title: Association between workplace psychosocial factors and mental health in Black, Hispanic, and White women: Cross-sectional findings from the National Health Interview Survey.
abstract: Research evaluating the relation of workplace psychosocial factors to mental health among U.S. women of different racial/ethnic backgrounds is limited. This study investigated the relationship between work-related psychosocial factors and mental health among non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White women using data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey. Independent variables of interest included job insecurity, workplace harassment, and work-family conflict (WFC). Multiple Poisson regression models were used to examine the associations between the outcome and independent variables. The prevalence of unfavorable mental health was highest among non-Hispanic Black women (36%) compared to Hispanic (34%) and non-Hispanic White (30%) women. A higher proportion of non-Hispanic Black women reported WFC compared to Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites (χ2= 15.50, p < .01), while more Hispanics reported job insecurity (χ2= 116.81, p < .01). Prevalence of workplace harassment did not differ significantly by race/ethnicity. Odds of unfavorable mental health were significantly higher for women reporting psychosocial work factors. Unexpectedly, a greater association between psychosocial work factors and unfavorable mental health was observed among non-Hispanic White women compared to non-White women; however, caution should be taken in interpreting these cross-sectional results. Future studies should investigate temporal associations and additional psychosocial variables that were not available for use in the current study.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Preventive Medicine & Community Health , University of Texas Medical Branch , Galveston , Texas , USA.
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mutambudzi
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D016272:Occupational Health; D011287:Prejudice; D015995:Prevalence; D017406:Sexual Harassment / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D000072358:Work-Life Balance; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Job insecurity; mental health; psychosocial; race; work-life conflict; work-related stress; workplace harassment