The Demand–Control Model as a Predictor of Depressive Symptoms—Interaction and Differential Subscale Effects: Prospective Analyses of 2212 German Employees

Hermann Burr, Grit Müller, Uwe Rose, Maren Formazin, Thomas Clausen, Anika Schulz, Hanne Berthelsen, Guy Potter, Angelo d’Errico and Anne Pohrt
Additional contact information
Hermann Burr: Unit 3.2 Psychosocial Factors and Mental Health, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), 13017 Berlin, Germany
Grit Müller: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), 10317 Berlin, Germany
Uwe Rose: Unit 3.2 Psychosocial Factors and Mental Health, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), 13017 Berlin, Germany
Maren Formazin: Unit 3.0 Work and Health, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), 10317 Berlin, Germany
Thomas Clausen: National Research Centre for the Working Environment, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Anika Schulz: Unit 3.2 Psychosocial Factors and Mental Health, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), 13017 Berlin, Germany
Hanne Berthelsen: Centre for Work Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA) & the Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, 211 19 Malmö, Sweden
Guy Potter: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27701, USA
Angelo d’Errico: Department of Epidemiology, Local Health Unit ASL TO 3, Piedmont Region, 10095 Turin, Italy
Anne Pohrt: Department of Medical Psychology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, 10317 Berlin, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-13

Abstract: Testing assumptions of the widely used demand–control (DC) model in occupational psychosocial epidemiology, we investigated (a) interaction, i.e., whether the combined effect of low job control and high psychological demands on depressive symptoms was stronger than the sum of their single effects (i.e., superadditivity) and (b) whether subscales of psychological demands and job control had similar associations with depressive symptoms. Logistic longitudinal regression analyses of the 5-year cohort of the German Study of Mental Health at Work (S-MGA) 2011/12–2017 of 2212 employees were conducted. The observed combined effect of low job control and high psychological demands on depressive symptoms did not indicate interaction (RERI = ?0.26, 95% CI = ?0.91; 0.40). When dichotomizing subscales at the median, differential effects of subscales were not found. When dividing subscales into categories based on value ranges, differential effects for job control subscales (namely, decision authority and skill discretion) were found ( p = 0.04). This study does not support all assumptions of the DC model: (1) it corroborates previous studies not finding an interaction of psychological demands and job control; and (2) signs of differential subscale effects were found regarding job control. Too few prospective studies have been carried out regarding differential subscale effects.

Keywords: interaction; superadditivity; differential effects; demand control model; skill discretion; decision authority (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8328/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8328/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8328-:d:609595

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().