A causal relationship between sense of coherence and psycho-social work environment: from one-year follow-up data among Japanese young adult workers

The aim of this study was to use longitudinal data and investigate by sex the following four hypotheses on the relationship between sense of coherence (SOC) and work environment (WE): (i) a bidirectional cause-effect relationship exists; (ii) WE is the cause and SOC is the effect; (iii) SOC is the cause and WE is the effect; and (iv) no cause-effect relationship exists. Male and female subjects between the ages of 20 and 40 living in Japan were selected as subjects by two-stage stratified random sampling, and self-administered questionnaires were sent by mail between January and March 2007 (Time 1). A follow-up was conducted in the same way from January to March of 2008 (Time 2). Responses were obtained from 3,965 individuals (follow-up ratio: 82.6%). This study analyzed 1,291 males and 933 females who were at least 25 years old at Time 1 and who worked the same job in both time periods. The analysis was performed using a cross-lagged model under structural equation modeling. The second hypothesis was selected for both males and females based on the outcome of nested model comparisons. That is, a temporal cause-effect relationship was observed between SOC and WE for both males and females, with WE as the cause and SOC as the effect. (Global Health Promotion, 2012; 19(1): 32-42)