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Relationship between work strain, need for recovery after work and cumulative cortisol among kindergarten teachers

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Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to explore whether work strain (i.e., job demands and job control) and subjective need for recovery (NFR) after work are related to measured concentration of cumulative cortisol.

Methods

Participants were 43 teachers recruited from kindergarten. They self-reported their NFR, job demands and job control over the last month. NFR was measured with the NFR scale. Job demands and control were assessed with the Chinese version of the Job Content Questionnaire. Hair cortisol was used to represent cumulative cortisol excretion. Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) was measured with high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.

Results

No significant correlations were found between job demands or job control and HCC. NFR was significantly and inversely correlated with HCC (r = −0.41, p = 0.006). The inverse association between NFR and HCC remained significant when age and job demands and job control were controlled for (p = 0.02).

Conclusions

The activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis declines with the accumulation of NFR after working time.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ms. Jingjing Tao and Mr. Hailong Qian in Nanjing Mingxin Children Wisdom Education and Training Center and Ms Deqing Zhao in Jiangsu Rehabilitation Centre for Deaf Children for their help in data collection. This study was supported by Jiangsu Provincial Innovation Project for Scientific Research of Graduate Students in Universities (CXLX12_0122); Humanities and Social Science Foundation (11YJAZH019), and The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Ministry of Education, China; and by The Open Research fund of Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, China.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no competing interests to report.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education (Southeast University), and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Xingliang Qi, Yapeng Liu, Jing Zhang, Shuang Ji & Huihua Deng

  2. Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 22700, 1100 DE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Judith K. Sluiter

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Renlai Zhou & Huihua Deng

Authors
  1. Xingliang Qi
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  2. Yapeng Liu
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  3. Jing Zhang
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  4. Shuang Ji
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  5. Judith K. Sluiter
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  6. Renlai Zhou
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  7. Huihua Deng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huihua Deng.

Additional information

Huihua Deng and Judith K. Sluiter are co-principal investigators of this study.

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Qi, X., Liu, Y., Zhang, J. et al. Relationship between work strain, need for recovery after work and cumulative cortisol among kindergarten teachers. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 88, 1053–1059 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1033-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1033-2

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