Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Perceived work stress, imbalance between work and family/personal lives, and mental disorders

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Occupational mental health research has been focusing on the relationship between work stress and depression. However, the impacts of work stress on anxiety disorders and of imbalance between work and family life on workers’ mental health have not been well studied. This analysis investigated the association between levels of perceived work stress and of imbalance between work and family/personal lives and current mood/anxiety disorders.

Method

This was a cross-sectional study using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey—Mental Health and Well-being (CCHS-1.2) (n=36,984). Mood and anxiety disorders were measured using the World Mental Health—Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

Results

The 1-month prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders among those with a work stress score at the 75th percentile value and above was 3.6% and 4.0%. Among those who reported that their work and family/personal lives “never” balanced in the past month, the 1-month prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders was 21.2% and 17.9%. In multivariate analyses, work stress and imbalance between work and family/personal lives were independently associated with mood and anxiety disorders. There was no evidence that perceived work stress interacted with imbalance between work and family/personal lives to increase the likelihood of having mental disorders. Gender was associated with anxiety disorders, but not with major depressive disorder and mood disorders.

Conclusions

Work stress and imbalance between work and family/personal lives may be part of the etiology of mood and anxiety disorders in the working population. Community based longitudinal studies are needed to delineate the causal relationships among work stress, imbalance between work and family/personal lives and mental disorders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kessler RC, Frank RG (1997) The impact of psychiatric disorders on work loss days. Psychol Med 27:861–873

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Dewa CS, Lin E (2000) Chronic physical illness, psychiatric disorder and disability in the workplace. Soc Sci Med 51:41–50

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Stewart WF, Ricci JA, Chee E, Hahn SR, Morganstein D (2003) Cost of lost productive work time among US workers with depression. JAMA 289:3135–3144

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Karasek RA, Theorell T (1990) Healthy work: stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  5. Siegrist J (1996) Adverse health effects of high effort–low reward conditions at work. J Occup Health Psychol 1:27–43

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stansfeld SA, Fuhrer R, Shipley MJ, Marmot MG (1999) Work characteristics predict psychiatric disorder: prospective results from the Whitehall II Study. Occup Environ Med 56: 302–307

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ferrie JE, Shipley MJ, Newman K, Stansfeld SA, Marmot MG (2005) Self-reported job insecurity and health in the Whitehall II study: potential explanations of the relationship. Soc Sci Med 60:1593–1602

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Paterniti S, Niedhammer I, Lang T, Consoli SM (2002) Psychosocial factors at work, personality traits and depressive symptoms. Longitudinal results from the GAZEL Study. Br J Psychiatry 181:111–117

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Griffin JM, Fuhrer R, Stansfeld SA, Marmot M (2002) The importance of low control at work and home on depression and anxiety: do these effects vary by gender and social class? Soc Sci Med 54:783–798

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Niedhammer I, Goldberg M, Leclerc A, Bugel I, David S (1998) Psychosocial factors at work and subsequent depressive symptoms in the Gazel cohort. Scand J Work Environ Health 24:197–205

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bultmann U, Kant IJ, Van den Brandt PA, Kasl SV (2002) Psychosocial work characteristics as risk factors for the onset of fatigue and psychological distress: prospective results from the Maastricht Cohort Study. Psychol Med 32:333–345

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Wang J (2004) Perceived work stress and major depressive episode(s) in a population of employed Canadians over 18 years old. J Nerv Ment Dis 192:160–163

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Wang J (2005) Work stress as a risk factor for major depressive episode(s). Psychol Med 35:865–871

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Kendler KS, Prescott CA, Myers J, Neale MC (2003) The structure of genetic and environmental risk factors for common psychiatric and substance use disorders in men and women. Arch Gen Psychiatry 60:929–937

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Allen TD, Herst DE, Bruck CS, Sutton M (2000) Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. J Occup Health Psychol 5:278–308

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Kossek EE, Ozeki C (1998) Work–family conflict policies and the job–life satisfaction relationship: a review and directions for future organizational behavior–human resources research. J Appl Psychol 83:139–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Chandola T, Martikainen P, Bartley M (2004) Does conflict between home and work explain the effect of multiple roles on mental health? A comparative study of Finland, Japan, and the UK. Int J Epidemiol 33:884–893

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Aryee S, Srinivas ES, Tan HH (2005) Rhythms of life: antecedents and outcomes of work–family balance in employed parents. J Appl Psychol 90(1):132–146

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. The Canadian Association of Administrators of Labour Legislation (2002) Work–life balance: a report to ministers responsible for labour in Canada. On-line access (March 2, 2005): http://www.workandfamilybalance.com/publications.htm

  20. Gravel R, Beland Y (2005) The Canadian Community Health Survey: mental health and well-being. Can J Psychiatry 50:573–579

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  22. Karasek R, Brisson C, Kawakami N, Houtman I, Bongers P, Amick B (1998) The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): an instrument for internationally comparative assessments of psychosocial job characteristics. J Occup Health Psychol 3:322–355

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. McDowell I, Newell C (1996) Measuring health: a guide to rating scales and questionnaires, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  24. Boyle GJ (1985) Self-report measures of depression: some psychometric considerations. Br J Clin Psychol 24:45–59

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. StataCorp (2003) Stata statistical software: release 8.0. Stata Corporation, College Station, TX

    Google Scholar 

  26. Blazer D, George LK, Landerman R, Pennybacker M, Melville ML, Woodbury M, Manton KG, Jordan K, Locke B (1985) Psychiatric disorders: a rural/urban comparison. Arch Gen Psychiatry 42:651–656

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Bijl RV, Ravelli A, van Zessen G (1998) Prevalence of psychiatric disorder in the general population: results of The Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS). Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 33:587–595

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Murphy JM, Laird NM, Monson RR, Sobol AM, Leighton AH (2000) A 40-year perspective on the prevalence of depression: the Stirling County Study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 57:209–215

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Wang J, Patten SB (2001) Perceived work stress and major depression in the Canadian employed population, 20–49-years-old. J Occup Health Psychol 6:283–289

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Mausner-Dorsch H, Eaton WW (2000) Psychosocial work environment and depression: epidemiologic assessment of the demand–control model. Am J Public Health 90:1765–1770

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Patten SB (2001) Long-term medical conditions and major depression in a Canadian population study at waves 1 and 2. J Affect Dis 63:35–41

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Currie SR, Wang J (2004) Chronic back pain and major depression in the general Canadian population. Pain 107:54– 60

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

This study was partly supported by a research grant from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation. JianLi Wang is supported by the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The research and data analysis are done using the data from Statistics Canada. However, the opinions and views expressed do not represent those of Statistics Canada.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Room 127, Heritage Medical Research Building 3330 Hospital Dr. NW, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 4N1

    Jian Li Wang

Authors
  1. Jian Li Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jian Li Wang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, J. Perceived work stress, imbalance between work and family/personal lives, and mental disorders. Soc Psychiat Epidemiol 41, 541–548 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0058-y

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0058-y

Key words

Search

Navigation