Age-specific Effects of Shift Work and Age Structure Analysis on Psychological Well-being

Abstract

As the global workforce ages, it has become more important to understand how the effects of seemingly age-neutral practices change across working lives. Shift work has been shown to have stronger negative effects on the physical health of older workers, however the age-specific effects of shift work on psychological well-being is poorly understood despite the changes to cognitive, social, and emotional resources associated with age. Moreover, the role of the organization in setting human resource practices and policies may also in part determine the strength of the age-specific effects of shift work on psychological well-being. Using mixed effects and marginal effects analyses in a large linked dataset of German employees and employers, the present study draws on selection, optimization, and compensation theory to examine the relationship between shift work and psychological well-being at each year of age between 18 and 67 in establishments that do and do not conduct an age structure analysis of their employees. Results show that in establishments that do not conduct an age structure analysis, shift work is associated with increasingly lower psychological well-being with age. In establishments that do conduct such an analysis, effects of shift work on psychological well-being are more consistent across age.