Work & Stress The Danish psychosocial work ...

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Work & Stress

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The Danish psychosocial work environment and symptoms of stress: The main, mediating and moderating role of sense of coherence K. Albertsen; M. L. Nielsen; V. Borg

Online publication date: 26 November 2010

To cite this Article Albertsen, K. , Nielsen, M. L. and Borg, V.(2001) 'The Danish psychosocial work environment and

symptoms of stress: The main, mediating and moderating role of sense of coherence', Work & Stress, 15: 3, 241 — 253 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/02678370110066562 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370110066562

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The Danish psychosocial work environment and symptoms of stress: the main, mediating and moderating role of sense of coherence K. ALBERTSEN*, M. L. NIELSEN and V. BORG Department of Psychology and Sociology, National Institute of Occupational Health, Lersø ParkalleÂ 105, DK-2100 Copenhagen é , Denmark Keywords: diVerences.

Sense of coherence; Psychosocial work environment; Mediating eVects; Moderating eVect; Gender

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the main, mediating and moderating role of sense of coherence (SOC) on stress symptoms and on the association between perceived psychosocial work environment and stress symptoms. The sample includes 2053 Danish employees from 52 workplaces. Hierarchical regression models were applied for each measure of stress. The results strongly supported the presence of a main eVect for SOC. People with high levels of SOC experienced fewer stress symptoms. A mediating eVect of SOC was also supported. Thus, SOC in part explained the association between work environment and stress symptoms. In addition, some support for a moderating eVect of SOC was found, suggesting that people with higher SOC coped more eYciently with work environmental strain that people with lower SOC. Taken together the regression models explained 11± 32% of the variance in stress symptoms. The results suggest that measures of individual factors such as SOC should be included in analyses of the eVects of work environmental factors on stress and well-being.

1. Introduction It is well established that a poor psychosocial work environment can harm psychological well-being. It is less clear which individual factors in¯ uence the process whereby the work environment leads to reduced well-being or increased levels of stress. That question is still to be answered. Sense of coherence (SOC) is one of the factors proposed as a moderator of the association between work environment and stress. Antonovsky (1987) introduced the concept of SOC as an integrated perception of one’s life as being comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. SOC describes a personality disposition in terms of a `stress resistance resource’. Antonovksy (1987) assumed that persons with high SOC would be in better general health and would experience greater well-being and less stress than people with low SOC (main eVect). Many empirical studies have supported this hypothesis (Feldt, 1997, KivimaÈki, *Author for correspondence. e-mail: [email protected]

Work & Stress ISSN 0267-8373 print/ISSN 1464-5335 online 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ DOI: 10.1080/02678370110066562


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Kalimo, and Toppinen, 1998; Lewis, Campbell, Becktell, Cooper, Bonner, and Hunt, 1992; Ryland, 1991). Antonovksy hypothesized further that the strength of SOC would determine whether the outcome of stress life events would be noxious, neutral or salutary (Antonovsky, 1987). In other words SOC would change the relation between strain and stress. The lower the SOC, the larger the diVerence in perceived stress levels between people with high and low strain (moderator eVect). So far relatively few studies have investigated the moderating eVects of SOC. Moderation was found on the relation between work characteristics and well-being (Feldt, 1997, SoÈderfeldt, SoÈderfelt, Ohlson, Theorell, and Jones, 2000) and on the relation between unemployment and physical and psychological symptoms (Hanse, and Engstrom, 1999). A study by KivimaÈki et al. (1998) contradicted these ® ndings as a moderating eVect on the relation between stressors and experienced stress could not be found. Antonovsky (1987) assumed that a person’s SOC level would develop from experiences throughout childhood, adolescence and youth and reach a relatively stable level after the age of 30 years. Analyses of the stability, however, do not con® rm that SOC should be regarded as a very stable personality disposition among adults (Feldt, 2000; Feldt, Leskinen, Kinnunen, and Mauno, 2000b). Furthermore, it is found that SOC among adults changes according to alterations in the work environment (Feldt, Kinnunen, and Mauno, 2000a). These results suggest that SOC is not a ® xed characteristic. It is therefore obvious that SOC might function as an intervening variable between the psychosocial work environment and health or well-being: the quality of the psychosocial work environment will be ( positively) associated with SOC and SOC will in turn be positively associated with health and well-being (mediating eVect). Until now, only a few studies have investigated the mediating eVect of SOC on the relation between work characteristics and well-being (Feldt, 1997; Feldt et al., 2000; SoÈderfeldt et al., 2000). The purposes of the present study were to explore (1) the main eVect of SOC on symptoms of stress, and (2) SOC as a mediator between perceived psychosocial work environment and stress symptoms, and (3) SOC as a moderator of the association between perceived psychosocial work environment and stress symptoms.

2. Material and m ethods 2.1. Population The population studied consisted of 2053 Danes (response rate 76%), who answered the baseline questionnaire of the Intervention Project on Absence and Well-being (IPAW). IPAW is a ® eld study in which `intervention’ workplaces strive to improve the psychosocial work environment supported by process consultants. The workplaces are followed for 5 years and compared with `control’ workplaces without intervention. The present study is based on baseline data only. The background of the participants can be described as follows. (1) Organization : Employees at 52 workplaces in three organizations: (1) Copenhagen Municiple Health Services: nursing homes for the elderly and institutions for mentally handicapped (979 answers from 22 institutions, predominantly female employees with low levels of education); (2) Copenhagen Municipal Technical Services: cemeteries, parks, roads, workshops, pumping stations, administrative oYces (343 answers from 17 workplaces, predominantly male employees with low levels of education, apart from those working in the oYces); (3) Pharmaceutical company: production,

Sense of coherence and stress symptoms

243


® lling/packaging, laboratories, catering, cleaning (731 answers from 13 workplaces, mostly female employees with low levels of education, working in catering and cleaning, the rest was more mixed with respect to gender and education, for example the laboratory employees were better educated). (2) Demographics : The total sample was predominantly female (67%). The mean age was 41 years (range 18± 69 years: SD= 10 years). Some 63% of the sample were unskilled workers (n= 1202), 22% were salaried staV (n= 425) and 14% were skilled workers (n= 268).

2.2. Questionnaire The baseline questionnaire included questions on psychosocial factors in and outside work, individual factors (SOC and coping style), health, well-being and absence from work. The questions on psychological demands, decision authority, skill discretion, support from colleagues and supervisors are from the Whitehall II study (Marmot, Smith, Stansfeld, Patel, North, Head, White, Brunner, and Feeney, 1991). The scales on meaning at work, predictability, con¯ icts at work and management quality were developed at the National Institute of Occupational Health as part of the IPAW study (Nielsen, Kristensen, and Smith-Hansen, 2000). The four scales on behavioural, somatic, emotional and cognitive stress symptoms have been developed and tested by Setterlind in Sweden (Setterlind, and Larsson, 1995). Stress is here seen as synonymous with distress and covers behavioural, psychological and physiological responses to exposure. The items in the SOC scale are also developed by Setterlind (Setterlind, and Larsson, 1995) on the basis of Antonovsky’s questions (Antonovsky, 1987, 1993). The Swedish questions were translated into Danish. The individual questions of the scales from the Whitehall II study and questions on con¯ icts had four response categories, the remainder had ® ve. The response categories described frequency, intensity or degree of agreement with statements as appropriate. The scale scores were calculated by transforming the response categories of each item into a standardized score ranging from 0 to 100, and then calculating the mean score of the items for every scale. The Cronbach’s a and inter-item correlation of the scales were generally satisfactory (table 1), although the a coeYcients of the scales of con¯ icts at work and psychological demands were low. This can be explained by a small number of items in these scales (two and three). Previous research has raised critical questions regarding the psychometric properties of Antonovsky’s (1987) 13-item SOC scale (Flannery, and Flannery, 1990; Frenz, 1993; Larsson, and Kallenberg, 1999; Sammallahti, Holi, Komulainen, and Aalberg, 1996; Sandell, Blomberg, and Lazer, 1998), and because of the low inter-item and item-scale correlation found here, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to Setterlind’s scale (Setterlin, and Larsson, 1995). Two highly correlated factors were identi® ed, and the correlations between these factors and external variables were very similar. It was decided to use a single uni® ed scale for SOC.

2.3. Statistical analysis The software used for the statistical analysis was SPSS 9.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). DiVerences in mean scale scores between men and women were tested using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Bivariate correlations were Spearman’s rho (r ). The signi® cance level was set at .05, and all tests were two-tailed. In order to examine main, mediating and moderating eVects, hierarchical regression

28.73 59.97 77.79 67.33 75.75 52.17 78.76 70.63 82.04 23.94 12.48 23.70 11.52

Mean 19.97 21.88 15.55 21.27 18.34 24.71 22.89 27.32 12.57 18.01 15.94 18.24 14.34

SD

Women

31.11 52.78 74.19 63.20 75.83 48.10 72.51 65.39 78.84 19.59 12.10 21.41 11.50

Mean

SD 20.89 20.61 17.40 20.56 18.66 23.75 25.14 27.79 14.25 16.67 14.39 18.33 14.72

Men

29.52 57.92 76.59 65.96 75.78 50.82 76.68 68.88 80.99 22.50 12.36 22.94 11.51

Mean

SD 20.30 21.66 16.27 21.12 18.45 24.46 23.84 27.58 13.23 17.70 15.44 18.30 14.46

Total

.51 .56 .78 .81 ,69 .75 .76 .84 .77 .88 .85 .87 .73

Cronbach’s a

3 2 4 8 4 2 2 2 9 8 7 4 5

Number of items

.22± .34 .41 .37± .59 .18± .56 .30± .47 .60 .61 .72 .09± .57 .33± .66 .18± .68 .52± .65 .26± .49

Inter-item

.29± .39 .41 .50± .63 .42± .66 .41± .56 .60 .61 .72 .30± .59 .54± .74 .38± .70 .68± .77 .40± .55

Item-scale

Descriptive statistics of each scale. Cronbach’s a , number of items, mean and standard deviation for women, men and total group and range of inter-item-correlations and item-scale-correlations.

Con¯ icts at work Psychological demands Meaning at work Decision authority Skill discretion Predictability Support from colleagues Support from supervisors Sense of coherence Emotional stress symptoms Behavioural stress symptoms Cognitive stress symptoms Somatic stress symptoms

Table 1.


244 K. Albertsen et al.



245

analysis for each of the stress-variables and for each gender were applied. First, all work environmental variables were entered into the model in a stepwise procedure using p< .05 as entering criteria and p> .10 as removal criteria. Second, SOC was added to the model. A mediating eVect is supported if, in the ® rst step of the analysis, perceived work environmental factors are associated with stress symptoms, and if, in the second step, SOC is associated with stress symptoms but the association between perceived work environment and stress symptoms disappears or diminishes (KivimaÈki et al., 1998). Finally, all interaction terms between SOC and the perceived work environment were entered. A moderating eVect is supported if any one of the interaction terms signi® cantly increases R2 in the third step. This means that the eVect of perceived work environment on stress symptoms diVers for diVerent levels of SOC. A linear regression analysis was chosen because all the eVects of the work environmental factors on stress symptoms, except for the eVect of psychological demands, were hypothesized to be linear. Previous studies have proposed a U-shaped relationship between demands and stress. In order to attend to that a squared demand term was added in the ® rst step.

3. Results 3.1. Descriptive The correlations among all scales are shown in table 2. All work environmental scales, except skill discretion, were signi® cantly associated with one or more of the stress symptoms for both men and women. For men, however, somatic stress symptoms only correlated signi® cantly with con¯ icts at work. Most of the associations were weak to moderate (r< .30). Sense of coherence was moderately (.02< r< .45) associated with all stress symptom scales and weak to moderately (r< .30) associated with all work environmental scales. Most of the work environmental scales were weakly to moderately associated with each other (r< .45). The only exception was psychological demands, which, among men, was neither associated with meaning at work nor with decision authority. All scales of stress symptoms were moderately to highly associated with each other (.28< r< .70).

3.2. Regression models Regression models for the diVerent stress symptoms are shown in tables 3± 6. 3.2.1. Main eVect of work environment on stress symptoms: All the scales of perceived work environment signi® cantly explained variance in one or more types of stress symptoms. Con¯ icts at work, psychological demands and skill discretion were positively associated, while meaning of work, decision authority, predictability and social support from colleagues and supervisors were negatively associated with the stress symptoms scales. Con¯ icts at work were the only work environmental scale consistently associated with all of the stress scales for both genders. Psychological demands were associated with the emotional, behavioural and cognitive stress scales for women and the behavioural stress scales for men, and decision authority was associated with the emotional and behavioural stress scales for women and the emotional and cognitive stress scales for men. The rest of the associations were more sporadic and were only signi® cant for one gender or for one of the stress symptoms scales. Together, the work environmental variables explained 4± 13% of the variance in stress symptoms.

Con¯ icts at work Psychological demands Meaning at work Decision authority Skill discretion Predictability Support from colleagues Support from supervisors Sense of coherence Emotional stress symptoms Behavioural stress symptoms Cognitive stress symptoms Somatic stress symptoms

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

*p< .05; **p< .01; ***p< .001.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

1.00 .16*** .20*** .18*** .11** .31*** .16*** .22*** .01 .29*** .20*** .18*** .17***

1

Table 2.

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

.12*** 1.00 .02 .02 .26*** .11** .12** .14*** .05 .10** .13*** .07 .04

2

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ .15*** .03 1.00 .28*** .44*** .46*** .19*** .31*** .23*** .12** .10** .13*** .04

3

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

5

.15*** .09** .17*** .13*** .31*** .36*** 1.00 .34*** .38*** 1.00 .31*** .22*** 0.07* .17*** .26*** .19*** .20*** .27*** .17*** Õ .06 .11** Õ .06 .13*** Õ .05 .04 .03

4

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ .31*** .18*** .39*** .32*** .15*** 1.00 .19*** .43*** .17*** .21*** .18*** .18*** .05

6

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ .12*** .15*** .17*** .17*** .08** .17*** 1.00 .41*** .11** .12** .17*** .09* .05

7

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

.19*** .15*** .22*** .31*** .12*** .43*** .42*** 1.00 .17*** .16*** .14*** .13*** .06

8 Õ .08** Õ .09** .24*** .20*** .14*** .13*** .13*** .12*** 1.00 Õ .42*** Õ .43*** Õ .40*** Õ .22***

9

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

.23*** .22*** .17*** .18*** .02 .20*** .13*** .16*** .39*** 1.00 .62*** .67*** .51***

10

Correlation coeYcients for all variables. Women above the diagonal and men below.


Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

.27*** .19*** .18*** .18*** .01 .17*** .12*** .18*** .33*** .63*** 1.00 .53*** .29***

11

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

.15*** .21*** .18*** .12*** .01 .16*** .11*** .11*** .36*** .69*** .46*** 1.00 .42***

12

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

Õ

.15*** .13*** .09** .10** .01 .15*** .13*** .10** .21*** .51*** .34*** .42*** 1.00

13

246 K. Albertsen et al.


247

Table 3. Emotional stress: Standardized b coeYcients and adjusted R2 for the ® rst, second and third hierarchical regression model. Emotional stress Men


Model 1

Model 2

Con¯ icts .29*** .25*** Psychological demands Psychological demands squared Meaning at work Decision authority Õ .12** Õ .07* Õ Skill discretion .01 .11** Predictability Social support colleagues Social support supervisors Sense of coherence Õ .48*** Õ SOCÖ Con¯ icts Õ SOCÖ Psychological demands SOCÖ Meaning at work SOCÖ Decision authority SOCÖ Skill discretion SOCÖ Predictability SOCÖ Social support colleagues SOCÖ Social support supervisors Accumulated R2 .108 .315

Women Model 3

Model 1

Model 2

.63***

.19*** .16***

.17*** .13***

.14*** Õ .11*** Õ .03

.07** .09** .06*

Õ .07* .11**

Õ

Õ

.36*** .39*

.320

.129

Model 3

.36***

.249

*p< .05; **p< .01; ***p< .001.

3.2.2. Main eVect of SOC on stress symptoms: SOC explained 4± 21% of the variance across all measures of stress symptoms for both men and women. As expected, the associations were all negative, indicating that high SOC was associated with fewer stress symptoms. 3.2.3. Sense of coherence as mediatior between work environmental factors and stress symptoms: When SOC was entered into the regression equation, almost all of the signi® cant b coeYcients changed. The changes were of a modest size, in most cases below .08. The associations between the stress symptoms scales and con¯ icts at work, meaning of work and decision authority all diminished when SOC was entered into the equation, indicating that SOC could partly explain those associations. When SOC was entered into the equation, the associations between the stress symptoms scales and psychological demands diminished among women, whereas the association increased among men. The same happened to the association between skill discretion and cognitive and emotional stress symptoms for both genders and for somatic stress symptoms in men. The increase in association indicates that skill discretion and psychological demands (for men) gave rise to higher levels of stress symptoms when SOC was taken into account. In other words, skill discretion and SOC were positively associated and in¯ uenced the stress symptoms in opposing manners. The stress-producing eVect of skill discretion was counteracted by the stress-reducing eVect of SOC. 3.2.4. Sense of coherence as moderator of the associations between work environmental factors and stress symptoms: The interaction term between SOC and con¯ icts at work was signi® cant with regard to both emotional and behavioural stress symptoms among men and somatic

248

K. Albertsen et al.

Table 4. Behavioural stress: Standardized b coeYcients and adjusted R2 for the ® rst, second and third hiierarchical regression model. Behavioural stress Men


Model 1

Women

Model 2

Con¯ icts .15*** .11** Psychological demands .05 .08* Psychological demands squared Meaning at work Decision authority Skill discretion Predictability Õ .08* Õ .03 Social support colleagues Õ .08* Õ .06 Social support supervisors Sense of coherence Õ .45*** SOCÖ Con¯ icts SOCÖ Psychological demands SOCÖ Meaning at work SOCÖ Decision authority SOCÖ Skill discretion SOCÖ Predictability SOCÖ Social support colleagues SOCÖ Social support supervisors Accumulated R2 .053 .246

Model 3 .53** .08*

Model 1

Õ

.03 .06 Õ

Õ Õ

Model 2

.20*** .11***

0.18*** .08**

Õ

Õ

.14*** Õ .07* Õ

.07* .04

Õ

.08**

.32*** .43*

Õ Õ

Model 3 .17*** .08** Õ Õ

.07** Õ .34*** Õ

.52** .04

.39* .80*** .62**

.252

.120

.228

.36* .237

*p< .05; **p< .01; ***p< .001.

stress symptoms among women. The interactions were all negative, indicating that con¯ icts at work produced more behavioural stress symptoms in individuals with low SOC than in individuals with high SOC. In all cases, the presence of interactions increased the independent eVects of con¯ icts at work on stress symptoms and decreased the independent eVect of SOC. The interactions between SOC and meaning at work and between SOC and social support from supervisors were signi® cant in relation to behavioural stress symptoms among women. The interaction terms were both positive, indicating that social support from supervisor and a perception of meaning at work had a greater stress reducing eVect for women with low SOC than for women with high SOC. In these cases, the presence of interactions also increased the independent eVects of the work environmental factors, but contrary to previous ® ndings it also increased the independent eVect of SOC. Taken together, the regression models explained 11± 32% of the variance in stress symptoms.

4. Discussion 4.1. Summary The present cross-sectional study examined the main, mediating and moderating eVects of SOC on the relationship between psychosocial work environment and stress symptoms. The sample consisted of 2053 Danish employees with rather heterogeneous job types. The variation in exposure was large, making it easier to show mediating and moderating eVects. A range of eight psychosocial exposure measures and four diVerent measures of stress


249

Table 5. Cognitive stress: Standardized b coeYcients and adjusted R2 for the ® rst, second and third hierarchical regression model. Cognitive stress Men


Model 1

Model 2

Con¯ icts .18*** .14** Psychological demands Psychological demands squared Meaning at work Decision authority Õ .10* Õ .06 Skill discretion .02 .10** Predictability Social support colleagues Social support supervisors Sense of coherence Õ .43** SOCÖ Con¯ icts SOCÖ Psychological demands SOCÖ Meaning at work SOCÖ Decision authority SOCÖ Skill discretion SOCÖ Predictability SOCÖ Social support colleagues SOCÖ Social support supervisors Accumulated R2 .044 .213

Women Model 3

Õ

Model 1

Model 2

.11*** .19***

.09** .15***

.18*** Õ

.12***

.04

.07**

Õ

.086

Model 3

.34***

.190

*p< .05; **p< .01; ***p< .001.

symptoms were examined: the large sample made it possible to conduct separate analyses for men and women. In multivariate hierarchical regression analyses, all scales of perceived work environment explained signi® cant variance in one or more of the stress symptoms, supporting a main eVect of the psychosocial work environment on stress symptoms. SOC explained additional variance in all four kinds of stress symptoms, supporting a main eVect of SOC in the direction of reduced stress for both men and women. Indications of mediating eVects of SOC were found in almost all cases where the work environmental factors were associated with stress symptoms. Moderating eVects were supported in ® ve instances out of a possible 25.

4.2. Limitations The present study is limited in various ways. First, it is cross-sectional. This means that it is impossible to conclude whether people with diVerent SOC are selected by various means for jobs, whether they in¯ uence their own work environment in diVerent ways, or whether the work environment in¯ uences SOC over time. All three possibilities may be true. A second major limitation of the present study is that all measures are self-reported. Associations between the measures might be overestimated due to individual factors in¯ uencing the response pattern in general. One of the often-mentioned factors with regard to this problem is negative aVectivity. The SOC scales (especially the 13- and 29-item versions by Antonovsky (1987)) have been criticized for being partly redundant with measures of negative aVectivity (Frenz, 1993; Geyer, 1997; StruÈmpfer, Viviers, and Grouws, 1998),

250

K. Albertsen et al.

Table 6. Somatic stress: Standardized b coeYcients and adjusted R2 for the ® rst, second and third hierarchical regression model. Somatic stress Men


Model 1 Con¯ icts .20*** Psychological demands Psychological demands squared Meaning at work Decision authority Skill discretion .09* Predictability Social support colleagues Social support supervisors Sense of coherence SOCÖ Con¯ icts SOCÖ Psychological demands SOCÖ Meaning at work SOCÖ Decision authority SOCÖ Skill discretion SOCÖ Predictability SOCÖ Social support colleagues SOCÖ Social support supervisors Accumulated R2 .042

Model 2

Women Model 3

.17***

.16***

Õ

Õ

Õ

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

.12***

.12***

.60***

.09** Õ .10*** Õ

.08** .08** Õ

.29***

.117

.065

Õ

Õ

.07** .08**

.20*** Õ Õ

.08 .50**

.103

.109

*p< .05; **p< .01; ***p< .001.

implying that the well-established association between SOC and well-being might be due to content overlap rather than causality. The same argument might equally well apply to the present associations between stress symptoms and SOC (main eVect). The measures of job exposure might also have been in¯ uenced by aVectivity or by overlapping content. This might especially have been the case regarding con¯ icts and meaning at work, both variables including a considerable individual element, which might have increased the main and the mediating eVects. However, the moderating eVects cannot be ascribed solely to the potential overlap in the content of the measures. The interpretation of this is that there are diVerent eVects of the same level of work environmental exposure according to individual diVerences because people with high SOC, who still report high exposure levels, report fewer stress symptoms than people with low SOC at the same level of perceived exposure.

4.3. Comments on the results 4.3.1. Main eVects: Con¯ icts at work seemed to be the most consistent stress-associated work condition, related to all types of stress symptoms in both men and women. However, all the work environmental variables were associated with one or more types of stress symptom in one or both genders. As expected, SOC was negatively associated with all kinds of stress symptoms. Additionally, SOC explained at least twice as much variance as the work environmental variables combined. This is in accordance with the initial hypothesis and the empirically supported positive eVects of SOC on health and well-being.


251


However, due to the cross-sectional design and the reliance on self-reported measures, the direction of causality is uncertain. 4.3.2. Mediating eVects: The changes in b coeYcients can be interpreted as a mediating eVect of SOC between most of the work environmental variables and the stress symptoms. Most of the mediation eVects were in the expected direction; higher SOC was associated with less reported exposure from the psychosocial work environment. Thus, SOC partly explained the negative eVect on diVerent stress symptoms of con¯ icts as well as lack of the following factors: meaning at work, decision authority, predictability and social support from colleagues and supervisors. However, there were also some unexpected mediating eVects. The association between skill discretion and psychological demands and stress symptoms in men increased when SOC was included in the analysis. In fact, before SOC was entered there was only a modest association between skill discretion and somatic stress symptoms, and only in men. After entering SOC, this association became stronger and additional positive associations between skill discretion and cognitive and emotional stress symptoms arose for both men and women. When the eVect of SOC is controlled, skill discretion seems to produce stress. With regard to the association between psychological demands and behavioural stress, the mediation is increased for men and decreased for women when SOC is included, but the changes in b coeYcients are rather small for both genders, making interpretations highly speculative. The results from our study are in agreement with the results from a 1-year follow-up study by Feldt et al. (2000a), which supports SOC as a mediator between psychosocial work charactertistics and general well-being, together with occupational well-being. They found a good organizational climate related to strong SOC, in turn linked to a high level of general and organizational well-being. Furthermore, they found changes in organizational climate linked to changes in SOC, in turn related to changes in well-being (Feldt et al., 2000a). 4.3.3. Moderating eVects: Moderating eVects of SOC were indicated for women on the relation between con¯ icts at work and somatic stress symnptoms, on the relation between behavioural stress symptoms and meaning at work and on the relation between behavioural stress and social support from supervisors. For men, moderating eVects were found on the relation between con¯ icts and behavioural and emotional stress symptoms. All moderating eVects were in the expected direction, indicating a stress buVering eVect of SOC. However, out of 25 possible associations between work environmental factors and stress symptoms, there were only indications of moderation in ® ve instances. In line with previous ® ndings, these results lend support to the hypothesis of a moderating eVect of SOC, but only limited support. KivimaÈki et al. (1998) did not ® nd any stress-moderating eVect in a sample of male industrial managers and Feldt (1997) found only a modest moderating eVect among male technical designers. However, the study by KivimaÈ ki et al. (1998) is restricted in the sense that it only takes a small number of work strain factors into account. Moreover, both this study, and the study by Feldt (1997) covers relatively homogeneous samples with regard to job types. This may restrict the variation of the included variables and in turn make it more diYcult to show a potential moderating eVect of SOC. Additionally, both samples are predominantly male, thereby restricting the ® ndings to male populations. Another study (SoÈderfeldt et al., 2000) was conducted in a predominantly female sample and included a broader range of jobs. The results from this study strongly support a moderating eVect of SOC between emotional job strain and a


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measure of psychological stress symptoms very close to the measure of emotional stress symptoms used in the present study. In addition, SoÈderfeldt et al. (2000) found that the interaction strengthened the independent eVect of emotional job strain and weakened the independent eVect of SOC. In accordance with these ® ndings, all interactions in our study increased the independent eVects of the work environmental variables. In our study the independent eVects of SOC were reduced when interactions with con¯ icts were added, but when interactions with meaning at work and support from supervisors were added, the independent eVect of SOC was strongly increased. In a study by Vahtera, Pentti, and Uutela (1996), SOC was found to be negatively associated with spells of absence in active jobs but not in passive jobs, supporting a moderating eVect. In a study of former workers of a closed car factory, it was found that unemployment had a rather low impact on physical and psychological symptoms in the presence of a strong SOC. Furthermore, it was found that SOC had greater impact on psychological symptoms among the unemployed compared with the re-employed (Hanse, and Engstrom, 1999). In this study, it seemed as though SOC in fact had a moderating eVect on strain imposed by unemployment. 4.3.4. Gender diVerences: With regards to the main, mediating and moderating eVects, the results disclose gender diVerences. Most of the earlier studies in the ® eld are based on exclusively male samples (KivimaÈki et al., 1998), predominantly male (Feldt, 1997) or predominantly female samples (SoÈderfeldt et al., 2000). The only study in which gender balance is more equal (Feldt et al., 2000a), had a relatively small sample size (n= 219) and therefore could not divide the analysis by gender. The ® ndings from the present study con® rm the value of separating the analysis by gender. Without this diVerentiation, many of the eVects would have been concealed. However, it is not conclusive whether the diVerent results for men and women are due to the characteristics of this speci® c sample, with its biases regarding background variables, whether they are due to diVerent response tendencies in men and women, or whether they show real gender diVerences in the associations of the work environmental variables with stress symptoms, and in the eVect of SOC on these associations.

4.4. Conclusions To summarize, the present study supports a strong relationship between SOC and a range of diVerent stress symptoms. Employees with high levels of SOC experienced fewer stress symptoms. A mediating eVect of SOC was also supported. Generally, workers with a better psychosocial work environment reported higher SOC and experienced fewer stress symptoms. Some support for a moderating eVect of SOC was found too, suggesting that people with higher SOC coped better with work environmental strain than people with lower SOC. Although the moderating eVects were relatively few, the fact that they were present points to the need to include measures of individual factors, for instance SOC, in analyses of the eVects of work environmental factors on stress and well-being.

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