Studies have demonstrated that high job strain and low job satisfaction can lead to depression. However, less focus has been recorded on the effects of a worker’s perceived challenges related to their qualifications.

We aimed to investigate the association between perceived professional under-challenge or overload and depressive symptoms (also stratified by gender), based on nationally representative longitudinal data, thereby adding methodological novelty to previous cross-sectional research approaches.

This study used longitudinal data from the nationally representative German Ageing Survey covering community-dwelling individuals aged 40–64 years. The analytic sample included 7487 observations from 4362 individuals, spanning 4 survey waves (2008–2017). Key variables were depressive symptoms (measured with the 15-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), perceived occupational challenge (via self-report) and relevant time-varying covariates (age, marital status, net household income, self-rated health, chronic diseases). Linear fixed-effects regressions were used to analyse longitudinal associations.

Fixed-effects regressions showed that transitions towards overload were significantly associated with increased depressive symptoms (β = 1.39, P < 0.01), while transitions towards not being sufficiently challenged showed no significant associations. When stratified by gender, similar patterns were observed for men, with significant associations between overload and increased depressive symptoms (β = 2.16, P = 0.004).

Our study indicates that changes towards job overload are linked to increased depressive symptoms in middle-aged men, emphasising the importance of managing work challenges and fostering a healthy work environment for employees’ mental health.