ABSTRACT

The current systematic literature review aimed to analyse the associations between temporary agency work (TAW), job satisfaction, and mental health in Europe, as well as to outline a future research agenda. Twenty-eight scientific articles were identified by searching different data bases (i.e. PSYNDEX, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science) for the time span from January 2000 to December 2016. Our review reveals first that TAW is not consistently negatively related to job satisfaction. However, job insecurity and working conditions are important mediators in the relation of TAW and lowered job satisfaction. Second, TAW is not consistently related to all investigated types of mental health impairments. However, when focusing on specific outcomes and comparing temporary agency workers to permanent employees, we still find consistent evidence regarding higher levels of depression and fatigue among temporary agency workers. Inconsistent associations between TAW, job satisfaction and mental health can partly be attributed to unfavourable methodological aspects of the included primary studies. To address these aspects, future research should consider applying a standard measurement of TAW, including a minimum of meaningful confounding variables, improving the operationalisation of outcome variables and the study design.

摘要

当前的系统文献综述旨在分析欧洲临时机构工作（TAW），工作满意度和心理健康之间的关联，并概述未来的研究议程。通过搜索2000年1月至2016年12月期间的不同数据库（即PSYNDEX，PsycINFO，PubMed和Web of Science），确定了28篇科学文章。我们的评论首先揭示，TAW并非始终与工作满意度负相关。但是，工作不安全感和工作条件是TAW与降低工作满意度之间的重要中介。其次，TAW并非与所有调查过的精神健康障碍类型均具有一致性。但是，当着眼于特定结果并比较临时代理人和长期雇员时，我们仍能找到一致的证据，证明临时代理人的抑郁和疲劳程度更高。TAW，工作满意度和心理健康之间的关联不一致可以部分归因于所包括的基础研究的不利的方法论方面。为了解决这些方面，未来的研究应考虑采用TAW的标准测量方法，包括最小程度的有意义的混淆变量，改善结果变量的可操作性和研究设计。