Job Demands, Job Resources, and Well-being in Police Officers - a Resource-Oriented Approach

This study examined the association between job characteristics, namely job demands and job resources, and mental health outcomes in terms of emotional exhaustion and well-being among police officers. Eight hundred forty-three German police officers participated in a cross-sectional online survey. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the validity of the dual process model of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework in the context of police work. Job demands (verbal assaults by citizens, workload, and administrative stressors) predicted emotional exhaustion whereas job resources (team support, shared values, and perceived fairness) predicted well-being. Moreover, job resources were directly and negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. The findings confirm the capacity of job resources to simultaneously promote well-being and reduce emotional exhaustion. Work place interventions should thus not merely decrease job demands. To improve and protect police officers’ well-being, it is advisable to promote job resources. A supportive and fair organizational climate based on shared values is required to foster mental health in the context of police work

Procrastination, depression and anxiety symptoms in university students: a three-wave longitudinal study on the mediating role of perceived stress

Background It is generally assumed that procrastination leads to negative consequences. However, evidence for negative consequences of procrastination is still limited and it is also unclear by which mechanisms they are mediated. Therefore, the aim of our study was to examine the harmful consequences of procrastination on students’ stress and mental health. We selected the procrastination-health model as our theoretical foundation and tried to evaluate the model’s assumption that trait procrastination leads to (chronic) disease via (chronic) stress in a temporal perspective. We chose depression and anxiety symptoms as indicators for (chronic) disease and hypothesized that procrastination leads to perceived stress over time, that perceived stress leads to depression and anxiety symptoms over time, and that procrastination leads to depression and anxiety symptoms over time, mediated by perceived stress. Methods To examine these relationships properly, we collected longitudinal data from 392 university students at three occasions over a one-year period and analyzed the data using autoregressive time-lagged panel models. Results Procrastination did lead to depression and anxiety symptoms over time. However, perceived stress was not a mediator of this effect. Procrastination did not lead to perceived stress over time, nor did perceived stress lead to depression and anxiety symptoms over time. Conclusions We could not confirm that trait procrastination leads to (chronic) disease via (chronic) stress, as assumed in the procrastination-health model. Nonetheless, our study demonstrated that procrastination can have a detrimental effect on mental health. Further health outcomes and possible mediators should be explored in future studies

A Social Norms Intervention to Reduce Heavy Drinking in University Students

Introduction: Heavy alcohol consumption constitutes a major health risk among University students. Social relationships with peers strongly affect University students' perception of the drinking behavior of others, which in turn plays a crucial role in determining their own alcohol intake. University students tend to overestimate their peers' alcohol consumption – a belief that is associated with an increase in an individual's own consumption. Therefore, we implemented a social norms intervention with personalized normative feedback at a major University in Germany to reduce and prevent excessive drinking among University students. Methods: Our intervention was part of a regular health monitoring survey. We invited all enrolled University students to take part in this survey on two occasions. A total of 862 University students completed the questionnaire, 563 (65.3%) of which received e-mail-based feedback upon request concerning their peers' and their own alcohol consumption. For the intervention group (n = 190) as well as the control group (no feedback requested; n = 101), we included only University students in the evaluation who overestimated their peers' alcohol use and indicated above average consumption of the peers. We applied analyses of variance to assess intervention effects with regard to the correction of overestimated group norms as well as University students' drinking behavior. Results: Within the intervention group, we observed a significantly larger reduction of the previously overestimated behavioral norms compared to the control group (p < 0.001; η2p = 0.06). With regard to behavioral outcomes the intervention group showed a significantly larger reduction in the AUDIT-C score (p = 0.020; η2p = 0.03). Discussion: Our study confirms previous research whereupon personalized, gender-specific and selective normative feedback is effective for alcohol prevention among University students. However, University students still overestimated their peers' alcohol intake after the intervention. Furthermore, we did not reach high-risk groups (University students with the highest alcohol intake) since no feedback was requested. Future studies should address factors influencing the impact of the intervention and reachability of selective groups

Electrical stimulation of human mesenchymal stem cells on biomineralized conducting polymers enhances their differentiation towards osteogenic outcomes

Tissue scaffolds allowing the behaviour of the cells that reside on them to be controlled are of particular interest for tissue engineering. Herein we describe biomineralized conducting polymer-based bone tissue scaffolds that facilitate the electrical stimulation of human mesenchymal stem cells, resulting in enhancement of their differentiation towards osteogenic outcomes