O-073 Differences in Psychosocial Risk Exposure Across International Standard Classification of Occupations Groups

Introduction Psychosocial stressors at work are differentially associated with strain outcomes, depending on occupational sector, level of education, hierarchical level, and occupational status. The aim of this study is to derive risk profiles for employees’ exposure to psychosocial job stressors in different occupations across International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO)-groups. Knowledge of these exposure profiles is an important prerequisite for deriving occupational safety and health measures tailored to the specific requirements of different occupational groups. Methods We assessed psychosocial job stressors across eight job characteristics using data of n = 10162 employees from 48 companies in Germany. We used linear mixed effects modeling to determine the amount of variance in employees’ exposure to job stressors attributable to occupation and visualize psychosocial risk profiles across ISCO groups. For a subsample, we also model stressor-strain relationships across ISCO major groups. Results Interclass correlation coefficients (ICC1) indicate up to 31% of the variance in exposure to job stressors is attributable to clustering. ISCO major groups yield different patterns of exposure to job stressors and varying slopes for the association of job stress and employee wellbeing. Discussion and conclusion Our results add to prior research findings on varying stressor-strain association across occupations by shedding light on how different occupations are exposed to different psychosocial risks. These findings provide practical information for professionals in charge of deriving occupational health and safety measures tailored to the specific exposure profiles of occupational groups.