Validating the Demand Control Support Questionnaire among white-collar employees in Switzerland and the United States

Background: The Demand Control Support Questionnaire (DCSQ) is an established self-reported tool to measure a stressful work environment. Validated German and English versions are however currently missing. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the psychometric properties of German and English versions of the DCSQ among white-collar employees in Switzerland and the US. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 499 employees in Switzerland and 411 in the US, respectively. The 17-item DCSQ with three scales assessed psychosocial stress at work (psychological demands, decision latitude, and social support at work). Depressive symptoms were measured by the 2-item Patient Health Questionnaire. Cronbach’s α and item-total correlations tested the scale reliability (internal consistency). Construct validity of the questionnaire was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Logistic regressions estimated associations of each scale and job strain with depressive symptoms (criterion validity). Results: In both samples, all DCSQ scales presented satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s α ≥ 0.72; item-total correlations ≥ 0.33), and EFA showed the 17 items loading on three factors, which is in line with the theoretically assumed structure of the DCSQ construct. Moreover, all three scales as well as high job strain were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. The associations were stronger in the US sample. Conclusions: The German and the English versions of the DCSQ seem to be reliable and valid instruments to measure psychosocial stress based on the job demand-control-support model in the workplace of white-collar employees in Switzerland and the US

Exploring women's fear of childbirth in a high maternal mortality setting on the Arabian Peninsula

Background. Few studies from low-income countries have addressed women's fear of childbirth (FOC) although likely to affect women during both pregnancy and childbirth. The aim of this study was to explore FOC in a high maternal mortality setting in the Arab region, Yemen. Methods. A multi-stage (stratified–purposive–random) sampling process was used. We interviewed 220 women with childbirth experience in urban/rural Yemen. Answers to the question ‘Were you afraid of giving birth?’ were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results. Women perceived childbirth as a place of danger. Fear of death and childbirth complications stemming from previous traumatic childbirth and traumatic experience in the community was rampant. Husbands’ and in-laws’ disappointment in a girl infant constituted a strong sociocultural component of FOC. Women's perception of living in tension ‘between worlds’ of tradition and modernity reinforced fear of institutional childbirth. Women without FOC gave reasons of faith, social belonging and trust in either traditional or modern childbirth practice, past positive experience of childbirth and the desire for social status associated with children. Conclusions. The numerous maternal and infant deaths have a strong impact on women's FOC. Antenatal care has an important role in reducing fear including that of institutional childbirth and in strengthening a couple in welcoming a female infant. Staff should be sensitized to the fears of both husband and wife and women be allowed support during childbirth. Within the scope of the Millennium Development Goals and strengthening of reproductive mental health programs, FOC urgently needs to be addressed.Save the ChildrenSwedish InstituteKarolinska InstitutetPublishe

Sex differences in reported and objectively measured sleep in COPD.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.The aim was to assess and compare reported sleep disturbances and objectively measured sleep in men and women with COPD compared with controls and also explore sex differences.A total of 96 patients with COPD and 90 age- and sex-matched controls answered a sleep questionnaire, underwent ambulatory polysomnography, a post-bronchodilatory spirometry, and blood sampling.Of the patients with COPD, 51% reported sleep disturbances as compared with 31% in controls (P=0.008). Sleep disturbances were significantly more prevalent in males with COPD compared with controls, whereas there was no significant difference in females. The use of hypnotics was more common among patients with COPD compared with controls, both in men (15% vs 0%, P=0.009) and women (36% vs 16%, P=0.03). The men with COPD had significantly longer recorded sleep latency than the male control group (23 vs 9.3 minutes, P<0.001), while no corresponding difference was found in women. In men with COPD, those with reported sleep disturbances had lower forced vital capacity, higher C-reactive protein, myeloperoxidase, and higher prevalence of chronic bronchitis.The COPD was associated with impaired sleep in men while the association was less clear in women. This was also confirmed by recorded longer sleep latency in male subjects with COPD compared with controls.Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation Swedish Association against Heart and Lung Disease

Executive Cognitive Functioning and Cardiovascular Autonomic Regulation in a Population-Based Sample of Working Adults

Objective: Executive cognitive functioning is essential in private and working life and is sensitive to stress and aging. Cardiovascular (CV) health factors are related to cognitive decline and dementia, but there is relatively few studies of the role of CV autonomic regulation, a key component in stress responses and risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and executive processes. An emerging pattern of results from previous studies suggest that different executive processes may be differentially associated with CV autonomic regulation. The aim was thus to study the associations between multiple measures of CV autonomic regulation and measures of different executive cognitive processes. Method: Participants were 119 healthy working adults (79% women), from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health. Electrocardiogram was sampled for analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) measures, including the Standard Deviation of NN, here heart beats (SDNN), root of the mean squares of successive differences (RMSSD), high frequency (HF) power band from spectral analyses, and QT variability index (QTVI), a measure of myocardial repolarization patterns. Executive cognitive functioning was measured by seven neuropsychological tests. The relationships between CV autonomic regulation measures and executive cognitive measures were tested with bivariate and partial correlational analyses, controlling for demographic variables, and mental health symptoms. Results: Higher SDNN and RMSSD and lower QTVI were significantly associated with better performance on cognitive tests tapping inhibition, updating, shifting, and psychomotor speed. After adjustments for demographic factors however (age being the greatest confounder), only QTVI was clearly associated with these executive tests. No such associations were seen for working memory capacity. Conclusion: Poorer CV autonomic regulation in terms of lower SDNN and RMSSD and higher QTVI was associated with poorer executive cognitive functioning in terms of inhibition, shifting, updating, and speed in healthy working adults. Age could largely explain the associations between the executive measures and SDNN and RMSSD, while associations with QTVI remained. QTVI may be a useful measure of autonomic regulation and promising as an early indicator of risk among otherwise healthy adults, compared to traditional HRV measures, as associations between QTVI and executive functioning was not affected by age

Leeway for the loyal: a model of employee discretion

This article examines the factors underlying task discretion from an economist's perspective. It argues that the key axis for understanding discretion is the trade-off between the positive effects of discretion on potential output per employee and the negative effects of greater leeway on work effort. In empirical analysis using matched employer-employee data, it is shown that discretion is strongly affected by the level of employee commitment. In addition, discretion is generally greater in high-skilled jobs, although not without exceptions, and lower where employees are under-skilled. Homeworking and flexitime policies raise employee discretion. The impact of teamworking is mixed. In about half of cases team members do not jointly decide about work matters, and the net effect of teams on task discretion in these cases is negative. In other cases, where team members do decide matters jointly, the impact is found to be neutral according to employees' perceptions, or positive according to managers' perceptions. There are also significant and substantial unobserved establishment-level factors which affect task discretion

The influence of low job control on ambulatory blood pressure and perceived stress over the working day in men and women from the Whitehall II cohort.

Objective: Work stress contributes to risk of coronary heart disease and hypertension. This study tested the influence of job control on ambulatory blood pressure, and ratings of perceived stress and happiness in men and women systematically sampled by socio-economic status from the Whitehall II epidemiological cohort. Participants: A total of 227 men and women aged 47-59 years sampled from higher, intermediate and lower employment grades. Outcome measures: Ambulatory blood pressure and ratings of stress, perceived control and happiness. Methods: Participants completed standard measures of job demands and job control, and undertook ambulatory monitoring with measures of blood pressure and subjective state every 20 min from early in the working day until going to bed. Results: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were greater in participants reporting low rather than high job control (means 125.7/81.5 versus 122.4/78.6 mmHg, P < 0.05), independently of gender, employment grade, body mass index, age, smoking status, and physical activity. Differences persisted into the evening after work. Job demands and job strain (high demand/low control) were not associated with blood pressure. Participants reporting low job control experienced stress more frequently over the working day than did those with high job control. Higher socio-economic status participants and women were more stressed by low job control than were men and people of lower socio-economic status. Conclusions: Job control plays an important role in modulating cardiovascular and affective responses over the working day, and these responses may contribute to increased cardiovascular disease risk. © 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

The implications of direct participation for organizational commitment, job satisfaction and affective psychological well-being: a longitudinal analysis

The paper examines the implications of direct participation for employees’ organizational commitment, job satisfaction and affective psychological well-being. It focuses on both task discretion and organisational participation. Applying fixed effect models to nationally representative longitudinal data, the study provides a more rigorous assessment of the conflicting claims for the effects of participation which have hitherto been based primarily on cross-sectional evidence. Further, it tests a range of mechanisms by which direct participation leads to improved employee outcomes. Contrary to the critical literature, it shows that even after controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity, both forms of direct participation have positive effects for employees’ organizational commitment and well-being. The effects of task discretion are primarily direct, reflecting the intrinsic importance of personal control over the job task; in contrast, those of organizational participation derive to a greater extent from its indirect effect on the quality of working conditions

Unfair Treatment and Self-Regulatory Focus

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89950/1/oyserman__uskul__yoder__et_al..pd