Abstract
We investigated the relationship between psychosocial work impact and life satisfaction in emergency medical service workers. Additionally we wanted to know if and how different coping strategies like avoidant-, problem-, emotion-oriented coping and humour influence this relationship or have an effect on life satisfaction. We hypothesized a negative relationship between psychosocial work impact and life satisfaction. Secondly, we hypothesized that this relationship is moderated by certain coping strategies. The use of humour for example is expected to weaken the relationship between psychosocial work demands and life satisfaction. Finally, we expected a direct influence of some coping strategies on life satisfaction. One of the expectations was a positive relationship between humour and life satisfaction. MethodGerman emergency medical service workers (n= 105) filled in a set of questionnaires consisting of: socio-demographic questions, four sub-tests of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Coping Humour Scale (CHS) and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS).ResultsFirstly, we found a negative relationship between psychosocial work impact and life satisfaction. None of the coping strategies moderated the relationship, but one, emotion–oriented coping, had a strong positive relationshipwith life satisfaction. We also found a strong negative correlation between emotion-oriented coping and psychosocial work impact.DiscussionThe strong negative correlation between psychosocial work impact and life satisfaction supports the hypothesis that a higher psychosocial work impact is associated with lower life satisfaction. Our results indicate that humour was not a moderator between psychosocial work impact and life satisfaction. This fact could not be explained by an under-use or non-use of humour, because the results show that this sample was using humour in a coping way. Finally, our results suggest that it is plausible to classify humour as a form of avoidant-oriented coping.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Book of Proceedings |
| Subtitle of host publication | 10th Conference of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology |
| Editors | Aditya Jain, David Hollis, Nicholas Andreou, Flavia Wehrle |
| Place of Publication | Nottingham, UK |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Pages | 163-163 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-0-9554365-9-8 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| Event | 10th European Conference on Occupational Health: The Contribution of Occupational Health Psychology to Individual, Organizational & Public Health - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - ETH, Zürich, Switzerland Duration: 11 Apr 2012 → 13 Apr 2012 |
Conference
| Conference | 10th European Conference on Occupational Health |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Switzerland |
| City | Zürich |
| Period | 11/04/12 → 13/04/12 |