Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Educational Sciences and Human Movement, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Dec 25;18(1):99. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18010099.
Although many studies have been conducted to evaluate the risk and protective factors on psychological health among academic staff, little attention has been paid to fixed-term researchers, the weakest figures in the academic context. By using the Job Demands-Resources model as theoretical framework, we investigated: (1) the role of some job demands (workload, mental load, and emotional dissonance) in predicting the need for recovery; (2) the role of some job resources (independence, career opportunities, and work-life balance) in predicting work engagement; and (3) the moderating role of the contract type (more or less precarious). We focused in particular on emotional dissonance (the discrepancy between emotions that need to be displayed and what is really felt), assuming its unique role in predicting fatigue. Results of structural equation modeling analysis generally supported our hypotheses and highlighted a so far undiscovered path between mental load and work engagement. Specifically, mental load leads to fatigue only indirectly through workload and emotional dissonance, while significantly predicting the absorption and the dedication of fixed-term Italian researchers. The latter relationship was also moderated by the contract type, so that mental load predicts dedication especially among researchers in the most precarious condition.
尽管已经有许多研究评估了学术人员心理健康的风险和保护因素，但很少关注临时工研究员，他们是学术环境中最脆弱的群体。本研究以工作要求-资源模型为理论框架，调查了：（1）一些工作要求（工作量、心理负荷和情绪不和谐）在预测恢复需求方面的作用；（2）一些工作资源（独立性、职业机会和工作-生活平衡）在预测工作投入方面的作用；（3）合同类型（更不稳定或更稳定）的调节作用。我们特别关注情绪不和谐（需要表现出来的情绪与实际感受到的情绪之间的差异），假设其在预测疲劳方面具有独特的作用。结构方程模型分析的结果普遍支持我们的假设，并强调了心理负荷和工作投入之间一条迄今未被发现的路径。具体来说，心理负荷仅通过工作量和情绪不和谐间接导致疲劳，而显著预测了意大利临时工研究员的专注和投入。这种关系还受到合同类型的调节，因此，心理负荷尤其可以预测最不稳定的研究人员的投入度。
