title: Persistent and contemporaneous effects of job stressors on mental health: a study testing multiple analytic approaches across 13 waves of annually collected cohort data.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated the extent that psychosocial job stressors had lasting effects on a scaled measure of mental health. We applied econometric approaches to a longitudinal cohort to: (1) control for unmeasured individual effects; (2) assess the role of prior (lagged) exposures of job stressors on mental health and (3) the persistence of mental health.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a panel study with 13 annual waves and applied fixed-effects, first-difference and fixed-effects Arellano-Bond models. The Short Form 36 (SF-36) Mental Health Component Summary score was the outcome variable and the key exposures included: job control, job demands, job insecurity and fairness of pay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results from the Arellano-Bond models suggest that greater fairness of pay (β-coefficient 0.34, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.45), job control (β-coefficient 0.15, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.20) and job security (β-coefficient 0.37, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.42) were contemporaneously associated with better mental health. Similar results were found for the fixed-effects and first-difference models. The Arellano-Bond model also showed persistent effects of individual mental health, whereby individuals' previous reports of mental health were related to their reporting in subsequent waves. The estimated long-run impact of job demands on mental health increased after accounting for time-related dynamics, while there were more minimal impacts for the other job stressor variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results showed that the majority of the effects of psychosocial job stressors on a scaled measure of mental health are contemporaneous except for job demands where accounting for the lagged dynamics was important.
authors.affiliation: Work, Health and Wellbeing Unit, Centre for Population Health Research, School of Health & Social Development, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Milner
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Zoe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Aitken
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kavanagh
authors.affiliation: Work, Health and Wellbeing Unit, Centre for Population Health Research, School of Health & Social Development, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: LaMontagne
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Petrie
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D015279:Organizational Culture; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: lagged effects; psychosocial job stressors