The role of health demands, health resources, and adaptability in psychological strain and life satisfaction

Abstract

The present study harnessed job demands-resources theory to identify key predictors of psychological strain (feeling overwhelmed by one's problems) and life satisfaction among a sample of 1060 adults randomly selected from the Australian electoral roll. The investigation sought to ascertain: (a) the relative contribution of health demands (e.g., inadequate health treatment) and health resources (e.g., access to helpful health-related information) in predicting psychological strain and life satisfaction, (b) the extent to which a recently proposed personal resource-adaptability-explained variance in wellbeing beyond individuals' health demands and resources, and (c) the role of psychological strain in predicting life satisfaction in the context of these demands and resources. Applying structural equation modelling we found that contextual health demands predicted greater psychological strain, individual health resources and adaptability both predicted lower psychological strain and greater life satisfaction, and psychological strain predicted lower life satisfaction. Notably, the adverse effects of health demands reduced significantly when health resources and adaptability were entered into the modelling. Taken together, the findings offer support for a health demands-resources framework that may be applied to better support individuals to respond to the stressors in their lives and in turn boost their sense of subjective wellbeing.

Keywords: adaptability; demands; health; life satisfaction; psychological strain; resources.