Changes in Psychosocial Work Conditions in Taiwanese Employees by Gender and Age from 2001 to 2010

Abstract

Changes in Psychosocial Work Conditions in Taiwanese Employees by Gender and Age from 2001 to 2010: Yawen CHENG, et al. Institute of Health Policy and Management, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taiwan— Objective The aim of this study was to examine changes in working hours, shift work, psychological and physical job demands, job control and job insecurity in Taiwanese employees by gender and age during the period of 2001 to 2010. Methods The study subjects were 36,750 men and 27,549 women, aged 25−64, from 4 rounds of cross‐sectional surveys of representative employees. Psychosocial work conditions were assessed by a validated questionnaire. Results Regression analyses with adjustment of education and employment grade showed that from 2001 to 2010, the proportions of workers with long working hours (>48 hours/week) (OR=1.4 in men and 1.5 in women) and workers with short working hours (<40 hours/week) (OR=1.3 in both genders) both increased over time, indicating an increasing polarization in the distribution of working hours. Furthermore, the proportions of nonstandard work shifts (OR=1.7 in men and 2.1 in women) and work with high physical demands (OR=1.5 for both gender) increased. There were signs of decreasing levels of job control from 2001 to 2007, which seemed to be more apparent in younger workers than in older workers. However, a slight recovery in decision latitude and opportunity for learning was noticed in later years. The trend in job insecurity was not linear, with the highest prevalence found in 2004. Conclusions Our findings suggested that certain aspects of psychosocial work environment had deteriorated in Taiwan. There is a need to raise public awareness about the changing patterns of psychosocial health risks at work as well as their causes and their potential impacts on worker well‐being.

Changes in psychosocial work factors in the French working population between 2006 and 2010

“…The differential changes according to age, occupation, public/private sector, work contract and selfemployed/employee status have almost never been studied before. In the Taiwanese study by Cheng and al., analyses were stratified on age but no test was performed to assess whether the changes were different according to age (Cheng et al 2013). In line with our study, they found that job control and psychological demands seemed to deteriorate more for younger and middle age workers.…”

“…The analyses were powerful enough to allow stratification by gender something that may be considered fundamental (Niedhammer et al 2000), and to observe differential changes according to several covariates. To date, only three previous studies explored the differential changes in psychosocial work factors according to age (Cheng et al 2013), occupation (Malard et al 2013), and gender, age, occupational skill level and employment arrangements (a combination of work contract, selfemployed status and working time) but only for job control and job security (LaMontagne et al 2013). …”

“…The rare studies assessing the changes of psychosocial work factors over time were often limited to specific populations or sectors, to some countries or regions and to a small number of psychosocial work factors (Tsai and Chan 2011;Cheng et al 2013;Houdmont et al 2012;Malard et al 2013;LaMontagne et al 2013;Wang et al 2010). In Taiwan, working hours, excessive work, reward, respect from superiors and colleagues, social support, and job promotion prospects improved among lawyers while "supervisor concerned about the welfare", "supervisor pays attention", interruptions and disturbances at work, and trouble sleeping at night worsened among financial workers between 2007 and 2009 according to a prospective study on 135 financial workers and lawyers (Tsai and Chan 2011).…”

“…In Taiwan, working hours, excessive work, reward, respect from superiors and colleagues, social support, and job promotion prospects improved among lawyers while "supervisor concerned about the welfare", "supervisor pays attention", interruptions and disturbances at work, and trouble sleeping at night worsened among financial workers between 2007 and 2009 according to a prospective study on 135 financial workers and lawyers (Tsai and Chan 2011). A representative Taiwanese periodical cross-sectional study showed that working more than 48 hours a week, working less than 40 hours a week, nonstandard work shift, job control, and job demands deteriorated between 2001 and 2010, and job insecurity increased in 2004 and in 2007 among 64299 Taiwanese employees (Cheng et al 2013). In a periodical cross-sectional survey in Northern Ireland among 27037 civil servants, work stress increased between 2005 and 2010 as well as exposure to psychosocial work factors such as high job demands, low job control, low peer support, poor relationships, role ambiguity and conflict, and lack of consultation and information about change (Houdmont et al 2012).…”

The moderating role of self-regulated learning in job characteristics and attitudes towards web-based continuing learning in the airlines workplace

“…Social support (i.e., workrelated support from supervisors and colleagues) might not only be a source of pressure, but could also have a regulating effect on individuals' psychological job stressors (Y. Cheng, Chen, Burr, Chen, & Chiang, 2014).…”