title: A causal relationship between sense of coherence and psycho-social work environment: from one-year follow-up data among Japanese young adult workers.
abstract: The aim of this study was to use longitudinal data and investigate by sex the following four hypotheses on the relationship between sense of coherence (SOC) and work environment (WE): (i) a bidirectional cause-effect relationship exists; (ii) WE is the cause and SOC is the effect; (iii) SOC is the cause and WE is the effect; and (iv) no cause-effect relationship exists. Male and female subjects between the ages of 20 and 40 living in Japan were selected as subjects by two-stage stratified random sampling, and self-administered questionnaires were sent by mail between January and March 2007 (Time 1). A follow-up was conducted in the same way from January to March of 2008 (Time 2). Responses were obtained from 3,965 individuals (follow-up ratio: 82.6%). This study analyzed 1,291 males and 933 females who were at least 25 years old at Time 1 and who worked the same job in both time periods. The analysis was performed using a cross-lagged model under structural equation modeling. The second hypothesis was selected for both males and females based on the outcome of nested model comparisons. That is, a temporal cause-effect relationship was observed between SOC and WE for both males and females, with WE as the cause and SOC as the effect.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Liberal Arts, The Open University of Japan, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Taisuke
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Togari
authors.forename: Yoshihiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D060685:Sense of Coherence; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology
keywords: health promotion; models; salutogenesis; theory; workplace