Caring for the elderly at work and home: Can a randomized organizational intervention improve psychological health?

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Jeremy W. Bray, Professor and Department Head (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Interest is growing in organizational stress interventions designed to create psychologically healthy work environments (Anger et al., 2015) by increasing job resources of support and control to improve employee well-being (Hammer, Saksvik, Nytrø, Torvatn, & Bayazit, 2004; Murta, Sanderson, & Oldenburg, 2007; Nielsen, Randall, Holten, & Gonzalez, 2010). Yet studies often have weak designs, a positive bias, or lack a true control group (Biron, Cooper, & Gibbs, 2011; Biron, Karinka-Murray, & Cooper, 2011; Richardson & Rothstein, 2008; Semmer, 2006). Relatively few organizational intervention studies use group-randomized assignment, measure the sustainability of effects over time, or use rigorous “intent-to-treat” analysis, which is referred to as “once randomized, always analyzed” (Gupta, 2011, p. 1). These are critical gaps, as they limit our ability to make causal inferences on the intervention efficacy (Noblet & LaMontagne, 2008). Workplace intervention studies also overlook influences of employees’ nonwork caregiving demands (cf. Bono, Glomb, Shen, Kim, & Koch, 2013; Clauss et al., 2016), which are highly relevant to occupations at risk for high strain and with similar task demands. In particular, professional health care workers (often female) may face fatigue from caring for the elderly while simultaneously caring for family members off the job (Ward-Griffin, St-Amantr, & Brown, 2011).

Additional Information

Publication
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(1)
Language: English
Date: 2017
Keywords
job stress, elder care, organizational intervention, work-family, health care

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