Abstract
In the literature on occupational stress and recovery from work, several facets of thinking about work during off-job time have been conceptualized. However, research on the focal concepts is currently rather diffuse. In this study we take a closer look at the five most well-established concepts: (1) psychological detachment, (2) affective rumination, (3) problem-solving pondering, (4) positive work reflection, and (5) negative work reflection. More specifically, we scrutinized (1) whether the five facets of work-related rumination are empirically distinct, (2) whether they yield differential associations with different facets of employee well-being (burnout, work engagement, thriving, satisfaction with life, and flourishing), and (3) to what extent the five facets can be distinguished from and relate to conceptually similar constructs, such as irritation, worry, and neuroticism. We applied structural equation modeling techniques to cross-sectional survey data from 474 employees. Our results provide evidence for (1) five correlated, yet empirically distinct facets of work-related rumination. (2) Each facet yields a unique pattern of association with the eight aspects of employee well-being. For instance, detachment is strongly linked to satisfaction with life and flourishing. Affective rumination is linked particularly to burnout. Problem-solving pondering and positive work reflection yield the strongest links to work engagement. (3) The five facets of work-related rumination are distinct from related concepts, although there is a high overlap between (lower levels of) psychological detachment and cognitive irritation. Our study contributes to clarifying the structure of work-related rumination and extends the nomological network around different types of thinking about work during off-job time and employee well-being.
Highlights
There is a large body of research in occupational health psychology and other fields that suggests that unwinding after work during off-job time is important to avoid health-impairing effects [1].Several approaches in occupational stress research assume that work-related rumination prolongs stress-related affective and physiological activation and contributes to impairing somatic health in the long run [2,3]
Wang and colleagues [35] found no significant association between neuroticism and rumination about customer mistreatment at the between-person level. (Their measure tapped into aspects of lack of detachment and affective rumination due to customer mistreatment.) In sum, these findings suggest that the strength of association between neuroticism is dependent upon the facet of work-related rumination considered
Our results suggest that interventions aimed at reducing burnout may be more effective when targeted at reducing negative aspects of work-related rumination rather than positive aspects
Summary
There is a large body of research in occupational health psychology and other fields that suggests that unwinding after work during off-job time is important to avoid health-impairing effects [1]. Several approaches in occupational stress research assume that work-related rumination prolongs stress-related affective and physiological activation and contributes to impairing somatic health in the long run [2,3]. The concept of psychological detachment or sense of “being away from the work situation” [4,5] Cropley and colleagues [8] argue that lack of detachment may be one, but not the only, relevant aspect of thinking about work in leisure time. Besides (lack of) psychological detachment, they have distinguished two additional aspects of thinking. Public Health 2019, 16, 2987; doi:10.3390/ijerph16162987 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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