Testing psychosocial work adversities as a necessary condition for work-related emotional exhaustion in young workers: a cross-sectional necessary condition analysis on a national general working population-based survey

Objectives: Being exposed to adverse psychosocial working conditions contributes to poor mental health in young workers. This study explores whether psychosocial work adversities are a necessary condition for work-related emotional exhaustion in young workers. Design: Data from the 'Netherlands Working Condition Survey 2021' was used. By applying a novel method called Necessary Condition Analysis, we tested two psychosocial work adversities as necessary conditions for high work-related emotional exhaustion in young workers: (1) a composite score of high job demands and low job resources and (2) a composite score of high job demands. Additionally, we tested whether the threshold for job demands as a necessary condition for high work-related emotional exhaustion differed for young workers with low versus high resources. Setting: Secondary data analysis on a national working population-based survey. Participants: The sample included 5791 young workers in the Netherlands (aged <30 years; 56.8% female). Primary outcome measure: Work-related emotional exhaustion. Results: A high level of the composite on job demands and job resources is necessary for a high level of work-related emotional exhaustion in young workers (effect size=0.11, p<0.001), and the same applies to the composite score of high job demands alone (effect size=0.10, p<0.001). The necessity threshold for job demands, which guarantees the absence of a particularly high level of work-related emotional exhaustion, was higher for the group of young workers with high job resources compared with young workers with low job resources. Conclusions: Both psychosocial work adversities were necessary conditions for high work-related emotional exhaustion in young workers. The necessity threshold for job demands was higher for young workers with high job resources, compared with the group with low resources. This indicates that removing psychosocial work adversities and ensuring the presence of job resources might contribute to the prevention of high work-related emotional exhaustion in young workers.