Relationships of protective factors to stress and symptoms of illness

Objective: To examine relationships of work and individual protective factors to health outcomes. Methods: Participants from 2 corporate samples completed measures of supervisor support, hardiness, coping, global stress, and symptoms of illness. Results: Regression analyses indicated that higher scores on hardiness and approach coping and being male predicted lower scores on stress and symptoms of illness. Additionally, supervisor support predicted fewer symptoms of illness but did not have a spillover effect onto stress. Conclusions: Interventions that enhance individual protective factors primarily and work protective factors secondarily may be most effective in reducing stress and illness among employees.