Chronic job stressors and job control: Effects on event‐related coping success and well‐being

Abstract

The present study investigates how chronic work characteristics relate to situational work characteristics, and their effect on outcomes such as well‐being, problem solving, and calming down. It also examines how the relationship between situational work characteristics and coping strategies affect these outcomes. Based on an event‐sampling approach, 23 employees of a counselling agency reported 120 stressful events over 7 days, yielding 92 work‐related and 28 private events. Multi‐level analyses revealed that with regard to chronic conditions, job control was positively associated with successful calming down and problem solving in stressful situations, whereas job stressors were negatively related to immediate well‐being. Chronic stressors and job control can be seen as ‘background’ variables that influence the response to stressful events. For situational factors, stressfulness was negatively associated and controllability was positively associated with immediate well‐being and problem solving. In addition, problem‐focused coping predicted positively situation‐related success in calming down and problem solving. An effect on well‐being was found when situational controllability was high, confirming the active coping rule of Perrez and Reicherts (1992). Palliative coping was positively related to successful calming down.