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Attenuating the impact of job demands: Additive and interactive effects of perceived control and social support

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Abstract

The study investigated the combined additive and interactive effects of psychosocial resources, perceived control (PC) and social support (SS), on psychological outcomes of job demands. Previous studies looked at their effects separately. The study adopted the expanded Job Demands-Control-Support (JD-CS) model. It addressed existing criticisms of many studies based on the original JD-C model, by using a broad spectrum measure of job demands, a more valid PC index, and modeling statistical interactions. The results among 267 female social workers indicate that PC and SS exert an additive effect in attenuating the impact of job demands. The lowest burnout level and the highest job satisfaction were found under conditions of low stress, i.e. low demands, high PC, and high SS. The opposite occurred under high stress, i.e., high demands, low PC, and low SS. As in most other studies of the JD-C or the JD-C-S models, no evidence of an interactive effect was found.

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    The study was partially supported by a grant from the Committee for Research and Prevention in Occupational Health, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Jerusalem, Israel.

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