Limitations and Implications for Future Research
This study has several strengths, such as the randomized controlled trial design and 2 long-term follow-up questionnaires. This provides robust evidence for our research questions, addressing the need for more randomized controlled trials on work-specific interventions [However, this study also has limitations. In our training, we combined multiple strategies that help address different challenges in the context of FWDs. We believe that this comprehensive approach is of high practical relevance because of the multifaceted nature of FWD challenges and the heterogeneity of the emphasis people place on certain challenges. When all strategies are learned in the first place, it becomes more likely to find personally helpful strategies to cope with FWDs. Moreover, the focus of this study was on comparing web-based and blended training. Nevertheless, future research could question the superiority of one of these components or their combination and test the effects of separate and combined components against complete training. Alternatively, weekly diaries and growth curve models would allow the evaluation of the effectiveness of specific modules.Further, women and participants with high education were overrepresented in this study because they selected themselves. That is, the results of this study are not representative. Although the participants with leadership positions were not evenly distributed across the groups, controlling for leadership did not affect the robustness of the results. However, interventions are most successful when participants self-select into the study [We only assessed compliance via self-report because, owing to data protection requirements, we were not able to link participants’ questionnaires with their module engagement. Future studies could incorporate objective measures such as module completion status to measure actual compliance. To examine whether alternative interventions are similarly or more effective and whether participants’ expectations regarding their participation served as a demand characteristic evoking hypothesis-conforming behavior [Finally, because of the conduct of group sessions, complete randomization was not feasible. However, this is a common approach in training programs that require the presence of participants [