A Meta-Analysis on Antecedents and Outcomes of Detachment from Work
Johannes Wendsche · Andrea Lohmann-Haislah
Frontiers in Psychology · 2017
What the research tells us
Detachment from work was associated on average with less exhaustion and better self-reported sleep: exhaustion r=−.36 (95% CI −.42 to −.30), sleep r=.30 (.22–.38). Physiological activation was represented by only three studies and 219 people, with pooled r=.03 (−.12 to .17), showing no clear association.
Scope & interpretation
Most evidence used self-report and between-person correlations; diary data were also aggregated to between-person estimates. Sleep heterogeneity was high (I²=94.55%), with a prediction interval of −.09 to .61. An average association does not establish the effect of increasing detachment within one person.
Study at a glance
- POPULATION & SAMPLE
- 86 publications, 91 independent samples and 38,124 employees; outcome-specific subsets differed.
- EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT
- Nonwork detachment in relation to working conditions, health and well-being.
- OUTCOMES
- Exhaustion, sleep and other subjective outcomes, with physiological activation synthesised separately.
- TIME FRAME
- Study-specific windows; between-person estimates from diary and other designs were combined.
Cited on this site
Editorial & review record
Record for v0.4 · Updated
Editorial responsibility: TAP Editorial Team
Scientific review
Not yet scientifically reviewed
Editorial note
Under the editorial responsibility of the TAP Editorial Team, this publication used AI assistance for content organization and editing. Scientific review is recorded separately on this page.
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How responsibilities and review are recorded ↗Scope of this reading note
Full-text synthesis methods, Table 1, heterogeneity and limitations. Original physiological reports and sample overlap require further tracing.
- Study funding
- German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health support, project F 2353.
- Competing interests
- The authors declare no commercial or financial relationships constituting a potential conflict.
Project support
Founded and supported by Resilio.
Revision history
- · v0.2
Added outcome-specific sample information and the study's published funding and conflict declarations.
- · v0.4
Added outcome-specific estimates, the sleep prediction interval and limited physiological sample.