Work Related Rumination Study

A study done by Cropley, Michalianou, Pravettoni and Millward (2012) found that work related rumination has been associated with a number of negative health consequences like hypertension, depression, distress in women. Three different types of ruminative thinking that people experience during work was affective rumination, problem-solving, pondering and detachment. The affective rumination can be conceptualised as a cognitive state characterized by the appearance of intrusive, pervasive, recurrent thoughts, about work, which is negative in affective terms (Pravettoni et al., 2007). Problem-solving pondering appears to assess the type of thinking people engage in about work issues when not at work because they find the act of thinking about
The sample consisted of 157 females and 111 males. Factor analysis was carried out on the 25 work related rumination questions. The three factors were retained viz. affective rumination, problem solving pondering and detachment. All the three factors were found to be positively related to unhealthy food choices and negative health consequences more in women. The failure to unwind the work was found to be associated with the increase in rumination, unhealthy food choices, and negative health outcomes in women. Earlier studies also reported similar results a poor work-life balance has been associated with poor health which is mediated in part, by health related behaviours, e.g., lack of physical activity, increased alcohol consumption, poor dietary choices and an increased risk for heart disease and cardiovascular mortality (Roos, Sarlio- Lahteenkorva, Lallukka, & Lahelma, 2007). Thus, it was suggested that improving the balance between work and home life can be a possible route to positive general health and well-being among working women and research should also examine the association of rumination with objective health indices, like physical symptoms, cortisol secretion or blood