Psychological contract breach and employee health: The relevance of unmet obligations for mental and physical health

This study examines the effects of psychological contract breach (PCB) on employee mental and physical health (SF-12) using a sample of 3,870 employees derived from a German longitudinal linked employeremployee study across various industries. Results of multivariate regression models and mediation analysis suggest that PCB affects both the mental and the physical health of employees but is more threatening to employee mental health. In addition, mental health partly mediates the effects of PCB on physical health. Also, the findings of this study show that the relative importance of obligations not met by employers differs according to the specific contents of the psychological contract. In conclusion, the results of this study support the idea that PCB works as a psychosocial stressor at work that represents a crucial risk to employee health. © 2016 Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). La ruptura del contrato psicológico y la salud de los empleados: la importancia de las obligaciones incumplidas para la salud mental