title: The experience of demanding work environments in younger workers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Investigating whether certain individual or background characteristics are associated with an increased risk of experiencing an excessively demanding work environment in younger workers may help to reduce future inequality in health and maximize their labour market participation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the work environment of Danish 20- to 21-year olds and to investigate the influence of family socioeconomic background and individual characteristics at age 14-15 on later experience of physical and psychosocial work environments.
  
  
  METHODS
  We obtained information on subjects' school performance, vulnerability, health and parental socioeconomic status from registers and a questionnaire completed in 2004. A questionnaire concerning eight measures of subjects' psychosocial and physical work environment in 2010 was used to determine the outcomes of interest.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study population consisted of 679 younger workers aged 20-21. The psychosocial work environment was in general good but younger workers experienced more demanding physical work than the general working population. Overall, individual as well as family factors had a limited impact on their assessment of the work environment. Low self-esteem at age 14-15 was associated with experiencing high demands and lack of trust and fairness at work, whereas low parental socioeconomic status was associated with a demanding physical work environment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed a social gradient in experiencing a demanding physical work environment at age 20-21. The psychosocial work environment experienced by younger workers was generally good, but vulnerable young people may need special attention to protect them from or prepare them for psychosocially demanding jobs later in life.
authors.affiliation: Danish Ramazzini Centre, Department of Occupational Medicine, Regional Hospital Herning, 7400 Herning, Denmark, trwind@rm.dk.
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Winding
authors.affiliation: Danish Ramazzini Centre, Department of Occupational Medicine, Regional Hospital Herning, 7400 Herning, Denmark, Department of Clinical Social Medicine, Public Health and Quality Management, Central Denmark Region and Section of Clinical Social Med, and Rehabilitation, School of Public Health, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Labriola
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark, Department of Public Health, Section for Epidemiology, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Nohr
authors.affiliation: Danish Ramazzini Centre, Department of Occupational Medicine, Regional Hospital Herning, 7400 Herning, Denmark.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Andersen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000592:standards; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014938:Work Capacity Evaluation; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Childhood exposure; cohort study; risk factors; work environment; younger workers.