Effects of age and nightwork on the mental health of staff working in a correctional institution

It is commonly assumed that older workers are negatively impacted by working the overnight shift (e.g., poorer mental health outcomes), primarily because they adjust less effectively to the altered sleep patterns required by nightwork. However, the notion that nightwork is “unhealthy” for older workers fails to account for possible work demand differences that may also have age-relevant physical and mental health consequences. For example, in correctional work, operations are around-the-clock, but prisons typically limit direct prison staff and inmates contact overnight. Thus, night work in prisons is characterized by reduced psychological demands: i.e. slower pace and less “risky contact” with prisoners than day and afternoon work. Do older workers benefit more than younger workers from this difference? Utilizing a sample of correctional staff (n=285) who completed a survey that measured work characteristics and aspects of health and well-being, we investigated relationships between shift and worker health, mediated by work psychological demands, with age moderating the relationship between psychological demands and health. We found that nightwork was inversely related to work psychological demands and psychological demands, in turn, were related to negative psychological health consequences. Furthermore, age moderated the psychological demands – psychological health relationship, such that the relationship was stronger for older workers (B=.33, p<.001)than it was for younger workers (B=.09, p=.315). These findings suggest that our understanding of how to effectively integrate our aging workforce into 24/7 work operations needs to carefully consider both physical and psychosocial demands of work that are affected by shift.