A1 Journal article (refereed)
Meaningful Work Protects Teachers’ Self-Rated Health under Stressors (2020)

Minkkinen, J., Auvinen, E., & Mauno, S. (2020). Meaningful Work Protects Teachers’ Self-Rated Health under Stressors. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 4(2), 140-152. https://doi.org/10.47602/jpsp.v4i2.209

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Minkkinen, Jaana; Auvinen, Elina; Mauno, Saija

Journal or series: Journal of Positive School Psychology

eISSN: 2717-7564

Publication year: 2020

Volume: 4

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 140-152

Publisher: Journal of Positive School Psychology

Publication country: Turkey

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47602/jpsp.v4i2.209

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/72095

Abstract

A sense of meaningfulness is one of the most sought?after work characteristics which has been associated with employees’ well-being. This study explored whether meaningful work enhances self-rated health in challenging work context, under the stressors of distractions, unnecessary tasks, and unreasonable tasks. Data was collected from Finnish teachers (N = 1,658) and structural equation modelling was employed with the latent interaction terms. Results showed that meaningful work was associated with better self-rated health and the stressors were associated with poorer self-rated health. Protective potential of meaningful work against stressors was also discovered, as meaningful work mitigated the harm of stressors on self-rated health. These findings indicate that meaningful work acts as an important resource for employees’ self-rated health and helps them to better cope with stressful work conditions, enhancing well-being. The protective quality of meaningful work means that even challenging work context may have less harm for employees’ well-being, if they have a strong sense of meaning in work. The practical implications of the findings for teachers and organizations are discussed.

Keywords: well-being at work; mental well-being; teachers; working conditions; work satisfaction; managing; meaningfulness; work communities; work engagement; stress (biological phenomena); self-evaluation; experienced well-being; pre-emption

Free keywords: meaningful work; self-rated health; distractions; unnecessary tasks; unreasonable tasks; teachers

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020

JUFO rating: 1