Author(s)

Shinji Sakamoto¹, Miho Nakajima², Itsuki Yamakawa³, Masaki Muranaka⁴, Takanobu Matsuura¹

¹College of Humanities and Sciences, Nihon University, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan.
²National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan.
³Department of Welfare and Social Work, Tohoku Bunka Gakuen University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
⁴Department of Psychology, Saitama Institute of Technology, Fukaya, Saitama, Japan.

The new-type depression, in which depressive symptoms worsen during working hours and alleviate in free time, has been reported in Japan (especially among office workers) and other countries. The new-type depression, symptoms of which are different from those of the melancholic type, is difficult to cure using pharmacotherapy. The present study aims to develop the Distress Scale for On and Off Duty (DSOOD) to measure distress during working hours and free time separately. The new-type depression is often comorbid with anxiety and hypomania. Therefore, self-rating scales of depression, anxiety, hypomania, and a positive mental state were referred to while developing the DSOOD. The present study was conducted using the Internet. A total of 400 full-time non-managerial employees (200 male and 200 female) answered three questionnaires: DSOOD (37 items), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). The factor analysis indicated two factors of the DSOOD: “distress” (20 items) and “good condition” (12 items). The concurrent validity of DSOOD was high because 1) the distress scores of working hours and free time were highly correlated with PHQ-9 and GAD-7 and 2) the DSOOD distinguishably measured distress in working hours and free time, which was reflected in the answers to additional questions in the PHQ-9 and GAD-7.

Distress, Occupational Stress, White Collar Workers, Measurement, Occupational Health Psychology

Sakamoto, S. , Nakajima, M. , Yamakawa, I. , Muranaka, M. and Matsuura, T. (2021) Developing a Scale for the New-Type Depression: Focusing on the Differences between Working Hours and Free Time. Psychology, 12, 1384-1396. doi: 10.4236/psych.2021.129087.