Sedentary work and participation in leisure\u2013time physical activity

Sven Van As,Sabine A E Geurts,Michiel A J Kompier,Wendela Hooftman,Debby G J Beckers,Harm Veling

doi:10.1007/s00420-021-01750-7

Abstract

ObjectiveDemanding psychosocial work characteristics, such as high job demands, can have a detrimental impact on leisure–time physical activity (LTPA), with adverse consequences for employee health and well-being. However, the mechanisms and moderators of this crossover effect are still largely unknown. We therefore aimed to identify and test potential mediating and moderating factors from within and outside the work environment. Based on the previous research, we expected job demands to be negatively related to LTPA through fatigue. In addition, we expected that job control and worktime control would attenuate the relationship between job demands and fatigue. Furthermore, we hypothesized that autonomous exercise motivation and spontaneous action planning would attenuate the relationship between fatigue and LTPA. In addition to these cross-sectional hypotheses, we expected the same effects to predict a change in LTPA in the following year.MethodsTo investigate these assumptions, a preregistered longitudinal survey study was conducted among a large sample of Dutch employees in sedentary jobs. Participants reported on the constructs of interest in 2017 and 2018 (N = 1189 and 665 respectively) and the resulting data were analyzed using path analyses.ResultsOur cross-sectional analyses confirm a weak indirect, negative association between job demands and LTPA, via fatigue. However, this finding was not observed in our longitudinal analyses and none of the other hypotheses were confirmed.ConclusionThis study shows that, among employees with relatively healthy psychosocial work characteristics (i.e., high job control), the evidence for an impact of these work characteristics on participation in LTPA is limited.

Highlights

Worldwide, more than a quarter of the adult population is insufficiently physically active (Guthold et al 2018; Hallal et al 2012)
No evidence was found that autonomous motivation or spontaneous action planning buffered against a negative association between fatigue and leisure–time physical activity (LTPA)
Our results provide no support for the expectation that autonomous motivation or spontaneous action planning help fatigued employees to overcome their intolerance for effortful activities such as LTPA (Gollwitzer and Sheeran 2006; Werner et al 2016; hypothesis 5a and 5b, respectively)

Summary

Introduction

More than a quarter of the adult population is insufficiently physically active (Guthold et al 2018; Hallal et al 2012). Empirical evidence from longitudinal cohort studies, daily diary studies and experimental investigations suggests that high quantitative job demands (further referred to as job demands) such as time pressure and having much work to do, are associated with lower levels of physical activity during leisure time (Abdel Hadi et al 2020; Fransson et al 2012; Häusser et al 2018; Häusser and Mojzisch 2017) Such findings are devastating because high job demands in itself already put employees at risk for developing ill-health and mental issues (Demerouti et al 2001; Häusser et al 2010; Karasek 1979) and leisure–time physical activity (LTPA) could act as a buffer against these negative consequences of demanding work (Sonnentag 2018). This indicates that especially employees who could benefit from physical activity find it difficult to be physically active during leisure time

Results

Discussion

Conclusion