Relationships among Type A Behavior Pattern, Job Stress and Life Style (2nd Report)

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate possible associations among type A behavior pattern, job stress (defined by Karasek's demand-control-support model) and life style incongruity based on the following hypotheses : 1)Type A behavior pattern and job stress contribute to behavioral risk factors for negative health outcomes including lack of exercise, alcohol abuse, smoking habit, and abnormal eating pattern. 2) The person with type A behavior pattern shows more life style incongruity under high job strain. Six hundred and forty-nine employees (442 men and 207 women) from 2 worksites answered "Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) ", "Maeda Type A Behavior Checklist", and other questionnaires asking about life style incongruity. The interrelations among type A behavior pattern, job stress, and life style incongruity were examined in each sex by ANOVA. This was a re-analysis of our previous study based on path analysis because we could not investigate the multiplicative effect of type A and iob stress by path analysis, and therefore, we could not sufficiently verify our second hypothesis mentioned above. In addition, while we used the 26-item version of JCQ in the previous study, the scores were calculated all over again on 22 items of them because the use of 22-item with 4-subscale version was recommended in the recent study investigating the reliability and validity of the measure. The following relations between type A behavior or job stress and life style incongruity were found, and our first hypothesis was generally supported except for a few results : 1) Male type A subjects smoked more frequently and female type A subjects drank more alcohol. 2) Male subjects with high demands drank more alcohol. 3) Male subjects with high latitude smoked more frequently. 4)Male subjects with high coworker support ate between meals less frequently and drank more alcohol. 5)Female subjects with high demands and high latitude ate between meals most frequently. 6) Male subjects with low latitude and low coworker support performed the least exercise. Our second hypothesis was confirmed in some aspects : 1) Male type A subjects with low latitude showed the most extreme lack of exercise. 2) Both of female type A subjects with high demands and type B subjects with low demands were inclined to smoke more frequently. Therefore, it can be said that we gained positive results on our hypotheses on the whole. Further studies should be warranted including a larger number of worksites and more precise classification of job groups, and investigating the effect of type A behavior and job stress on other physical and psychological risk factors as well.