Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Department of Psychology, Clemson University.
J Appl Psychol. 2014 Jul;99(4):759-769. doi: 10.1037/a0035729. Epub 2014 Feb 3.
Despite multiple calls for research, there has been little effort to incorporate topics regarding mortality salience and death anxiety into workplace literature. As such, the goals of the current study were to (a) examine how trait differences in death anxiety relate to employee occupational health outcomes and (b) examine how death anxiety might exacerbate the negative effects of mortality salience cues experienced at work. In Study 1, we examined how death anxiety affected nurses in a multitime point survey. These results showed that trait death anxiety was associated with increased burnout and reduced engagement and that death anxiety further exacerbated the relationship between mortality salience cues (e.g., dealing with injured and dying patients) and burnout. These results were replicated and extended in Study 2, which examined the impact of death anxiety in firefighters. In this multitime point study, death anxiety related to burnout, engagement, and absenteeism. The results further showed that death anxiety moderated the relationship between mortality cues and burnout, where people high in trait death anxiety experience higher levels of burnout as a result of mortality cues than people lower in death anxiety. Across the 2 studies, despite differences in the methods (e.g., time lag; measures), the effect sizes and the form of the significant interactions were quite similar. Overall, these results highlight the importance of understanding death anxiety in the workplace, particularly in occupations where mortality salience cues are common. We discuss recommendations, such as death education and vocational counseling, and provide some avenues for future research.
尽管多次呼吁开展研究，但很少有人努力将与死亡凸显和死亡焦虑相关的主题纳入工作场所文献中。因此，本研究的目的是：(a) 研究死亡焦虑的特质差异与员工职业健康结果之间的关系；(b) 研究死亡焦虑如何加剧工作中死亡凸显线索带来的负面影响。在研究 1 中，我们通过多时间点调查研究了死亡焦虑对护士的影响。这些结果表明，特质死亡焦虑与倦怠增加和投入减少有关，并且死亡焦虑进一步加剧了死亡凸显线索（例如，处理受伤和垂死的病人）与倦怠之间的关系。在研究 2 中，我们复制并扩展了这些结果，该研究考察了死亡焦虑对消防员的影响。在这项多时间点研究中，死亡焦虑与倦怠、投入和缺勤有关。结果进一步表明，死亡焦虑调节了死亡线索和倦怠之间的关系，即特质死亡焦虑较高的人由于死亡线索而经历更高水平的倦怠，而死亡焦虑较低的人则不然。在这两项研究中，尽管方法存在差异（例如，时间滞后；测量），但效应大小和显著交互作用的形式非常相似。总的来说，这些结果强调了在工作场所理解死亡焦虑的重要性，特别是在死亡凸显线索常见的职业中。我们讨论了一些建议，如死亡教育和职业咨询，并提供了一些未来研究的途径。
