midpoint a good choice?

Gamero¹,

Arenas²,

Medina³

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Related to the research of working conditions, the link between organizational factors and health was traditionally analyzed using linear models. However, the literature analysis suggests inconsistencies in linear models predicting workers’ health levels. To clarify this issue, this exploratory research compares the linear and non-linear relationships between job demands-resources (task complexity, time pressure, contact with users, and job autonomy), and the psychological and physical symptoms of employees working in the main five service subsectors: commerce, horeca (hotels, restaurants, and cafés), public administration, education, and healthcare. With a final sample of 4,047 participants, our study data were extracted from the II Andalusian Working Conditions Survey. Following the theoretical framework of JD-R Model and considering the Vitamin Model theoretical approach for non-linear relationships, our results showed that there were significant differences among the five subsectors analyzed regarding the linear and non-linear relationships between job demands-resources and psychological and physical symptoms of employees. Furthermore, task complexity generated non-linear relationships in higher proportion than time pressure and contact with users. Likewise, non-linear relationships found showed a U-shape. Moreover, the findings of non-linear relationships suggested that medium levels of task complexity should not be exceeded to avoid further negative impact on psychological and physical symptoms for service sector employees, preserving their health. Finally, some general practical implications of work environment interventions are suggested.

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“…Theoretical accounts speak more to why intimate couples' health concordance occurs, but much less to how and why sex/ gender differences may arise over time. Future research should continue to examine important theoretical mechanisms such as couples' (mis)match in health behaviors and psychosocial attributes such as gender role attitudes, gender-based expressions of emotions, and coping strategies to delineate potential sex/gender difference in the persistence of spousal physiological influence over time to inform the scholarship both theoretically and empirically (46,73).…”

Section: Original Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Spousal Synchrony in Allostatic Load Among Older Couples in the Health and Retirement Study

Juster

2023

Psychosom Med

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Objectives Using national data from the Health and Retirement Study, this study examined interpartner associations of allostatic load (AL) among 2,338 different-sex couples (N = 4,676 individuals) over a four-year period among older American couples from a dyadic approach. Methods AL was indexed by immune (c-reactive protein), metabolic (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol and glycosylated hemoglobin), renal (cystatin C), cardiovascular (systolic and diastolic blood pressures, pulse rate) and anthropometric (waist and body mass index) parameters using the traditional count-based formulation. Actor-partner interdependence models were used to assess interpartner concordance in AL. Results Higher partners’ baseline AL was significantly associated with higher own AL both at baseline and four years later. Additionally, partners’ baseline AL was significantly associated with own AL four years later only in women but not men. Lastly, we did not observe any significant moderating effect of relationship quality on interpartner AL concordance. Conclusions The findings suggest that older couples’ physiological responses to environmental stress are not only linked concurrently, but the associations persist after four years, alluding to long-term impacts of couples’ psychosocial context and physiology on each other.

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Occupational gender roles in relation to workplace stress, allostatic load, and mental health of psychiatric hospital workers

Cited by 13 publications

References 55 publications

Sex and gender differences in depressive symptoms in older workers: the role of working conditions

Sex and gender differences in depressive symptoms in older workers: the role of working conditions

Linear and non-linear relationships between job demands-resources and psychological and physical symptoms of service sector employees. When is the midpoint a good choice?

Spousal Synchrony in Allostatic Load Among Older Couples in the Health and Retirement Study

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