title: Social organizational stressors and post-disaster mental health disturbances: a longitudinal study.
abstract: Social organizational stressors are well-known predictors of mental health disturbances (MHD). However, to what extent these stressors predict post-disaster MHD among employed victims hardly received scientific attention and is clearly understudied. For this purpose we examined to what extent these stressors independently predict MHD 1.5 years post-disaster over and above well-known risk factors such as disaster exposure, initial MHD and lack of general social support, life-events in the past 12 months and demographics (N=423). Exposure, social organizational stressors and support were significantly associated with almost all examined mental health disturbances on a bi-variate level. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that these stressors, i.e. problems with colleagues, independently predicted anxiety (Adj. OR=5.93), depression (Adj. OR=4.21), hostility (Adj. OR=2.85) and having two or more mental health disturbances (Adj. OR=3.39) in contrast to disaster exposure. Disaster exposure independently predicted symptoms of PTSD symptoms (Adj. OR=2.47) and agoraphobia (Adj. OR=2.15) in contrast to social organizational stressors. Importantly, levels of disaster exposure were not associated nor correlated with (levels of) social organizational stressors. Findings suggest that post-disaster mental health care programs aimed at employed affected residents, should target social organizational stressors besides disaster-related stressors and lack of general social support.
authors.affiliation: INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands; Institute for Psychotrauma, Diemen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: pg.vandervelden@tilburguniversity.edu.
authors.forename: Peter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: van der Velden
authors.affiliation: INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mark W G
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Bosmans
authors.affiliation: Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bogaerts
authors.affiliation: Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marc J P M
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: van Veldhoven
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Disaster; Hostility; Organizational stress; PTSD; Social support