Browsing by Author "Pekkala, Jutta"

The aim of the study. On the one hand, it has been at the center of discussion that stress and strain at work can drive people to burnout or to other mental health disorders. On the other hand, work can also support people’s mental health. In this study it has been examined whether there is an association between job strain and positive mental health experienced in young adults. Job Demand-Control model has been chosen to examine this association. Additionally, in this study personality has been taken into account, and whether positive affect is a confounder behind the possible association between job strain and positive mental health. Methods. In this study psychological data from Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project’s (STRIP) 20- and 25-year follow-up studies were utilized. The data has been gathered by using self-assessment questionnaires. Stress at work was studied by using the Job Demand-Control model’s work stress measure and job strain variables were formed based on the replies. The short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing measure was used to examine positive mental health and positive affect was examined with the short Positive and Negative Affect Schedule measure. The analyses were conducted by linear regression analysis without removing missing values and due to this, the sample size varied between 229 and 239 people. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to take the loss of sample size into account. Results and conclusions. Job strain did not have an association to positive mental health and due to this, it was not meaningful to explore the confounding effect of positive affect between those variables. Between the job strain’s other component – i.e., job control – and positive mental health there was an association. The association seemed to disappear when positive affect was added to the study, and it seems that positive affect is a confounding factor behind job control and positive mental health.