The role of physical exercise as a personal resource against job stress

Abstract

Purpose. The prevention of burnout symptoms is an essential goal in occupational health promotion. Physical exercise provides health-promotion benefits. This study aimed to verify physical exercise and its planned preparation as additional predictors of employees’ burnout symptoms next to job demands and resources. We used the job demands–resources model as a theoretical framework. Method. In this longitudinal online study, 342 employees completed two questionnaires at an interval of 4 weeks. Results. Moderation and moderated mediation analyses confirmed vigorous physical exercise as a relevant personal resource, revealing that it buffers the detrimental effects of job demands on burnout symptoms. Planning strategies strongly predicted physical exercise and supported the debilitating effects of job resources on burnout symptoms. Especially in employees with medium levels of job stress, coping planning supported the enactment of vigorous physical exercise. Physical exercise did not mediate the association between job demands, job resources and burnout symptoms. Conclusions. This study enriches our knowledge about occupational health prevention. It points to a pressing topic for the near future, i.e., how work conditions (e.g., job stress) and leisure time (e.g., physical exercise) can be successfully combined to keep individuals’ job stress to a minimum and to prevent burnout symptoms.

Keywords:

• job stress
• burnout
• physical exercise
• action planning
• coping planning
• job demands–resources model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The SoSci Panel is an open online scientific questionnaire panel of 90,317 individuals (as of January 2015). Depending on the aimed sample size, an invitation is sent to individuals of the panel meeting the inclusion criteria.