Hostility and ill health: role of psychosocial resources in two contexts of working life

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which inc reased risk to health problems in hostile employees is associated with psyc hosocial resources and life context. Methods: Social relationships, job con trol, and sickness absence were assessed among 757 hostile and nonhostile m unicipal employees in two life contexts: during a stressful organizational downsizing; and during a period after the downsizing. The follow-up time wa s 550 person-years for men and 1677 person-pears for women during the perio d of downsizing, and 519 person-years for men and 1568 person-years for wom en during the period after downsizing. Results: The risk of sick leave was 1.2-1.4-fold higher in the hostile individuals than in the others. Small ne twork size in hostile employees related to a 1.4-2.5-fold higher risk of si ck leave compared to large network size. In nonhostile employees, network s ize did not associate with sick leave. Poor job control effected a 50% high er risk of sick leave in hostile than in nonhostile individuals during down sizing. During the less stressful period? both hostility and poor job contr ol increased absence rates independently of one another. Strong spouse supp ort protected only nonhostile employees from sickness. No differences betwe en hostile and nonhostile employees were found in the levels of psychosocia l resources or changes in them. Conclusion: The risk of health problems in hostile persons could be linked with heightened vulnerability in poor psych osocial resource conditions and with the inability to benefit from existing psychosocial resources. Such personal deficits seem to be resource-specifi c and vary somewhat according to an individual's life; context. (C) 2000 El sevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.