The purpose of this study is to investigate the work situation of housing supporters after exposure to threats and violence in the workplace. The study has a qualitative research approach and an abductive approach. Five housing supporters and a former housing supporter, now in a leading position, were interviewed with the help of semi-structured interviews. The participants lived in two municipalities in Central Sweden and were selected through a goal-directed selection and a snowball selection. The result is explained with the help of Demand- Control- and Support-model as well as the Lifeworld Theory. The empirical study is based on the answers from the interviews, the empirical data has been processed and analyzed and then presented in three main categories. The results show that several housing supporters feel that their mental state is negatively affected by threats and violence in the workplace. The results also show that social support is of great importance for reducing the negative stress and alleviating the negative consequences of threats and violence, and that education is important for housing supporters' ability to prevent and manage threats and violence in the workplace. It emerged that there was a need for more training, as it was considered a key factor in securing the necessary tools needed to be able to perform a good job.

Zum gesellschaftlich relevanten Thema des Arbeitsmarktes findet sich kaum arbeitspsychologische Empirie. Erste Hinweise auf ein die Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger gefährdendes Potenzial einer schlechten Arbeitsmarktlage geben Studien aus den Bereichen der Freiwilligkeit in der Erwerbsarbeit und der Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit. Alle diese Studien sind jedoch Befragungen mit dem methodenimmanenten Interpretationsproblem der gemeinsamen Methodenvarianz. Unter Ausschluss dieses Methodenproblems wird zunächst ein Beitrag zur Klärung der Bedeutung der Arbeitsmarktsituation für die psychische Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger geleistet. In einem zweiten Schritt werden empirisch bewährte Merkmale der Arbeitssituation in die Analysen einbezogen. Den theoretischen Rahmen der Arbeit bilden das Belastungs-Beanspruchungs-Konzept (BBK) und ein spezifiziertes Zwei-Ebenen-Modell. Sekundäranalytisch werden zweier branchenspezifische Gelegenheitsstichproben (N1 = 183; N2 = 314) und die repräsentative BIBB/IAB-Strukturerhebung von 1998/1999 (N3 = 34.343) ausgewertet. Es liegt ein ex-post-facto-Design vor. Das Merkmal der Arbeitsmarktsituation wird als Risiko langzeitarbeitslos zu werden operationalisiert und dokumentenanalytisch generiert. Diese Operationalisierung erweist sich als valide. Die anderen Merkmale werden mittels schriftlicher Befragungen erhoben. Die Datenauswertung erfolgt mit Methoden des ALM. Die globalen Zusammenhänge zwischen der Arbeitsmarktsituation und der psychischen Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger sind marginal. Bei Betrachtung der mit Hilfe des BBK gebildeten Subgruppen zeigen sich jedoch hypothesenkonform veränderte Zusammenhänge. Dieses Ergebnismuster kann im Sinne des sozialepidemiologischen Risikofaktorenmodells als Beleg für das Belastungspotenzial einer schlechten Arbeitsmarktsituation angesehen werden. Zentral für die Vorhersage der psychischen Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger sind jedoch die Merkmale der Arbeitssituation: Auch in Zeiten mit einer problematischen Arbeitsmarktsituation reicht es nicht aus, einfach nur Arbeit zu haben. Die konkrete Arbeitssituation bleibt zentral. / Within the field of occupational psychology there is very little empirical research on the socially highly relevant topic of the labor market. Studies on voluntariness within gainful occupation and on job insecurity have provided initial evidence that a poor labor market situation poses a potential risk to employees’ health. However, all of these studies can be criticized for having the method-immanent interpretation problem of shared method variance. Excluding this methodological problem, the present study, first, contributes to clarifying the role of the labor market situation for employees’ mental health. In a second step, empirically established characteristics of the personal job situation are included in the analyses. The theoretical framework for this research is the stress-strain concept (SSC) and a more specific two-level model. Secondary analyses are conducted with two sectoral convenience samples (N1 = 183; N2 = 314) and the representative BIBB/IAB data set of 1998/1999 (N3 = 34.343). An ex-post-facto design is used. The characteristic of the labor market situation was operationalized as the risk for long-term unemployment, which was generated through document analyses. This operationalization proves to be valid. Other characteristics were assessed with questionnaires. Data analyses were conducted with methods of the GLM. The overall relations between the labor market situation and mental health are marginal. However, when studying subgroups that were formed utilizing the SSC the observed relations vary as hypothesized. These findings can be interpreted within the social-epidemiological risk-factor model as a demonstration of the stress potential of poor labor market conditions. Nevertheless, the central predictors of employees’ mental health are characteristics of the personal job situation: Even in times of a problematic labor market situation just being employed it is not sufficient to ensure good mental health. The person’s specific job situation remains central.

Stress-related work absence in Sweden has risen threefold in the last 14 years. Working in close contact with clients is described by many as a risk factor for stress-related illnesses. Those working in social services are particularly exposed to these negative factors. There seems to be a consensus that much of the stress can be attributed to the working environment. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between stress and factors defined by the Demand, Control, Support model for social workers with the power to exercise authority in social services. This was done by analyzing 379 answers collected from a survey that was sent to 100 Swedish municipalities. The statistical analyses were made in SPSS version 29 and included both univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses. The results show that the self-reported stress-levels were moderate and that the respondents had high levels of demand, control and support in their work. This study shows that demands had the strongest impact on self reported stress levels for the respondents. The mitigating effects of control and support were not strong enough to compensate for the demands.