Sanna Kinnunen & Anne Mäkikangas

Associations between vigor, exhaustion and recovery during the workweek

The purpose of this study was to investigate how vigor and exhaustion are experienced during the work week and what kinds of associations there are between these experiences and recovery. A total of 256 care and service sector employees filled a diary questionnaire and data were analyzed using both variable-centered (Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance) and person-centered (Growth Mixture Modeling) methods. Vigor and exhaustion showed a strong negative inter-dependence (r = -.66) but by applying a person-centered analysis (GMM) we were able to differentiate three groups, showing variations in the level of vigor and exhaustion. The groups were constantly vigorous (n = 194), concurrently vigorous and tired (n = 30) and exhausted (n = 28). Constantly vigorous employees were well recovered from work strain during the whole week whereas employees in the exhausted group recovered poorly. Those who were both vigorous and tired reported better recovery at the end of the week. Overall, the results indicate that typically vigor and exhaustion are exclusive but it is possible to experience them concurrently. Recovery was associated with well-being at work, implying that stress management interventions should improve employees' possibilities for recovery.

Keywords: vigor, exhaustion, recovery, diary study

Mervi Virtanen & Kalevi Korpela

Life-situation determinants of restorative experiences in favorite places

The present study investigated exploratively family-related, housing-related and life-situational variables that might increase or decrease the probability of restorative experiences in favorite places. The data was gathered with a postal survey from a random sample of residents of Helsinki and Tampere in 2005. The participants were aged 15–75 years (N = 1 273) and the response rate after two reminders was 42.6 %. Cumulative logistic regression was used to calculate the relationships between the background variables and the probabilities of the occurrence of restorative experiences. The type of favorite place affected all the restorative experiences; they were more probable in favorite places in natural areas than in urban favorite places. Women, the less educated and lower income groups living in small apartments in the city centers were most likely to experience restoration in their favorite places in natural areas in the vicinity. Thus, the experiential quality of the public environments in the cities seem to matter most to the less advantaged population groups which is noteworthy when considering future research and the inequalities in health. 

Keywords: restorative experiences, favorite place, cumulative logistic regression