Purpose: The main aim of this study was to examine patterns of recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery and control during off-job time) and their links to psychological outcomes (job burnout, work engagement and sleep problems) across 1 year.
Methods: The study is based on 1-year longitudinal data collected among Finnish employees (n = 274) using questionnaires. First, patterns of recovery experiences, that is, subgroups of employees with unique and distinctive patterns of mean-level stability and change in recovery experiences across 1 year were identified using Latent Profile Analysis. Second, differences in psychological outcomes between the patterns identified were investigated by means of ANOVA/ANCOVA for repeated measures.
Results: Five patterns of recovery experiences were identified. Over 70% of the employees belonged to a pattern with reasonably high stable levels of all four recovery experiences across the 1-year follow-up. This pattern seemed to suffer least from job burnout and sleep problems. Of the four remaining patterns, those with experiences of high levels of mastery and control during off-job time had highest work engagement, and among those with decreasing levels of all recovery experiences job exhaustion increased across time.
Conclusions: Patterns of recovery experiences play a significant role in maintaining long-term psychological well-being.