Rewards of Compassion: Dispositional Compassion Predicts Lower Job Strain and Effort-Reward Imbalance Over a 11-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

Dispositional compassion has been shown to predict higher well-being and to be associated with lower perceived stress and higher social support. Thus, compassion may be a potential individual factor protecting from job strain. The current study examines (i) whether dispositional compassion predicts job strain and effort-reward imbalance (ERI) or does the predictive relationship run from job strain and ERI to dispositional compassion and (ii) the effect of dispositional compassion on the developmental trajectory of job strain and ERI over a 11-year follow-up. We used data from the Young Finns study (n=723) between 2001 and 2012. The direction of the predictive relationships was analyzed with cross-lagged panel models. Compassion's effect on the trajectories of job strain, ERI, and their components was examined with multilevel models. First, the cross-lagged panel models demonstrated there was no evidence for the predictive pathways between compassion and job strain or its components. However, the predictive pathways from high dispositional compassion to low ERI and high rewards had better fit to the data than the predictive pathways in the opposite direction. In addition, multilevel models showed that high compassion predicted various job characteristics from early adulthood to middle age (lower job strain and higher job control as well as lower ERI and higher reward). Compassion did not predict job demand/effort. The findings were obtained independently of age, gender, and socioeconomic factors in childhood and adulthood. These findings indicate that compassion may be beneficial in work context. Further, compassion might be useful in the management or prevention of some aspects of strain. Our study provides new insight about the role of compassion in work life.

Keywords: compassion; effort-reward imbalance; job demand control; longitudinal; personality.

Figure 1

The illustration of the predictive pathways from compassion to ERI. Covariates (age, gender, and socioeconomic factors in childhood and adulthood) and the covariances between the study variables at each measurement year have been omitted from the figure for clarity. ^*p<0.05, ^**p<0.001.

Figure 2

The illustration of the predictive pathways from compassion to reward (a component of ERI). Covariates (age, gender, and socioeconomic factors in childhood and adulthood) and the covariances between the study variables at each measurement year have been omitted from the figure for clarity. ^*p<0.001.

Figure 3

Model-predicted values with 95% confidence intervals of job strain over age separately for participants with low (−1SD), average, and high (+1SD) levels of compassion (adjusted for gender and childhood and adulthood socioeconomic factors).

Figure 4

Model-predicted values with 95% confidence intervals of job control (component of job strain) over age separately for participants with low (−1SD), average, and high (+1SD) levels of compassion (adjusted for gender, and socioeconomic factors in childhood and adulthood).

Figure 5

Model-predicted values with 95% confidence intervals of ERI over age separately for participants with low (−1SD), average, and high (+1SD) levels of compassion (adjusted for gender, and socioeconomic factors in childhood and adulthood).

Figure 6

Model-predicted values with 95% confidence intervals of reward (component of ERI) over age separately for participants with low (−1SD), average, and high (+1SD) levels of compassion (adjusted for gender, and socioeconomic factors in childhood and adulthood).