Work and General Psychological and Physical Well-Being

This article describes a study of the influence of job factors (e.g. job control, pay, etc.) on job attitudes (satisfaction, alienation, stress) as well as the joint influence of job factors and job attitudes on general psychological and physical well-being. Satisfaction/alienation and felt stress were found to be two different modes of response to work. Prestige, control, variety, and opportunity for promotion were powerful predictors of satisfaction/alienation. Number of deadlines and job overlap with family life were important predictors of stress. The job factors and job attitudes showed substantively important relationships to general well-being. The testing of various alternate hypotheses supported the inference of a causal work-health link. Implications of the findings are that work must be viewed in a wider context than simply as a form of economic activity if the well-being of the population is to be improved and that a focus on individual "life-styles" as causes of lowered well-being leads to neglect of the underlying social structural bases of disease.