Hoe (niet) om te gaan met baanonzekerheid bij een tijdelijk contract: De rol van actief en passief copinggedrag

Across the world, the share of temporary employment is increasing. At the same time, we know that temporary workers experience relatively high levels of job insecurity and that job insecurity is detrimental to mental and physical health and work performance. In this study, we look for ways in which temporary workers can minimize the negative effects of job insecurity. First, we investigate the indirect relationship between perceptions of possible job loss (cognitive job insecurity) and psychological strain, via concerns about possible job loss (affective job insecurity). Next, we investigate whether, and how, active coping and passive coping can moderate this indirect relationship. The results, based on a survey study among 141 temporary workers, show that there is a positive indirect relationship between cognitive job insecurity and strain via affective job insecurity. In addition, it appears that active coping weakens the relationship between affective job insecurity and strain to such an extent that the indirect relationship disappears. Passive coping behavior however, maintains the indirect relationship. Temporary workers may therefore be able to reduce the amount of strain arising from affective job insecurity by using more active coping and less passive coping.