title: Proximal and distal determinants of stressful work: framework and analysis of retrospective European data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While robust evidence on associations of stressful work with health exists, less research is available on determinants of stressful work in terms of respondents' characteristics (proximal factors) and in terms of national labour market policies (distal factors). In this article we analyse proximal (childhood circumstances and labour market disadvantage) and distal determinants (national compensation and integration policies) of stressful work in a comprehensive framework.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use data from the third wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), with retrospective information on individual life courses collected among 11181 retired men and women in 13 European countries (2008-2009). To test our hypotheses we estimate multilevel regression models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show that stressful work is related to disadvantaged circumstances during childhood. To some extent this association is explained by labour market disadvantage during adulthood. Additionally, well developed labour market integration policies are related to lower overall levels of stressful work at national level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This analysis provides first evidence of important determinants of stressful work, both in terms of pre-employment conditions (childhood circumstances) and in terms of contextual macro-social policies.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health and Society, Institute for Medical Sociology, University of Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. wahrendorf@uni-duesseldorf.de.
authors.forename: Morten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wahrendorf
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Siegrist
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D012179:Retirement / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013315:Stress, Psychological