This paper reports on the stepwise development of a new questionnaire for measuring work-home interaction, i.e. the Survey Work-home Interaction */NijmeGen, the SWING). Inspired by insights from work psychology, more specifically from Effort-Recovery Theory (Meijman & Mulder, 1998), we defined work-home interaction by differentiating between the direction and quality of influence. Four types of work-home interaction were distinguished and measured by using 22 (including 13 selfdeveloped) items. By using data from five independent samples (total N0/2472), validity evidence was provided based on the internal structure of the questionnaire. The results showed that the questionnaire reliably measured four empirically distinct types of work-home interaction, and that this four-dimensional structure was largely invariant across the five samples as well as across relevant subgroups. Validity evidence was also provided based on the relations with external (theoretically relevant) variables (i.e. job characteristics, home characteristics, and indicators of health and wellbeing). The results generally supported the hypothesized relationships of these external variables with negative work-home interaction. Less support was found, however, for the hypothesized relationships with positive work-home interaction. This contributes to current literature as it employs a relatively broad conceptualization of work-home interaction and offers a promising tool that measures its multiple components across a wide variety of workers.

BackgroundBurnout is highly prevalent in residents. No randomized controlled trials have been conducted measuring the effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on burnout in residents.ObjectiveTo determine the effectiveness of MBSR in reducing burnout in residents.DesignA randomized controlled trial comparing MBSR with a waitlist control group.ParticipantsResidents from all medical, surgical and primary care disciplines were eligible to participate. Participants were self-referred.InterventionThe MBSR consisted of eight weekly 2.5-h sessions and one 6-h silent day.Main MeasuresThe primary outcome was the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Dutch version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Service Survey. Secondary outcomes included the depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment subscales of burnout, worry, work–home interference, mindfulness skills, self-compassion, positive mental health, empathy and medical errors. Assessment took place at baseline and post-intervention approximately 3 months later.Key ResultsOf the 148 residents participating, 138 (93%) completed the post-intervention assessment. No significant difference in emotional exhaustion was found between the two groups. However, the MBSR group reported significantly greater improvements than the control group in personal accomplishment (p = 0.028, d = 0.24), worry (p = 0.036, d = 0.23), mindfulness skills (p = 0.010, d = 0.33), self-compassion (p = 0.010, d = 0.35) and perspective-taking (empathy) (p = 0.025, d = 0.33). No effects were found for the other measures. Exploratory moderation analysis showed that the intervention outcome was moderated by baseline severity of emotional exhaustion; those with greater emotional exhaustion did seem to benefit.ConclusionsThe results of our primary outcome analysis did not support the effectiveness of MBSR for reducing emotional exhaustion in residents. However, residents with high baseline levels of emotional exhaustion did appear to benefit from MBSR. Furthermore, they demonstrated modest improvements in personal accomplishment, worry, mindfulness skills, self-compassion and perspective-taking. More research is needed to confirm these results.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11606-017-4249-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective: Burnout constitutes a health risk, and interventions are needed to reduce it. The aim of this study was to synthesize evidence regarding the relationship between physical activity and burnout by conducting a systematic review of longitudinal and intervention studies. Methods: A literature search resulted in the identification of a final set of ten studies: four longitudinal and six intervention studies. In separate analyses for each category, evidence was synthesized by extracting the study characteristics and assessing the methodological quality of each study. The strength of evidence was calculated with the standardized index of convergence (SIC). Results: In longitudinal studies, we found moderately strong evidence (SIC (4) = -1) for a negative relationship between physical activity and the key component of burnout, i.e., exhaustion. We found strong evidence (SIC (6) = -0.86) for the effect of physical activity on reducing exhaustion in intervention studies. As only one study could be classified as a high quality study, these results of previous studies need to be interpreted with some caution. Conclusions: This systematic review suggests that physical activity constitutes an effective medium for the reduction of burnout. Although consistent evidence was found, there is a lack of high quality longitudinal and intervention studies considering the influence of physical activity on burnout. Therefore, future research should be conducted with the aim to produce high quality studies, to develop a full picture of physical activity as a strategy to reduce burnout.

Boredom is an emotion that occurs regularly at the workplace, with negative consequences for the employee and the organization. It is therefore important to understand why work-related boredom leads to such adverse consequences and what can be done to mitigate its occurrence and its negative consequences. In the present study we proposed a model suggesting that feelings of boredom at work induce immediate affect-based bored behaviors, and that such bored behavior leads to depressive complaints, distress, and counterproductive work behavior. We further posed that job crafting can mitigate work-related boredom and its negative outcomes. Results of a survey study among 189 employees showed that work-related boredom and bored behavior are empirically distinct, though related, constructs. Work-related boredom was positively related to depressive complaints, distress, and counterproductive work behavior, and these associations were fully mediated by bored behavior. Job crafting related negatively to work-related boredom, and attenuated the relationship of work-related boredom with bored behavior. Moreover, the indirect effects of work-related boredom through bored behavior on its outcomes were smaller the more employees engaged in job crafting. This research enhances insight into work-related boredom by showing that boredom as an affective state can be distinguished from its proximal behavioral consequences, and by providing a first onset to obtain insight in moderating and mediating mechanisms that may explain work-related boredom's consequences. It highlights the importance of employees' opportunities to work in jobs that do not cause work-related boredom to develop, and the role of job crafting as a potential intervention tool.

Netherlands-The main aim of this study was to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of a single-item measure of daily fatigue ("How fatigued do you currently feel?") in a daily diary context. Convergent validity of our measure was examined by relating it to a validated multiple-item measure of fatigue (Profile of Mood States; McNair, Lorr, & Droppelman, 1971) and to other daily (work-home interference, sleep complaints, work-related effort) and global (fatigue, health complaints, work-home interference, job pressure) measures that are conceptually related to fatigue. Discriminant validity was assessed by relating the single-item fatigue measure to daily (work pleasure) and global (job control, social support, motivation to learn) measures that are conceptually distinct from fatigue. Data were collected among 120 academic staff members, who completed a general questionnaire (tapping the global measures under study) and who took part in a 9-d daily diary study (3 measurements daily). Correlation patterns and multilevel analyses revealed strong and significant associations between the single-item fatigue measure and the variables incorporated to assess convergent validity (especially with the POMS: r=0.80), thus supporting the convergent validity of our measure. Relations with variables included to examine discriminant validity were weak or insignificant, supporting the discriminant validity of the single-item fatigue measure. Despite this study's limitations (i.e., exclusive use of self-reporting, specific sample) we conclude that this single-item fatigue measure offers a valid way to assess daily fatigue. (J Occup Health 2007; 49: 224-234)