Job strain at age 45 predicted mental health problems five years later.
Toxic jobs that have high demands along with low levels of control increase the risk of mental illness, research finds.
The study’s authors estimate that reducing job strain could prevent 14% of new mental health cases from occurring.
Job strain includes two factors:
High demand: can come from a high work pace, conflicting demands, difficult co-workers, high intensity etc..
Low levels of control: having little control over how the work is done. An inability to make decisions relevant to the work.
The study analysed 6,870 people in the UK at ages 45 and 50.
They found that job strain at age 45 predicted mental health problems five years later.
Dr Samuel Harvey, the study’s lead author, said:
“The results indicate that if we were able to eliminate job strain situations in the workplace, up to 14 percent of cases of common mental illness could be avoided.
Workplaces can adopt a range of measures to reduce job strain, and finding ways to increase workers’ perceived control of their work is often a good practical first step.
This can be achieved through initiatives that involve workers in as many decisions as possible.”
People need discretion in how they do their jobs along with control over the pace of work and how to deal with conflicting demands — or it can make them ill.
Dr Harvey said:
“These findings serve as a wake-up call for the role workplace initiatives should play in our efforts to curb the rising costs of mental disorders.
It’s important to remember that for most people, being in work is a good thing for their mental health.
But this research provides strong evidence that organisations can improve employee wellbeing by modifying their workplaces to make them more mentally healthy.”
The study was published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry (Harvey et al., 2018).
Author: Dr Jeremy Dean
Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. View all posts by Dr Jeremy Dean