Greater Emotional and Psychological Well-being Are Associated With Reduced Employee Self-report Illness-Related Absenteeism

Abstract

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship that emotional, psychological, and social well-being has with self-reported illness-related absenteeism (SRIRA). METHODS This study examines the relationship between three dimensions of well-being (emotional, psychological, and social) and self-report illness-related absenteeism among 133 workers spanning multiple industries across 16 different companies. This secondary, cross-sectional data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. RESULTS As hypothesized, emotional and psychological well-being were found to be negatively associated with absenteeism, with emotional well-being being the stronger predictor. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found social well-being was not associated with absenteeism among workers. CONCLUSIONS Employee emotional and psychological well-being are associated with SRIRA. Future work should explore causal relationships between these constructs.