Response of hostile individuals to stressful change in their working lives: test of a psychosocial vulnerability model

Abstract

Background. According to the psychosocial vulnerability model, the health of hostile individuals is at greater risk than that of non-hostile individuals, due partly to lesser ability of the former to cope with psychosocial stress situations. We examined whether hostile individuals were more vulnerable than others to health problems when faced with stressful changes in their working lives. Methods. Hostility, sickness absence and psychosocial stressors in 866 local government employees over a 5-year period, which included severe economic decline, were investigated. Hostility was measured by a questionnaire. Data on medically certified sickness absence were obtained from the records of the local authority. Information about exposure to psychosocial stressors after assessment of hostility was also derived from these records, and from reports from the subjects. Results. Exposure to stressors during the period of economic decline was related to increased rates of sickness absence. In men, hostility increased risk of sickness absence after exposure to stressors only in cases of absence because of trauma. In women, hostility increased risk of absence through sickness overall and absence because of musculoskeletal disorders in individuals facing stressors such as severe organizational downsizing, high or increased levels of job demands or negative change in work. Findings were adjusted for sickness absence at the beginning of the decline, socioeconomic background and behavioural risk factors. Conclusions. The psychosocial vulnerability model was partly supported. However, heightened vulnerability through hostility may differ between the sexes, since it was more evident in the women studied than in the men.

Overstretched and Unreciprocated Commitment: Reviewing Research on the Occupational Health and Safety Effects of Downsizing and Job Insecurity

“…Work-family balance and relationship effects and links to burnout, as well as age-related effects, are also attracting increased attention. Existing studies have pointed to both gender and age differences in terms of the impact of downsizing (36,61). A Swedish study (54) of repeated downsizing in the retailing industry found that older workers were more likely to experience adverse effects and long-term symptoms of distress.…”

Sickness absence as a global measure of health: evidence from mortality in the Whitehall II prospective cohort study

“…Absence may reflect distal risk factors for mortality. For example, a hostile personality and work stress are predictors of premature death in initially healthy populations,20 21 and sickness absence is associated with these factors 22…”

Job strain and informal caregiving as predictors of long-term sickness absence: A longitudinal multi-cohort study

“…A limitation in our analyses is that other potentially important covariates shown in the directed acyclic graph (DAG) (www.sjweh.fi/index. php?page=data-repository) were not available, such as personality, spouse work status, household income and organizational changes at the workplace, which may be associated with informal caregiving, job strain and sickness absence (66,67). However, household income is highly associated with being married and occupational grade (for which we adjusted), and the association between spouse work status and long-term sickness absence is likely to go through household income.…”