This studied the relationships between work-life balance (WLB), mental health, attitudes towards mental health problems and work schedules.
144 UK construction workers completed surveys.
An interesting facet of this study was the focus on shame in construction and its links with WLB, eg the “walk of shame” when people leave early from work.
Results:
Overall it was found that:
- WLB, mental health problems & mental health attitudes were related to each other
- Mental health attitudes weren’t a mediator of the relationship between WLB & mental health problems
- WLB was the strongest predictor of mental health problems in this study
- Day time workers had higher mental health problem scores than workers who had some variations in their work hours.
Focusing on these items, WLB was negatively related to mental health problems & attitudes, revealing its importance in mental health. Mental health attitudes had little impact on the relationship between WLB & mental health problems and the effects of WLB on mental health were stronger.
Construction workers with good WLB tend to have less mental health problems & less negative attitudes towards mental health problems.
It’s said that the relationship between WLB & mental health attitudes “implies psychological safety of construction workers: those who feel psychologically safe in a workplace may feel comfortable leaving work for their family or personal concerns and believe that their colleagues do not perceive mental health problems negatively and vice versa” (p9).
Further, “WLB may be conducive to psychological safety, both of which are associated with mental health”. It’s suggested that social exchange theory helps explain the relationship where you want to give back when you receive something.
It’s said that, thus, in psychologically safe workplaces “trust is exchanged among employees”. Trust is related to better engagement, higher productivity & less mental distress. Trust can be augmented by fostering good communication & a workforce-friendly atmosphere. Reviewing those aspects of construction workplaces “may be the first step towards stronger psychological safety, leading to better WLB and better mental health”.
Work-life fit where empoyees perceive they have enough resources to meet demands in their work & home life was crucial to worker wellbeing; flexible work practices were recommended to enable workers to access the services. Eg, even though an organisation supports child-care, the inflexible work arrangements of construction work may make it difficult for workers to access the service
Leveraging the workers’ families may assist although the diverse work places & hours of construction may make this difficult. Nevertheless, involving employees’ families “could improve their WLB, leading to reductions in workfamily conflict” (p9).
Relating to work schedules, day time workers had significantly higher mean mental health problem scores than those on regular night shifts or mixed rosters. Authors suggest this may indicate that working regular times may be related to poorer mental health while flexible times may be related to better health.
SafetyInsights.org 
One thought on “Work-Life Balance of UK Construction Workers: Relationship with Mental Health”