Baanonzekerheid en mentaal welzijn: Gemedieerd door de bedreiging van Jahoda’s functies van werk?

In this study, we examined whether the negative relationship between perceived job insecurity and mental well-being is mediated by the threat of Jahoda’s manifest benefits (e.g., income) and the latent benefits of work (e.g., social contact, status). The experienced threat of job loss means a threat to the benefits of work, which can result in a lower well-being among employees. This study replicates the studies of Selenko and Batinic (2013) and Vander Elst, Naswall, Bernhard-Oettel, De Witte and Sverke (2015), but uses a different research design and methodology. In total, 788 Belgian employees participated in this study, using a cross-sectional questionnaire study. As expected, the threat of the manifest and latent benefits of work mediated in about equal measure the relationship between job insecurity and mental health. These results correspond with the findings in the literature and validate the importance of threatened work benefits as an explanation for the negative relationship between job insecurity and mental health. Our findings may promote the development of intervention strategies to weaken the negative relationship between job insecurity and mental health, for example, by encouraging social activities that are not related to work.