Jason J. Devereux; University College London Great Britain An exploratory study on the relations between commuting and wellbeing for males and females in the British workforce Leif W. Rydstedt , Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences; Lillehammer Norway  Jason J. Devereux; University College London Great Britain

Commuting to work may be stressful A number of previous studies have found relations between the time and distance spent on work commuting and different stress indicators. For example, Evans and Wener found that the time Manhattan commuters spent on the train trip to work, as well as unpredictability in timekeeping and crowdedness in the transport related to self-reported and psychophysiological stress (measured by increased salivary cortisol secretion).

The aim of the present study to explore the relations between time and distance of the daily commuting – and self-reported and psychophysiological wellbeing- indicators, for male and female job holders.

The sample 2270 British job holders, with a wide range of occupations, at the time employed in 20 different companies all over the UK. The majority of the participants, 62%, were men, mean age 42.3 years (Sd 9.93), ranging between 18-64 years. Almost three out four (72%) held white-collar occupations, while 28% were blue-collar workers. The travel data were collected 2001-2002, in the baseline phase of this longitudinal study.

Outcome measures From the baseline survey Job stress 1 item – «In general, how do you find your job?» 1 Not at all stressful – 5 Extremely stressful (Smith et al., 2000) Job satisfaction 4 items (alpha .78) e.g. “All in all, how satisfied would you say you are with your job” (Hurrell & McLaney, 1988)

Psycho-physiological strain Furthermore, for a limited subsample of white-collar participants (N=77), morning and evening saliva cortisol secretion were collected over a full week (Monday-Sunday), three-four years after the baseline study Cortisol is used to get an indication of psycho-physiologic strain, (for this study it was originally used to analyze the impact chronic of job strain)

Results Time/distance spent on commuting The average commuting distance was 13 miles (21 km), the average time spent on traveling to work was about 30 (Md =20) minutes (in each direction). The vast majority (77%) travelled by car, while 10% used public transports (bus/train) and 14% walked or used bicycle. Participants using public transports reported the longest commuting times (m=59 minutes).

Gender and commuting habits Men commuted by car to a larger extent than women, and while men in average travelled longer distances there were no differences between the sexes in time spent on commuting. As expected – distance and time spent on commuting were strongly correlated (rxy .804**)

Commuting and job-related wellbeing Commuting time showed significant, albeit weak (negative) correlations with self-reported job satisfaction and (positive) with job stress. These relations were stronger for females (rxy -.093**/.117**) than for males (rxy -.084*/.078*). Commuting distance was also related to lower job satisfaction (rxy -.109**) and increased job stress (rxy .093**) for females, while only to reduced job satisfaction for men (rxy -.083*) (*p<.01; **p<.001).

Additional findings The type of transport when commuting did not relate to any indicator of well-being, either for females or for males. No significant relations were found between commuting as reported at baseline and long-term psycho-physiologic strain, as measured by saliva cortisol secretion

Summary The findings gives some – albeit weak- support for a negative impact on job-related wellbeing, by job commuting. While distance and time spent on commuting may have negative consequences for work-related wellbeing, the effect sizes were of a small magnitude. While earlier cross-sectional studies have found relations between the severity of work travel and psycho-physiologic strain the present study failed to find any such long-term relations.

Conclusions The stronger negative impact on wellbeing of commuting for women may in part explained by an assumable higher total work- load for women, if e.g. household and caring responsibilities are included in total load of duties. A possible explanation for the weak findings could be that the majority of participants in fact had a relatively short commuting time (Md=20 min), which for some of the participants may just be perceived as a mental “re-programming” (recovery) period between home-work