Occupational self-efficacy is an important resource for individuals in organizations. To be able to compare the occupational self-efficacy of employees across different countries, equivalent versions of the standard instruments need to be made available in different languages. In this article, the authors report on the structural and construct validity of an instrument that assesses occupational self-efficacy across five countries (Germany, Sweden, Belgium, United Kingdom, Spain), based on an overall sample of N =1,535. The instrument can be recommended for comparative use in German, Swedish, Belgian, Spanish, and British organizational contexts.

Understanding the mechanisms of workflow interruptions is crucial for reducing employee strain and maintaining performance. This study investigates how interruptions affect perceptions of performance and irritation by employing a within-person approach. Such interruptions refer to intruding secondary tasks, such as requests for assistance, which occur within the primary task. Based on empirical evidence and action theory, it is proposed that the occurrence of interruptions is negatively related to satisfaction with one's own performance and positively related to forgetting of intentions and the experience of irritation. Mental demands and time pressure are proposed as mediators. Data were gathered from 133 nurses in German hospitals by means of a five-day diary study (four measurements taken daily; three during a morning work shift and one after work, in the evening). Multilevel analyses showed that workflow interruptions had detrimental effects on satisfaction with one's own performance, the forgetting of intentions, and irritation. The mediation effects of mental demands and time pressure were supported for irritation and (partially) supported for satisfaction with performance. They were not supported for the forgetting of intentions. These findings demonstrate the importance of reducing the time and mental demands associated with interruptions.

Zusammenfassung. Irritation beschreibt subjektiv wahrgenommene emotionale und kognitive Beanspruchungen im Kontext der Erwerbsarbeit. Anhand von 15 Studien (N = 4 030) werden Skalen- und Itemparameter der Irritations-Skala berichtet. Die Ergebnisse untermauern die branchenübergreifende Validität und Reliabilität der Skala. Erste Hinweise deuten darauf hin, dass Irritation schwerwiegenderen Befindensbeeinträchtigungen, wie depressiven Symptomen, vorgelagert ist. Neben einer Anwendung in der arbeitspsychologischen Stressforschung, kann das Instrument zur Beanspruchungsdiagnostik sowie zur Planung und Evaluation von Präventivmaßnahmen innerhalb der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung empfohlen werden.

Irritation as defined in this paper is the subjectively perceived emotional and cognitive strain in occupational contexts. The structural equivalence of the Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Polish adaptations of the German Irritation Scale is examined. The Irritation Scale is recommended for application particularly in occupational contexts. In this field it can be used for evaluating interventions, for research on stress at work, and for individual counseling. Exploratory factor analyses, as well as single group and different multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses, were performed. Structural equivalency in terms of equal factor loadings as well as equal factor covariances across all adaptations can be claimed. However, the single group analyses suggest that the hypothesized factor model should be rejected in the English, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish versions, mainly because of borderline values in the RMSEA index.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a shutdown of universities in Germany. In a longitudinal design, we compared mental health (depression, anxiety, somatic complaints) of university students in Germany before (June to August 2019) and in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020) and determined the impact of pandemic-related stress and loneliness on students’ mental health in self-report online surveys. We investigated 443 participants (mean age 22.8 years), among them 77% female, and 10.4% medical students. A small increase of depression mean scores was observed (F(1,420) = 5.21; p = .023), anxiety and somatic complaints have not significantly changed. There was a medium increase in loneliness from pre-pandemic scores to the pandemic situation (F(1,423) = 30.56; p < .001). Analyzed with regression analyses, current loneliness and pre-pandemic distress represented the strongest associations with mental health during the pandemic. Additionally, health-related concerns during the pandemic were associated with symptoms of depression [b = 0.21; 95%CI(0.08; 0.34); t = 3.12; p = .002], anxiety [b = 0.07; 95%CI(0.01; 0.12); t = 2.50; p = .013], somatic complaints [b = 0.33; 95%CI(0.18; 0.47); t = 4.49; p < .001], and loneliness [b = 0.10; 95%CI(0.03; 0.17); t = 2.74; p = .006]. Social stress due to the pandemic situation was associated with loneliness [b = 0.38; 95%CI(0.32; 0.45); t = 11.75; p < .001]. The results imply that university students represent a risk group for psychosocial long-term ramifications of the pandemic.