Skip to main content
Log in

Coping and the Job Demands-Control-Support Model: An Exploratory Study

  • Published:
International Journal of Stress Management

Abstract

The job demands-control-support model indicates job control and social support enhance coping with job demands. This proposition was tested, using a heterogeneous sample of 272 full-time workers. The results indicated a series of complex interactions among demands, control, support, and coping on psychological well-being. Overall, control and support appeared to increase the effectiveness of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping up to a threshold depending on job demands. The results indicate that beyond this threshold, these forms of coping become less effective. Control appeared to enhance moderate levels of appraisal and cognitive escape-focused coping, but not high levels of appraisal or cognitive escape-focused coping. Social support appeared to enhance high levels of appraisal-focused coping. The results indicate that including coping in empirical tests of the job demands-control-support model enhances its explanatory and predictive power.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andries, F., Kompier, M. A. J., & Smulders, P. G. W. (1996). Do you think that your health or safety are at risk because of your work? A large European study on psychological and physical work demands. Work & Stress, 10, 104-118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buunk, B. P., & Hoorens, V. (1992). Social support and stress: the role of social comparison and social exchange processes. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 31, 445-457.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cobb, S. (1976). Social support as a moderator of life stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38, 300-314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310-357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (1976). The design and conduct of quasi-experiments and true-experiments in field settings. In M. D. Dunnette (Ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (pp. 223-325). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cotton, J. L. (1993). Employee Involvement. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, T., & MacKay, C. (1981). A transactional approach to stress. In E. N. Cortlett & J. Richardson (Eds.), Stress, Work Design and Productivity (pp. 5-14). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniels, K., & Guppy, A. (1995). Stress, social support and psychological well-being in British Chartered Accountants. Work & Stress, 9, 432-447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniels, K., Brough, P., Guppy, A., Peters-Bean, K. M., & Weatherstone, L. (1997). A note on a modification to Warr's measures of affective well-being at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 70, 129-138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewe, P., Cox, T., & Ferguson, E. (1993). Individual strategies for coping with stress at work: A review. Work & Stress, 7, 5-15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, J. R., & Baglioni, A. J. (1993). The measurement of coping with stress: Construct validity of the ways of coping checklist and the cybernetic coping scale. Work & Stress, 7, 17-31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, M. G. (1985). A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 36, 305-323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1975). Manual for the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. London: Hodder and Staughton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, B. C., & Jones, F. (1993). A refutation of Karasek's demand-discretion model of occupational stress with a range of dependent measures. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 14, 319-330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, M. L., Dwyer, D. J., & Ganster, D. C. (1993). Effects of stressful job demands and control on physiological and attitudinal outcomes in a hospital setting. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 289-318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frese, M., & Zapf, D. (1988). Methodological issues in the study of work stress: Objective vs. subjective measurement work stress and the question of longitudinal studies. In C. L. Cooper & R. Payne (Eds.), Causes, Coping, and Consequences of Stress at Work (pp. 375-411). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganster, D. C. (1989). Worker control and well-being: a review of research in the work place. In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds.), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (pp. 3-23). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haywood-Farmer, J., & Stuart, F. I. (1990). An instrument to measure the “degree of professionalism” in a professional service. Service Industries Journal, 10, 336-347.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, M. (1979). Psychological response to serious life events. In V. Hamilton & D. M. Warburton (Eds.), Human Stress and Cognition: An Information Processing Approach (pp. 237-265). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • House, J. S. (1981). Work Stress and Social Support. London: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaccard, J., Turrisi, R., & Wan, C. K. (1990). Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, J. V. (1989). Control, collectivity and the psychosocial work environment. In S. L. Sauter, J. J. Hurrell, & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Job Control and Worker Health (pp. 55-74). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jonge, J. de, Janssen, P. P. M., & van Breukelen, G. J. P. (1996). Testing the demand-control-support model among health care professionals: a structural equation model. Work & Stress, 10, 209-224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jonge, J. de, & Kompier, M. A. J. (1997). A critical examination of the demand-control-support model from a work psychological perspective. International Journal of Stress Management, 4, 235-258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karasek, R. A. (1979). Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: implications for job redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 285-308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karasek, R. A., & Theorell, T. (1990). Healthy Work. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, G. H., & Beehr, T. A. (1989). Occupational stressors, individual strains, and social supports among police officers. Human Relations, 42, 185-197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landsbergis, P. A., Schnall, P. L., Deitz, D., Friedman, R., & Pickering, T. (1992). The patterning of psychological attributes and distress by “job strain” and social support in a sample of working men. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 379-405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latack, J. C. (1986). Coping with job stress: measures and future directions for scale development. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 377-385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latack, J. C., & Havlovic, S. J. (1992). Coping with job stress: a conceptual evaluation framework for coping measures. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 479-508.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal and Coping. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, N. L., Barnett, R. C., & Sayer, A. (1997). The changing workforce, job stress, and psychological distress. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2, 99-107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melamed, S., Kushnir, T., & Meir, E. I. (1991). Attenuating the impact of job demands: additive and interactive effects of perceived control and social support. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 39, 40-53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, K. R., Mendham, C. A., & von Rabenau, C. (1994). Social support and the demand-discretion model of job stress: tests of additive and interactive models in two samples. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 44, 91-113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne, R. L., & Fletcher, B. C. (1983). Job demands, supports, and constraints as predictors of psychological strain among schoolteachers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22, 136-147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rijk, A. E. de, Le Blanc, P., Schaufeli, W., & Jonge, J. de (1998). Active coping and need for control as moderators of the job-demand-control model: effects on burnout. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 71, 1-18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roth, S., & Cohen, L. J. (1986). Approach, avoidance, and coping with stress. American Psychologist, 41, 813-819.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for the internal versus external locus of control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80, 1.

  • Schmitt, N. (1994). Method bias: The importance of theory and measurement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15, 393-398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schonpflug, W., & Battman, W. (1988). The costs and benefits of coping. In S. Fisher & J. Reason (Eds.), Handbook of Life Stress (pp. 699-713). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spector, P. E. (1988). Development of the work locus of control scale. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 61, 335-340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanton, A. L., Danoff-Burg, S., Cameron, C. L., & Ellis, A. P. (1994). Coping through emotional approach: Problems of conceptualization and confounding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 350-362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Theorell, T., & Karasek, R. A. (1996). Current issues relating to psychosocial job strain and cardiovascular disease research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 9-26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wall, T. D., Jackson, P. R., Mullarkey, S., & Parker, S. (1996). The demands-control model of job strain: a more specific test. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 69, 153-166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warr, P. (1990a). Decision latitude, job demands, and employee well-being. Work & Stress, 4, 285-294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warr, P. (1990b). The measurement of well-being and other aspects of mental health. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 193-210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465-490.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin Daniels.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Daniels, K. Coping and the Job Demands-Control-Support Model: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Stress Management 6, 125–144 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022932427319

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022932427319

Navigation