Existing social stressor concepts disregard the variety of task-related situations at work that require skillful social behavior to maintain good social relationships while achieving certain task goals. In this article, we challenge the view that social stressors at work are solely dysfunctional aspects evoking employee ill health. Drawing from the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, we introduce the concept of social challenge stressors as a job characteristic and examine their relationships with individual well-and ill-being. In study 1, we developed a new scale for the measurement of social challenge stressors and tested the validity of the scale. Results from two independent samples indicated support for a single-factor structure and showed that social challenge stressors are distinct from related stressor concepts. Using two samples, one of which was already used to test the factor structure, we analyzed the unique contribution of social challenge stressors in predicting employee well- and ill-being. As expected, social challenge stressors were simultaneously related to psychological strain and well-being. Using time-lagged data, study 2 investigated mechanisms that may explain how social challenge stressors are linked to well-being and strain. In line with the stress-as-offense-to-self approach, we expected indirect relationships via self-esteem. Additionally, social support was expected to moderate the relationships between social stressors and self-esteem. Whereas the indirect relationships were mostly confirmed, we found no support for the buffering role of social support in the social hindrance stressors-self-esteem link. Although we found a moderation effect for social challenge stressors, results indicated a compensation model that conflicted with expectations.

现有的社会压力源概念忽视了工作中与任务相关的各种情况，这些情况需要熟练的社会行为来维持良好的社会关系，同时实现某些任务目标。在本文中，我们挑战工作中的社会压力源只是引起员工健康不佳的功能障碍方面的观点。从挑战障碍压力源框架中，我们引入了社会挑战压力源的概念作为工作特征，并研究了它们与个人福祉和不适的关系。在研究 1 中，我们开发了一个衡量社会挑战压力源的新量表，并测试了该量表的有效性。两个独立样本的结果表明支持单因素结构，并表明社会挑战压力源与相关压力源概念不同。使用两个样本，其中之一已用于测试因素结构，我们分析了社会挑战压力源在预测员工幸福感和不适感方面的独特贡献。正如预期的那样，社会挑战压力源同时与心理压力和幸福感有关。使用时滞数据，研究 2 可能解释社会挑战压力源如何与幸福和压力相关联的调查机制。与将压力视为冒犯自我的方法一致，我们期望通过自尊建立间接关系。此外，社会支持有望缓和社会压力源与自尊之间的关系。虽然间接关系大多得到证实，但我们发现没有支持社会支持在社会障碍压力源 - 自尊链接中的缓冲作用。