The mediated effect of sense of coherence in causal relation between psycho-social work characteristics and mental health for general male workers: 4-year 3point cross-lagged analysis in Japanese life course survey

The aim of this study was to use 4-year 3point cross-lagged analysis in Japanese life course survey longitudinal data and investigate the following hypotheses for causal relationship: psychosocial work characteristics affect mental health and sense of coherence mediated the causal relations. Male subjects between ages 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. Follow-up researches were conducted in the same way from January to March of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. In this study, 1,006 working male in every research point was objected. Also, 3 point data of 2007 (Time I), 2009 (Time2) and 2011 (Time3) were used. The analysis was performed using a cross-lagged model under structural equation modeling. The model of mediated effect of sense of coherence on the causal relationship that psychosocial work characteristics affect mental health was accepted (chi(2)/df=3.866, CFI=0.903, RMSEA=0.055). However, the direct causal relation between work characteristics and mental health was non-significant. These results support the Antonovsky's theory 'Salutogenic Model'. The sense of coherence will be key concept in workplace environmental arrangement for improvement in worker's mental health.