• Kathryn M Page, Allison J Milner, Angela Martin, Gavin Turrell, Billie Giles-Corti, and Anthony D LaMontagne.
• From the McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Community Well-being (Drs Page, Milner, Giles-Corti, and LaMontagne), Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, the University of Melbourne; the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics (Dr Martin), University of Tasmania, Hobart; School of Public Health and Social Work (Dr Turrell), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane; and Population Health Strategic Research Centre (Drs Page and LaMontagne), School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
• J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2014 Aug 1; 56 (8): 814-9.

ObjectiveTo examine whether positive mental health (PMH)-a positively focused well-being construct-moderates the job stress-distress relationship.MethodsLongitudinal regression was used to test two waves of matched, population-level data from a sample of older, working Australian adults (n = 3291) to see whether PMH modified the relationship between work stress and later psychological distress.ResultsTime 1 work stress was positively associated with distress at both time points. Positive mental health was negatively associated with work stress at both time points. Positive mental health modified the impact of work stress on psychological distress. This effect only occurred for those with the highest levels of PMH.ConclusionsPositive mental health may help protect workers from the effect of workplace stress but only in a small proportion of the population. Therefore, to improve workplace mental health, workplaces need to both prevent stress and promote PMH.

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