Communication,support and psychosocial work environment affecting psychological distress among working women aged 20 to 39 years in Japan

When compared with their older counterparts, younger women are more likely to havedepressive symptoms because they more often experience interrupted work history and aheavy childrearing burden. The purposes of the present study were 1) to investigate thepossible association of psychosocial work environment with psychological distress and 2)to examine the way by which communication and support in the workplace affect topsychological distress among young women. We studied 198 women aged 20 to 39 yr in across-sectional study. The Kessler Scale-10 (K10 Scale) was used to examine psychologicaldistress. In employees who experienced interpersonal conflict, those who had little or noconversations with their supervisor and/or co-workers had a significantly increased riskof psychological distress (OR, 4.2), and those who received little or no support fromtheir supervisor and/or co-workers had a significantly increased risk of psychologicaldistress (OR, 3.8) compared to those who had more frequent communication and received moresupport. Harmonious communication in the workplace can help prevent psychological distressamong employees, which in turn may enable them to be satisfied with their work.