Ten years on: A review of recent research on the Job Demand–Control (-Support) model and psychological well-being

Abstract

In 1999, van der Doef and Maes published a systematic review focusing on the Job-Demand–Control (JDC) model (Karasek, 1979) and the Job Demand–Control (-Support) (JDCS) model (Johnson & Hall, 1988) in relation to psychological well-being. Their review covered the period from 1979 to 1997. The present paper updates and extends this review. Covering research from 83 studies published between 1998 and 2007, our review revealed three major results: First, support for additive effects of demands, control, and social support on general psychological well-being is almost always found if the sample size is sufficient. Second, although there was consistent evidence for additive effects in relation to job-related well-being in cross-sectional studies, support rates were lower in longitudinal data. Thus, reciprocal or reversed causation might account for part of the association between JDC/JDCS dimensions and job-related well-being. Finally, evidence for interactive effects as predicted by the buffer hypotheses of the JDC/JDCS model was very weak overall. However, the pattern of results indicates that this is due neither to spurious evidence for such interactions nor to small effect sizes. Instead, our results suggest that buffering effects depend on whether or not demands and control are based on qualitatively identical JDC/JDCS dimensions (matching principle).