A new paper in Social Science & Medicine explores caring climate at work and its impact on work outcomes and employee well-being.
“Psychological caring climate at work, mental health well-being, and work-related outcomes: Evidence from a longitudinal study and health insurance data,” authored by Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Matthew T. Lee, Richard G. Cowden, Piotr Bialowolski, Ying Chen, Tyler J. VanderWeele and Eileen McNeely, looked at longitudinal evidence on the associations of psychological caring climate (PCC) with subsequent diagnosed depression and anxiety, subjective well-being, and self-reported work outcomes. Employees of a US organization with a worker well-being program provided data for the analysis. Longitudinal survey data merged with data from personnel files and health insurance claims records comprising medical information on diagnosis of depression and anxiety were used to regress each outcome on PCC at baseline, adjusting for prior values of all outcomes and other covariates. PCC was found to be associated with lower odds of subsequent diagnosed depression, an increase in overall well-being, mental health, physical health, social connectedness, and financial security, as well as a decrease in distraction at work, an increase in productivity/engagement and possibly in job satisfaction.
Read the full paper.