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INTRODUCTION
In the USA and the EU, 30-40% of workers are exposed to work stress, and these rates seem to have increased since the 1990s (NIOSH, 1999 ; Eurofound, 2005 ). Stressful work conditions predict poor mental health and there is growing concern that such conditions contribute to the population burden of psychiatric morbidity (Parkes, 1990 ; Phelan et al. 1991 ; Bromet et al. 1992 ; Stansfeld et al. 1997 , 1999 ; Niedhammer et al. 1998 ; Mausner-Dorsch & Eaton, 2000 ; Tennant, 2001 ; Paterniti et al. 2002 ). However, inference from past research is limited by several methodological shortcomings, which we aimed to address using data from a birth cohort followed from childhood to adulthood.
With notable exceptions (Bromet et al. 1988 ; Cropley et al. 1999 ; Shields, 1999 ; Mausner-Dorsch & Eaton, 2000 ; Wang et al. 2004 ), past research has focused on symptoms of psychological distress (Phelan et al. 1991 ; Bromet et al. 1992 ; Stansfeld et al. 1997 , 1999 ; Niedhammer et al. 1998 ; Tennant, 2001 ; Paterniti et al. 2002 ), showing elevated rates in workers who report high job demands, low job control or insufficient work social support. However, the relationship between these work conditions and clinically significant psychiatric disorders associated with health care and lost productivity costs is not known. In this paper, we report on the risk of psychiatric disorder assessed using standardized diagnostic instruments. Additionally, past research has primarily focused on depressive symptomatology (Phelan et al. 1991 ; Bromet et al. 1992 ; Niedhammer et al. 1998 ; Tennant, 2001 ; Paterniti et al. 2002 ; Wang et al. 2004 ), while there is evidence of strong co-morbidity and shared risk factors between major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (Mineka et al. 1998 ; Moffitt et al. 2007 ). Thus, workers exposed to stressful work conditions could be at increased risk of depression or anxiety and in this study we examine both MDD and GAD.
We address three additional methodological problems. First, the effects of work stress on mental health need to be separated from the effects of low occupational status (Stansfeld et al. 1999 ; Paterniti et al.