Social support as a mediator between job control and psychological strain

Social support is a key influencing factor on health, and one of the main dimensions of the Demand - Control - Support (DCS) model within the occupational health field. The buffer hypothesis of the DCS determines that job control and social support relieve the effects of a high job demand on health. This hypothesis has been evaluated in several studies to predict worker's health, even though it has yielded ambiguous and inconclusive results.

This study evaluated whether social support mediated the effect of job demand or job control on job strain. This mediation mechanism might represent a plausible and coherent alternative to the buffer hypothesis deserving to be analyzed within this field.

Two models considering support as the mediator variable in the explanation of job strain were assessed with a group of administrative and technical workers (N = 281).

While there was no evidence for support behaving as a mediator variable between demand and job strain, social support was a consistent mediator in the association of job control with job strain. The effect of job control on job strain was fully mediated by social support from supervisors and coworkers.

The role of social support as a mediator implicates that the prevention of psychosocial stressors in the job place should place a stronger emphasis on improving social relationships at work.