| Abstract: | This study investigated whether positive work-related states—affective organizational commitment and experience of meaning at work—mediated the association between psychosocial work characteristics and turnover. A prospective cohort study was conducted among employees in eldercare services in Denmark. Employees no longer working in eldercare at follow-up were interviewed with questionnaires. Respondents to this questionnaire were coded as cases of turnover (n = 730) and were compared with employees who had not changed jobs during the follow-up period (n = 5,262). Data on positive work-related states and psychosocial work characteristics were measured at baseline in the cohort study. We used logistic regression analyses to investigate whether positive work-related states mediated the association between psychosocial work characteristics and turnover. Initial analyses showed that psychosocial work characteristics significantly predicted turnover. Subsequent analyses showed that affective organizational commitment and experience of meaning at work significantly reduced the risk of turnover, and the mediators attenuated the associations between psychosocial work characteristics and turnover. Accordingly, the results show that positive work-related states mediate the longitudinal association between psychosocial work characteristics and turnover. The results furthermore imply that turnover among staff in eldercare can be reduced by enhancing positive work-related states and improving the psychosocial work environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
