ORIGINAL PAPER
Temperament risk factor for mental health disturbances in the judiciary staff
More details
Hide details
1
Stowarzyszenie Zdrowa Praca / Association for Occupational Health, Warszawa, Poland
2
Warszawskie Centrum Zdrowia / Warsaw Medical Centre, Warszawa, Poland
3
Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie / Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Warszawa, Poland
(Instytut Psychologii / Institute of Psychology)
Online publication date: 2017-05-09
Corresponding author
Katarzyna Orlak
Stowarzyszenie Zdrowa Praca, ul. Grzybowska 87, 00-844 Warszawa
Med Pr Work Health Saf. 2017;68(3):375-90
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background: The aim of this paper was to examine how temperament might moderate the health impact of psychosocial hazards
at work and thus to attempt to identify the temperament risk factor in the judiciary staff. Material and Methods: The data were
collected from 355 court employees, including judges, judicial assistants, court clerks and service workers from criminal, civil,
commercial as well as from labor and social insurance divisions. The psychosocial work environment was measured with the Psychosocial
Working Conditions Questionnaire by Cieślak and Widerszal-Bazyl, temperament with Cloninger’s Temperament and
Character Inventory adopted by Hornowska and employee health status was screened with Goldberg’s General Health Questionnaire-
28 (GHQ-28) adopted by Makowska and Merecz. The health impact of job strain with moderating effects of temperament
traits was estimated with logistic regression (forward stepwise selection based on the likelihood ratio for the model). Results: The
analyses confirmed the moderating role of temperament in the health consequences of work-related stress. High score in novelty
seeking was identified as independent temperament risk factor for mental health disturbances in judiciary staff facing at least medium
job demands. The job control was a protective factor while relative risk of negative health outcomes was also elevated due to
female gender. Conclusions: Temperament may control sensitivity to the environmental exposure to psychosocial hazards at work
and its health consequences. Further research is needed to explore and understand better the moderating role of temperament
in the relation between job stress (strain) and health in different vocational groups and workplaces. Med Pr 2017;68(3):375–390