Introduction Working life can bring exposure to stresses which in turn can impact on health. Recovery from work stressors is thought to be essential in preventing fatigue and eventually burnout. Sleep and Vacation are important types of recovery. One mechanism thought to interfere with recovery is Work-Related Rumination, in particular its subtype: Affective Rumination. This concept appears to be conceptually similar to the Depressive Rumination concept of Brooding, which is thought to be predictive of depression. The study aims to look at the effect of affective rumination over a naturally occurring vacation period. Participants Teachers were recruited for the study as teaching is a high stress profession and it also has a naturally occurring break from work in the form of half term. A total of 1344 teachers participated in phase I and a total of 57 in phase 2. In the latter phase participants were recruited on the basis of their Work-Related Rumination Scores to create two groups. Method In Phase 1 teachers were invited to complete a number of online self-report measures looking at Teacher Stress, Work-related rumination and Sleep Quality. In Phase 2 Teachers were asked to wear an Actiwatch and complete a sleep diary over 18 nights; including 2 work weeks with a vacation in the middle. They were asked to complete a measure of Work-related rumination at four different time points. Results Whilst objective sleep measures did show a change over the vacation period, there were no differences between Low and High Affective Ruminators. On subjective measures, vacation was associated with an increase in sleep quality for the High Affective Ruminator and for both groups for Feelings of Refreshment. Evidence for a mediating role of rumination was found. Conclusion Work-related rumination affects perception of sleep quality but not objective measures. Possible reasons for this are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:600168 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Drewett, Hannah |
| Publisher | University of Surrey |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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