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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Mindfulness in Motion (MIM): An Onsite Mindfulness Based Intervention (MBI) for Chronically High Stress Work Environments to Increase Resiliency and Work Engagement

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Does stress at work make you gain weight? A two-year longitudinal study.

Martial Berset¹, Norbert K Semmer, Achim Elfering

¹Swiss National Center of Competence in Research on Affective Sciences, Geneva, Switzerland. martial.berset@psy.unibe.ch

Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health

|September 14, 2010

Summary

Workplace social stressors and job control significantly predict changes in body mass index (BMI) over two years. These factors are crucial for understanding stress-related health outcomes.

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The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress

The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress

Published on: October 19, 2011

Area of Science:

Occupational Health Psychology
Psychosocial Factors in Health
Workplace Well-being Research

Background:

Previous research on workplace stress and body mass index (BMI) primarily used cross-sectional designs and focused on job demand-control and effort-reward imbalance models.
The impact of social stressors, such as workplace conflict and animosities, on BMI remains underexplored despite their potential as indicators of social-evaluative threat.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the longitudinal association between workplace social stressors, job control, and changes in BMI over a two-year period.
To extend existing models by incorporating social stressors as a predictor of BMI and employing a longitudinal research design.

Main Methods:

A longitudinal study involving 72 employees (52 men, 20 women) from a Swiss service provider.
Multiple regression analyses were conducted to predict BMI at two-year follow-up, controlling for baseline BMI.
Independent variables included social stressors, effort-reward imbalance, job demands, job control, and the interaction between demands and control.

Main Results:

Job control and social stressors were identified as statistically significant predictors of BMI change over two years.
Effort-reward imbalance showed a marginally significant association with follow-up BMI.

Conclusions:

The findings highlight the critical role of social stressors and job control in predicting stress-related health impairments, specifically changes in BMI.
These results emphasize the need to consider psychosocial factors, including social dynamics at work, in occupational health strategies.