Work factors and health: The predictive role of pre-employment experiences

This follow-up study focused on the effects of childhood home conditions, individual factors in youth, and health resources on the relationship between self-reported job factors and subjective strain symptoms. Childhood data had been collected in another study in the early 1960s from a representative sample of 1084 Finnish children. Seventy-seven per cent of the subjects responded to a questionnaire in 1985. The effects of the individual factors on the relationship between job factors and subjective symptoms were analysed by comparing the results of multiple regression analyses and more comprehensive linear structural analyses (LISREL). Individual factors played a substantial role in the perception of the subjects and thus in the self-reports of work conditions and health. In the LISREL models, job demands explained psychological and somatic symptoms, and lack of influence at work explained low competence. Task control and assistance from others at work had a direct effect on the prevalence of the symptoms only for the less educated workers. Health status in youth was not a good predictor of perceived health later at work. The factors affecting the development of psychic health resources were more crucial. Weak intellectual capacity, poor self-esteem and deficient social conditions in childhood set constraints on the development of resources. As a result, the probability of entering and remaining in inadequate working conditions increases, and health disturbances in adulthood are more prevalent.