Commuting Stress: Problems of Definition and Variable Identification

Abstract

Bien que les chercheurs reconnaisssent I'experience du changement comme source potentielle de stress, les rksultats concernant son impact sur des conduites variees individuelles ou organisationnelles ont ete peu concluants. Dans le present article, une revue des etudes qui examinkrent I'influence potentielle du stress de changement sur des mesures de contraintes psychologiques, physiologiques et comportementales, est proposke et relkve des contradictions. Un modde est dkcrit, liant des mesures objectives et subjectives de l'agent de stress, directement ou indirectement aux conduites. II est suggCrt qu'en incluant plusieurs moderateurs critiques, par exemple le contrBle, la predictibilite et I'urgence dans le temps, des predictions Cmanant de stimuli de stress de changement pourraient &tre mises en avant.Although researchers recognise the commuting experience as a potential source of stress, findings regarding its impact on various individual and organisational outcomes have been inconclusive. In the present paper, a review of relevant studies that examined the potential influence of commuting stress on psychological, physiological, and behavioural strain measures is reported and inconsistencies noted. A model linking objective and subjective measures of the stressor directly and indirectly to outcome is described. It is suggested that by including several critical moderators, such as control, predictability, and time urgency, predictions emanating from commuting stress stimuli can be enhanced.

Prioridades axiológicas, atividade física e estresse ocupacional

“…A maioria das pesquisas concluem a existência de seqüên-cias causais, verificadas ou postuladas, que se iniciam com um determinado fator estressante. De acordo com o modelo destes autores, os antecedentes do estresse podem ser assim classificados: (1) organizacionais, por exemplo, tamanho da organização (Katz e Kahn, 1978), características do papel (Bartunek e Reynolds, 1983; Iwata e Suzuki, 1997) e da tarefa (Alfredsson e Theorell, 1983) e o próprio deslocamento cotidiano da residência até à organização (Koslowsky, 1997); (2) estressores na vida organizacional, isto é, estímulos gerados na vida organizacional que provocam conseqüências negativas, de natureza física (barulho, iluminação) ou psicossocial (ambigüidade do papel, conflito entre papéis, conflito interpessoal no trabalho e sobrecarga de trabalho) nas pessoas a eles expostas (Frone, 1990;Spector e Jex, 1998); e (3) características da pessoa, que Kahn e Byosiere (1992) consideram como mediadores do estresse. Os dados empíricos relativos ao efeito moderador das diferenças individuais sobre a tolerância ao estresse são recentes, apesar de que, do ponto de vista teórico, a relação entre estas variáveis constitui um componente antigo na explicação do comportamento humano.…”

Cost of Commuting: A Review of Determinants, Outcomes, and Theory of Commuting-Related Stress

“…It is important to understand the components and antecedents of a phenomenon prior to intervening in or manipulating that phenomenon. Earlier research suggested numerous reasons of why commuting is stressful (Koslowsky, 1997;Navaco et al, 1979), but the most salient and generally accepted studies on commuter-related stress determinants have been relatively contemporary.…”

“…To do so, Koslowksy conducted a thorough literature review in order to standardize definitions of variables and observed interaction effects. To that effect, Koslowsky (1997) states the following:…”

“…As a nascent subfield -and thus relatively unexplored -there were problems with construct-definition consistency for focal variables in the realm of commuting stress. Koslowsky (1997) attempted to identify the aforementioned deficiencies by highlighting these issues and attempting to unify varying construct definitions for prominent variables. To do so, Koslowksy conducted a thorough literature review in order to standardize definitions of variables and observed interaction effects.…”

Prefrontal cortical dopamine from an evolutionary perspective

“…For instance, people living in cities, where the environmental complexity is great, are exposed to stronger stress than those living in rural areas [59] . Commuters during rush hours also suffer high-intensity stress [60] . Therefore, crowding within a group can be stressful to social organisms.…”