The Factorial Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Persian Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire

Babamiri, Mohammad,Siegrist, Johannes,Zemestani, Mehdi Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute 2018 Safety and health at work Vol.9 No.3

Background: With global changes in the current state of work and employment, the role of health-adverse psychosocial work environments has received increasing attention in developed as well as in rapidly developing countries. Thus, there is a need to apply valid measurement tools for monitoring and preventive purposes. This study aims to examine the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Persian version of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) questionnaire, assessing one of the internationally leading concepts of stressful work. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study of a random sample of 202 white collar employees in an industrial company in Iran analyzes the ERI scales by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Moreover, aspects of construct and criterion validity are tested. To this end, correlations of ERI scales with subscales of organizational injustice, a complementary work stress model, and also the correlations of ERI scales with a questionnaire assessing psychosomatic symptoms are performed. Results: Internal consistency of the three ERI scales was satisfactoryy (Cronbach ${\alpha}$ effort: 0.76, reward: 0.79, overcommitment: 0.75). Fit indices of confirmatory factor analsis pointed to an adequate representation of the theoretical construct (e.g., adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI): 0.73, goodness of fit index (GFI): 0.78). Negative correlations with subscales of organizational injustice supported the notion of construct validity of the ERI scales, and positive correlations of ERI scales with psychosomatic symptoms indicated preliminary criterion validity. Conclusion: The Persian version of the ERI questionnaire has acceptable psychometric properties and can be used as a valid instrument in research on this topic.

Effort-reward Imbalance at Work, Parental Support, and Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study from Chinese Dual-earner Families

Li, Jian,Loerbroks, Adrian,Siegrist, Johannes Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute 2017 Safety and health at work Vol.8 No.1

Background: In contemporary China, most parents are dual-earner couples and there is only one child in the family. We aimed to examine the associations of parents' work stress with suicidal ideation among the corresponding adolescent. We further hypothesized that low parental support experienced by adolescents may mediate the associations. Methods: Cross-sectional data from school students and their working parents were used, with 907 families from Kunming City, China. Stress at work was measured by the effort-reward imbalance questionnaire. Perceived parental support was assessed by an item on parental empathy and their willingness to communicate with the adolescent. Suicidal ideation was considered positive if students reported thoughts about suicide every month or more frequently during the previous 6 months. Logistic regression was used to examine the associations. Results: We observed that parents' work stress was positively associated with low parental support, which was in turn associated with adolescent suicidal ideation. The odds ratio for parents' work stress and adolescent suicidal ideation was 2.91 (95% confidence interval: 1.53-5.53), and this association was markedly attenuated to 2.24 (95% confidence interval: 1.15-4.36) after additional adjustment for parental support. Notably, mothers' work stress levels exerted stronger effects on children's suicidal ideation than those of fathers. Conclusion: Parents' work stress (particularly mother's work stress) was strongly associated with adolescent's suicidal ideation, and the association was partially mediated by low parental support. These results need to be replicated and extended in prospective investigations within and beyond China, in order to explore potential causal pathways as a basis of preventive action.

Centrifugal microfluidics for biomedical applications

Gorkin, Robert,Park, Jiwoon,Siegrist, Jonathan,Amasia, Mary,Lee, Beom Seok,Park, Jong-Myeon,Kim, Jintae,Kim, Hanshin,Madou, Marc,Cho, Yoon-Kyoung Royal Society of Chemistry 2010 Lab on a chip Vol.10 No.14

<P>The centrifugal microfluidic platform has been a focus of academic and industrial research efforts for almost 40 years. Primarily targeting biomedical applications, a range of assays have been adapted on the system; however, the platform has found limited commercial success as a research or clinical tool. Nonetheless, new developments in centrifugal microfluidic technologies have the potential to establish wide-spread utilization of the platform. This paper presents an in-depth review of the centrifugal microfluidic platform, while highlighting recent progress in the field and outlining the potential for future applications. An overview of centrifugal microfluidic technologies is presented, including descriptions of advantages of the platform as a microfluidic handling system and the principles behind centrifugal fluidic manipulation. The paper also discusses a history of significant centrifugal microfluidic platform developments with an explanation of the evolution of the platform as it pertains to academia and industry. Lastly, we review the few centrifugal microfluidic-based sample-to-answer analysis systems shown to date and examine the challenges to be tackled before the centrifugal platform can be more broadly accepted as a new diagnostic platform. In particular, fully integrated, easy to operate, inexpensive and accurate microfluidic tools in the area of <I>in vitro</I> nucleic acid diagnostics are discussed.</P> <P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>This paper presents an in-depth review of the centrifugal microfluidic platform for biomedical applications, while highlighting recent progress in the field and outlining the potential for future applications. <IMG SRC='http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=b924109d'> </P>

The Factorial Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Persian Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire

Mohammad Babamiri,Johannes Siegrist,Mehdi Zemestani 한국산업안전보건공단 산업안전보건연구원 2018 Safety and health at work Vol.9 No.3

Background: With global changes in the current state of work and employment, the role of healthadverse psychosocial work environments has received increasing attention in developed as well as in rapidly developing countries. Thus, there is a need to apply valid measurement tools for monitoring and preventive purposes. This study aims to examine the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Persian version of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) questionnaire, assessing one of the internationally leading concepts of stressful work. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study of a random sample of 202 white collar employees in an industrial company in Iran analyzes the ERI scales by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Moreover, aspects of construct and criterion validity are tested. To this end, correlations of ERI scales with subscales of organizational injustice, a complementary work stress model, and also the correlations of ERI scales with a questionnaire assessing psychosomatic symptoms are performed. Results: Internal consistency of the three ERI scales was satisfactory (Cronbach a effort: 0.76, reward: 0.79, overcommitment: 0.75). Fit indices of confirmatory factor analysis pointed to an adequate representation of the theoretical construct (e.g., adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI): 0.73, goodness of fit index (GFI): 0.78). Negative correlations with subscales of organizational injustice supported the notion of construct validity of the ERI scales, and positive correlations of ERI scales with psychosomatic symptoms indicated preliminary criterion validity. Conclusion: The Persian version of the ERI questionnaire has acceptable psychometric properties and can be used as a valid instrument in research on this topic.

Effortereward Imbalance at Work, Parental Support, and Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study from Chinese Dual-earner Families

Jian Li,Adrian Loerbroks,Johannes Siegrist 한국산업안전보건공단 산업안전보건연구원 2017 Safety and health at work Vol.8 No.1

Background: In contemporary China, most parents are dual-earner couples and there is only one child in the family. We aimed to examine the associations of parents’ work stress with suicidal ideation among the corresponding adolescent. We further hypothesized that low parental support experienced by adolescents may mediate the associations. Methods: Cross-sectional data from school students and their working parents were used, with 907 families from Kunming City, China. Stress at work was measured by the effortereward imbalance questionnaire. Perceived parental support was assessed by an item on parental empathy and their willingness to communicate with the adolescent. Suicidal ideation was considered positive if students reported thoughts about suicide every month or more frequently during the previous 6 months. Logistic regression was used to examine the associations. Results: We observed that parents’ work stress was positively associated with low parental support, which was in turn associated with adolescent suicidal ideation. The odds ratio for parents’ work stress and adolescent suicidal ideation was 2.91 (95% confidence interval: 1.53e5.53), and this association was markedly attenuated to 2.24 (95% confidence interval: 1.15e4.36) after additional adjustment for parental support. Notably, mothers’ work stress levels exerted stronger effects on children’s suicidal ideation than those of fathers. Conclusion: Parents’ work stress (particularly mother’s work stress) was strongly associated with adolescent’s suicidal ideation, and the association was partially mediated by low parental support. These results need to be replicated and extended in prospective investigations within and beyond China, in order to explore potential causal pathways as a basis of preventive action.

Paternal work stress and prolonged time to pregnancy.

Lee, Mi-Sun,Paek, Domyung,Eum, Ki-Do,Siegrist, Johannes,Li, Jian,Lee, Hye-Eun,Cho, Sung-Il Springer-Verlag 2009 INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRON Vol.82 No.2

<P>The aim of this study was to explore an association between psychosocial stress at work in married men and their spouses' prolonged time to pregnancy (TTP).</P>

Supersized contorted aromatics

Xiao, S.,Kang, S.,Wu, Y.,Ahn, S.,Kim, J.,Loo, Y. L.,Siegrist, T.,Steigerwald, M.,Li, H.,Nuckolls, C. THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY 2013 Chemical Science Vol.4 No.5