Four Wellbeing Patterns and their Antecedents in Millennials at Work

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health Psychology
• Organizational Behavior
• Workplace Wellbeing Studies

Background:

• Job satisfaction and health are often considered synergistic indicators of workplace wellbeing.
• However, misaligned relationships between job satisfaction and mental health can occur.
• Understanding these patterns is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify distinct patterns of job satisfaction and mental health among young employees.
• To explore the antecedents differentiating these identified wellbeing patterns.
• To investigate the prevalence of satisfied-healthy, unsatisfied-unhealthy, satisfied-unhealthy, and unsatisfied-healthy profiles.

Main Methods:

• A two-step cluster analysis was employed on a sample of 783 young Spanish employees.
• Discriminant analysis was used to identify key differentiating factors for each pattern.
• Job satisfaction and mental health were assessed as primary indicators of wellbeing.

Main Results:

• The unsatisfied-unhealthy pattern was most prevalent (33%), followed by unsatisfied-healthy (26.6%), satisfied-unhealthy (24.8%), and satisfied-healthy (14.3%).
• Higher job importance and lower role ambiguity characterized the satisfied-healthy group.
• Overqualification and role overload were significant predictors for unsatisfied-healthy and satisfied-unhealthy patterns, respectively.
• Role conflict also emerged as a characteristic of the satisfied-unhealthy pattern.

Conclusions:

• Workplace wellbeing is not uniformly synergistic; distinct patterns of satisfaction and health exist.
• Specific factors like job importance, role ambiguity, overqualification, role overload, and role conflict significantly influence these patterns.
• Findings offer insights for developing tailored strategies to enhance employee wellbeing.