Drawing from the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and the Tripartite Model of Anxiety and Depression, we developed and tested an interdisciplinary theoretical model examining how work-related demands and resources influence the onset of three common clinical diagnoses: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Panic Attack Disorder (PAD). Using a 20-year longitudinal dataset of 3,132 working adults assessed with validated clinical instruments, our mixed-effects logistic regression analyses revealed that workload and work-family conflict robustly predicted mental illness diagnoses, with work-family conflict exerting a particularly strong effect on GAD (OR = 2.77). Notably, job control emerged as a protective factor, reducing the likelihood of MDD (OR = 0.83), GAD (OR = 0.56), and PAD (OR = 0.77). However, social support from coworkers and supervisors did not significantly predict the onset of these disorders. Our findings underscore the importance of extending organizational theories to severe mental health outcomes and inform interventions to mitigate the significant and growing burden of mental illness in the workplace.
